Newsletter
June 2015
WELCOME TO THIS EDITION
OF THE ISPOG NEWSLETTER
It is our sad duty to record the sudden and tragic death ofBoard member Lazar Levente in March this year. We open
this issue of the Newsletter with a tribute from ISPOG
President Carlos Damonte.
There is a lot of other happier news to share with members,
the most exciting of which is the upcoming conference inMalaga, Spain in 2016. See the update and the call forcontributions below.
ISPOG’s indefatigable President, Carlos, has invested
considerable energy to the fostering POG activities aroundthe world and bringing new POG societies into the ISPOG
family. The President’s report contains a roundup of his
activities and achievements.
As you know an important means of raising the profile of
ISPOG internationally and of bringing the psychosomatic
perspective to other societies, is presenting ISPOG symposia
in other relevant congresses. A summary of these activities
is provided for your interest and to whet your appetite forbecoming involved in these activities yourselves.
Recent planning for future congresses has extended wellbeyond the Board to involve ISPOG members from aroundthe world. The Board hopes to expand these activities further
and in this Newsletter extends an invitation to all ISPOG
members to become involved. Please consider joining a
symposium or suggesting one of your own and encourage
your colleagues to come and learn new ways of managing
everyday challenges. You will find a list of planned
congresses and an invitation to participate below.
You will also find updates on the new Perinatal Committee
and the transfer of the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics
and Gynaecology to a new publisher.
Finally we wish to remind you that the 2015 ISPOG Executive
Committee meeting will be held at FIGO in Vancouver in
October. Please see the details below and we look forward toseeing you there.

Newsletter Editor Dr Heather Rowe
Logo based on painting by Omar Biscotti

TO THE MEMORY OF
OUR FRIENDLAZAR LEVENTE
1974-2015
Lazar Levente was born on 31 July 1974
in Kézdivásárhely, Transylvania. He studied Medicine in
Debrecen, was a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology andGeneticist, and his widow Eva told us that he also had aninterest in and talent for fine arts, especially photography
and painting.
Levente’s death is a big loss for us the ISPOG family, andsurely for Eva, his children and close relatives. His Hungariancolleagues must know that they were splendidly represented
in ISPOG by Levente’s hard work and dignity.
The sad news about Levente's sudden death prompted
condolences from all national societies, especially from thepeople who knew him personally. Everybody respected, liked
and admired him and appreciated his work, from when he
first approached our Past President Klaas Wijma some 8
years ago offering his ideas about how to improve thewebsite. He was always thinking about how to communicate
ISPOG’s vision and initiatives without any reward for himself.
He was an excellent example for us all. Since 2013 Levente
had been a very active and important member of ISPOG, andwas also a member of the Board as Digital Secretary. It will
be very difficult to find another person to fulfil the projects
he was engaged in: maintaining and expanding thepossibilities of the ISPOG website and preparing it for easy
access, not only for information, but also for educational
purposes.
We will miss the sweet way he had of sharing his opinions.
The best way we may honour his memory is to keep alive his
work, to which he had dedicated so much effort and time.
Good bye, dear friend, and thank you very much for yourcompany over the years.
Carlos Damonte Khoury

From the Editor

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT“Building Bridges to Better Care”
18th International Congress of ISPOG
12­14 May 2016 Málaga Spain
The Spanish Society for Psychosomatic Gynaecology and
Obstetrics invites you to visit Málaga in 2016, as we areorganizing the 18th International ISPOG Congress.
Málaga is a captivating Mediterranean port city in the
Andalusia region of southern Spain. It boasts a richhistorical and cultural legacy and is a thriving tourist
destination today. Come and enjoy the excellent scientificprogram and the beauty and interest of the surrounds.

All ISPOG affiliated countries are invited to submit
themed symposia or national symposia.
Abstract deadlines:
Country symposia 15 September 2015
Papers and posters 1 December 2015

Please See The Conference Website For
Further Details http://www.ispog2016.es/
We look forward to seeing you in Spain!

