Help has arrived for girls with problems “down there.”

Dr. Joëlle Dennie is Vancouver Island’s only pediatric gynecologist, making her one of three in the province. Her posting with Vancouver Island Health Authority means girls can stay on the Island for medical treatment involving their reproductive organs.

Trained in obstetrics and gynecology, Dennie has a sub speciality in pediatric gynecology. Having recently finished a fellowship at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, her Victoria-based practice opened in September.

“I went into medicine because I find the human body absolutely amazing,” she says. “(It’s) the ultimate machine.”

Dennie will spend the equivalent of half a day with pediatric patients a week, focusing the rest of her time on obstetrics and adult gynecology. She has been on call at the Victoria General Hospital since July.

“Nowhere in the world is pediatric gynecology enough to do a career on,” Dennie says. “It’s not a field that appeals to everyone.”

Through her clinic, Dennie will see girls ranging from newborns to 18-year-olds. Depending on their age, maladies include heavy or painful periods, excessive hair growth and ovarian cysts.

“It’s a matter of reassurance,” she says. “A lot of girls go through this.”

Rarely girls are born with ambiguous genitalia, labial fusion or without a vagina or a uterus. Dennie also works with young women with special needs to help them manage their periods, hygiene and birth control issues.

Surgery is the last treatment option, but there are procedures, such as to address labial fusion, that land Dennie in the OR. For more complicated work, such as genital reconstruction, patients are referred to a specialist.

“There are very few people who do it well on this planet,” she says. “It’s really important to do it right the first time.”

Gynecologists have always treated children on the Island, but there are benefits to having one person handling the cases, Dennie says. Some of the conditions are quite rare and while a gynecologist might see it once in their career, she is likely to see it a few times a year, she adds.

VIHA searched for a pediatric gynecologist for two years, with the need identified five years ago, says Cheryl Damstetter, director of child, youth and family health. With the position filled it will be easier to assess the case load on the Island, she says.

“We are better going to know the referral patterns toward the end of the year once the practice has been open (for four to six months),” she says.

“The impact is probably broader than just the absolute number of patients that she will see,” she says. “Dennie may help us start looking at what programs we might want to develop or what needs might be out there that we might not even be aware of.”

That could mean connecting patients with similar diagnoses, Dennie says. In that way patients could talk to each other about what it is like to deal with the diagnosis, treatment and life in general. Helping patients with the emotional side of their health is just as important as the physical, she adds.

“How does that young woman tell her friends she has no period?” Dennie says. “Or, ‘I’m sorry I can’t have sex with you because I haven’t created my vagina yet.’ Those kinds of issues don’t necessarily get explored a lot.”

Many girls aren’t familiar with that part of their body, she says. Knowing what to look for is important, but patients need to listen to their bodies, she adds.

“If you have a gut feeling this isn’t normal, go see your GP,” Dennie says. “You’ll never know what’s normal until you ask.”

reporter@goldstreamgazette.com