Continuing the policy of encouraging the creation of newsocieties and strengthening existing ones, I haveparticipated as an invited speaker in the following
Congresses

Brazil: Sao Paulo
4th to 6th Sept 2014
In Brazil, a county of 200 million inhabitants, there is aFederation of Ob Gyn Societies.
Sao Paulo State (population 44 million) has the biggest Ob
Gyn Society in the country, SOGESP. Its 2014 congress had
8500 registrations (the largest in the Brazilian history the
President said) and I was one of four foreign speakers.
Psychosomatics was one of the “Top Themes”
Joseh Carlos Riechelmann, Ob Gyn, now Director of a groupof hospitals in Sao Paulo area, is also a member of theInternational College of Psychosomatic Medicine. The next
Congress is in August 2015 and he will act as a link between
ISPOG and the ICPM.
Supported by Prof. Cesar Fernandes, President of the
Scientific Committee and Dr Corintio Mariani Neto, Sec Gen
of SOGESP, Riechelmann and Alexander Faisal Cury, who iswell known to ISPOG, having chaired symposia at the
Venice and Berlin ISPOG Congresses, are initiating a drive
to establish a Brazilian POG Society.

The Congress Organising Committee

France: Clermont­Ferrand
Dr Carlos Damonte Khoury
ISPOG and Congress President

25th to 27th September 2014

Prof. Daniel Lubian Lopez
President of the Spanish POG Section of SEGO
(www.sego.es) and Congress Vice President
Prof Ernesto González Mesa
President of the Local Organizing Committee
Prof. Jesús Florido Navío
President of the Scientific Committee
Dr. Fermín Criado Enciso · National Scientific Committee
President

The Colloquium: LA CLINIQUE CONTEMPORAINE,
concerned the difficulties of working as a practising doctor
today. It was organized by Dr Marie Elizabeth Sanselme­
Cardenas, a gynecologist and psychoanalyst, founder of thePsychoanalysis and Medicine French Society. She is thehead of a group that started a POG commission within the
Ob Gyn College National CNGOF, which will complement
the French POG Society organized by Sylvain Mimoun. Dr
Sanselme (Clermont Ferrand) and Dr Vacher­Vitasse(another gynecologist­psychoanalyst from Bordeaux) haveparticipated as professors in the courses organized by the
French POG Society and ISPOG Edinburgh 2004. They wantto participate in our 2016 Congress. I have encouraged Dr
Sanselme to link with the French Marcé Society. We hopethat our French colleagues will become active in ISPOG
Committees and other activities.

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Russia: Ekaterimburg
stSpain:

st

30 September to 1 October 2014
Because of economic and cultural changes, the government
and the Ob Gyn Societies encourage ART (Assisted
Reproductive Technology). Our Israeli POG Society
President, Dov Feldberg is well known by two key people inRussia: Dr Igor Portnov is an ART specialist who organises
yearly congresses in Ekaterimburg, a very prosperous
Russian city with 1.4 million people, and Viktor Radzinsky,
well known Ob Gyn Professor in one of the two Moscow
Universities, Peoples Friendship University. POG will be a
topic in the next Russian Ob Gyn Congress in Sochi 2015
and they are willing send an observer to the Vancouver2015 ISPOG Ex Co meeting.

Brussels: 12th November 2014
Launch of EBCOG’s Standards of Care for Women’s Healthin Europe, in the European Parliament. The Standards ofCare focus on the safety, care, dignity and treatment of
women. ISPOG contributed to the Standards and waspresent at the launch to reinforce our presence in these
psychosocially oriented standards that aim to improve andharmonise the quality care of women in the field ofObstetrics and Gynaecology across Europe.

1. Valencia. ASMI (Spanish WAIMH) Master in Perinatal
Psychology Feb 2015.For the 3rd consecutive year I
participated together with Adolfo Gomez papí,
Neonatologist from Tarragona, in a class showinginterdisciplinary ways of providing better care topregnant women and recent mothers. This work isreaching the Spanish Ob Gyn National Congress and will
be shown in Malaga 2016.
2. Madrid 21st to 22nd May 2015 Linking with IMS and
EMAS, the two most important Menopause societies, inorder to participate in and advertise our respective next
Congresses.
3. Madrid 22nd May 2015. Perinatal link and Child
Psychiatrist Francois Ansermet presented his new bookin an interdisciplinary meeting at 12 de Octubre
Hospital around Fertility care and “designer babies”,
organized by the Spanish Psychoanalysis and Medicine
Network. They will participate in ISPOG Malaga 2016.

Japan: Tokyo
22­25th March 2015 (IAWMH Congress)
See our Secretary General Heather Rowe’s report on thisCongress that had a strong ISPOG delegation.

Lebanon: Beirut 27th to 29th November 2014

Italy: Torino May 29th 2015 Italian­Spanish

This Pan Arabic Psychiatric Conference had a Perinatal
Symposium chaired by Dr Josyan Madi­Skaff, who is a
Lebanese psychiatrist interested in the Perinatal
Gynecology­Psychiatry interface. Our contact persons in
ISPOG member societies reported the local situation.
Broadly speaking it is interesting to know that the majority
of countries, including the developed ones do not pursue
this interdisciplinary work on a regular basis, only as
individual initiatives. The Perinatal Section of the World
Psychiatric Association WPA and ISPOG will collaborate inovercoming this situation, which is needed by mothers andtheir babies all over the world. I also had contacts with the
Lebanese National Ob Gyn Society president Fayez Bitar,
who was interested in having a POG group within thesociety.

POG Encounter
Chaired by Chiara Benedetto (Immediate Past President of
EBCOG ) and myself, this meeting encouraged therebuilding of the Italian POG Society, SIPGO, and included
three Spanish presentations of Ernesto Gonzalez Mesa,
Daniel Lubian and mine.
Prof Rosella Nappi the current SIPGO President showed astrong drive for the internal promotion of POG activity,
participation in ISPOG Committees and Congresses and willbe the contact person between our organization and theinternational Society of Gynecological Endocrinology ISGE.

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THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTHTOKYO MARCH
Carlos Damonte Khoury (2015 President); Sibil Tschudin(President Elect) Marieke Paarlberg (Immediate Past
President) and Heather Rowe (Secretary General); Pauline
Slade (Joint Editor in chief of JPOG) were present andparticipated in a program of presentations, meetings andother activities.
We were warmly welcomed by our Japanese colleagues
Professor Hideo Honjo and Professor Kiyoshi Takamatsu.
The Japan POG symposium entitled ‘Problems of modern
working women/ How are they going to challenge it?’ wasan excellent demonstration of the strength of the JSPOG
and their commitment to multidisciplinary approaches towomen’s mental health in Japan.
We were very pleased to strengthen our links with the
IAWMH executive: Prof Helen Herrman (Australia;
President IAWMH; President­elect World Psychiatric
Association); Prof Marta Rondon (Peru; Immediate Past
President IAWMH); Prof Jayashri Kulkarni (Australia;
President­Elect IAWMH) and Dr Prabha Chandra (India;
Secretary IAWMH).
ISPOG presented a Symposium entitled ‘Communicating
about difficult topics in obstetrics and gynaecology’, which
was chaired by Professor Toshiko Kamo (Japan) and Dr
Heather Rowe (Australia) and included speakers from fivecountries Professor Pauline Slade (UK); Dr Heather Rowe(Australia), Dr Reiko Ohkawa (Japan), Dr Carlos Damonte
Khoury (Spain); Professor Jane Fisher (Australia) and Dr Sibil
Tschudin (Switzerland). The interactive case­based
workshop discussion among the panel of speakers and theaudience was regarded as highly successful.
Dr Vivian Pramataroff (Germany) presented the Workshop‘A Balint Group at Work’, which was very well attended andreceived.
During the conference, meetings were held executive
officers of the World Association for Infant Mental Health(WAIMH), Lebanese Psychiatric Society, the Women’s
Mental Health Section of the World Psychiatric
Association, the International Marcé Society for Perinatal
Mental Health: It was resolved to pursue mutual
promotion and support, joint ventures including Position
Papers and a joint special issue of JPOG on perinatal mental
health.

SCIENTIFIC MEETING OF THE
EUROPEAN NETWORK OF TRAINEESIN OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY(ENTOG) UTRECHT, THE
NETHERLANDSOn June 11th, 2015, the Scientific meeting of the European
Network of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology(ENTOG) was held at the University Medical Centre Utrecht,
the Netherlands. The residents in Ob/Gyn who attended
the meeting circulated through skills stations. One of the
major skills trainings was the ISPOG workshop ‘Dealing withdifficult patients in Ob/Gyn practice’. Sibil Tschudin andMarieke Paarlberg gave two workshops of 3 hours. There
were 30 participants in total. Workshop participants wereactively engaged in the theme and the organisingcommittee gave very positive feedback. The sameworkshop will be given as a pre­congress course at FIGO
2015, October 4, in Vancouver. CD also attended themeeting and discussed collaborations with members of the
ENTOG Board.

ANNUAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEMEETINGMONDAY 5 OCTOBER 2015
Vancouver, Canada
ISPOG will be holding the 2015 ExCo meeting during
the FIGO meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Papers will
be circulated prior to the meeting.

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REPRESENTATION OF ISPOG IN
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES:
INVITATION TO BE INVOLVEDISPOG aims to promote mutually beneficial relationships
with other like­minded societies. Already, ISPOG has
created links with The International Federation of
Gynecology and Obstetrics (www.figo.org), the European
Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology(www.ebcog.org), the International Association for
Women’s Mental Health (www.iawmh.org), the World
Association for Infant Mental Health (www.waimh.org), theInternational Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health(www.marcesociety.com), The European Society ofContraception (www.escrh.eu) and the International
Menopause Society (www.imsociety.org/CAMS)
As an important means of strengthening these
relationships,
formingnewcollaborations,anddemonstrating ISPOG’s inter­disciplinary work, the Board
intends to continue to offer ISPOG­themed symposia in the
congresses of these other international societies andrequest reciprocal activities in ISPOG’s congresses.
The board is keen to expand these activities to include as
many ISPOG members as possible.
The Board welcomes suggestions from ISPOG members
for other relevant conferences, as well as expressions ofinterest to be part of ISPOG symposia.
Please contact the President Carlos Damonte Khoury(carlosdamontek@gmail.com) or the Secretary General(heather.rowe@monash.edu)if you are interested inparticipating.

ISPOG IS INTENDING TO OFFER PSYCHOSOMATICSYMPOSIA IN THE FOLLOWING CONGRESSES

1.

International Federation of Gynecology and
Obstetrics (FIGO)
4­9 October 2015 Vancouver
http://figo2015.org/
� Pre­congress workshop: Dealing with difficult
patients in Ob Gyn Practice. Marieke Paarlberg,
The Netherlands and Sibil Tschudin, Switzerland.
ACCEPTED� ISPOG presents: Psychosomatic issues ingynecology. Convenor: Jonathan Shaffir USA.
ACCEPTED� ISPOG presents: Psychosocial topics in obstetrics
and perinatal medicine. Convenor: Jonathan Shaffir
USA. ACCEPTEDPLEASE SEND YOUR SUGGESTIONSTO CARLOS OR HEATHER

2. 14th Congress ESC European Society for Contraception
and Reproductive Health
4 to 7 May 2016 Basel Switzerland
Theme: Contraception from molecular biology to social
science and politics.
http://www.escrh.eu/events/esc­events/2016
Abstract submission deadline: 15 November 2015��

ISPOG Workshop: How to prevent and minimize
contraceptive failure – the psychosomatic
perspective and approach. Convenors: Sibil
Tschudin and Heather Rowe ACCEPTED
Joint ESC/ISPOG Symposium: Sexual Health overthe life course – the bio­psycho­social perspective.
Convenor Johannes Bitzer Switzerland ACCEPTED

3. EBCOG European Board and College of Obstetrics andGynaecology
18­21 May 2016 Istanbul Turkey
http://www.ebcog2016.org/
Abstract submission deadline: 15 January 2016
�Workshop: Prevention of professional burnout in
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sibil Tschudin(Switzerland) and Carlos Damonte Khoury (Spain)
� Symposia:
o Comprehensive gynaecologic andperinatal care – the significance of thepsychosocial and psychosomatic
perspective Chair Sibil Tschudin (President
elect ISPOG);o Turkish POG Symposium. Chair Prof Dr
Kamile Kukulu Akdeniz University Turkey
ACCEPTED
4. 15th World Congress of the World Association for
Infant Mental Health
29 May­2 June 2016
Prague Czech Republic
Abstract submission deadline: 15 September 2015.
http://www.waimh2016.org
5. International Marcé Society
26­28 September 2016
Melbourne Australia
Theme: Frontiers in Perinatal Mental Health.
Looking to the Future.
https://marcesociety.com/
6. International Menopause Society:Prague 28 September­1 October 2016
http://www.imsociety.org/world_congress.php
7. International Association for Women’s Mental Health2017 Dublin Ireland
Further details when available.

EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE
An update on the activities of the Educational committee
will be presented in the next Newsletter.

PERINATAL COMMITTEEIn health care provided to women globally, there arechanges in protocols, laws, health care cost policies,
medical science, education and training that affectobstetric and gynaecological practice and bring newchallenges for the proper integration of mental health care.
ISPOG aims to offer educational and research tools to assist
with overcoming these challenges. In order to achieve thispurpose we intend to act as a bridge between science andclinical practice, to be a link between Ob/Gyns
Paediatricians, Psychologists and Psychiatrists to enhance
the wellbeing of patients and professionals, and to makelinks with other societies with overlapping scopes.
Perinatal care is a good example of healthcare that entails
interdisciplinary cooperation and understanding. Several
international societies already exist: The International
Marcé
for
Perinatal
MentalHealth(https://marcesociety.com/), the World Association of
Infant Mental Health (WAIMH http://www.waimh.org/)
and the World Association of Perinatal Medicine(http://www.wapm.info/). A suitable interface between
Psychiatrists and Obstetricians/Gynecologists does notexist in the vast majority of countries. An interdisciplinary
approach can improve the care not only of women
suffering psychiatric conditions, drug addictions or gender­
based violence, but of all women, their children and theprofessionals involved who experience increasing
difficulties
managingthepsychical/mental–
biomedical/somatic gap in their clinical practice.
To this end ISPOG has recently established a perinatal
committee. Details of the Committee’s function and scope
will be discussed at the ExCo meeting in Vancouver andreports on committee activities will be presented in future
Newsletters.

UPDATE ON THE JOURNAL OF
PSYCHOSOMATIC OBSTETRICS AND
GYNAECOLOGY
As you may know online access to ISPOG’s official
journal is available to all members for the reduced fee of€40 / USD 52 / GBP 32. The subscription gives online
access to all current and past content of the journal andrepresents very good value.
To subscribe please go to the link on the ISPOG websiteat:http://promo.informahealthcare.com/landingpages/ispog­reg/We also wish to inform you that Informa HealthCare, thepublisher of JPOG is moving across to the Taylor &Francis Group. The move to the new publisher shouldhave no impact on subscriptions or online access formembers. However, there will be benefits to the journal
including alt­metric, article level download and citation
data, a versatile mobile version, Most Read and Most
Cited article information, inclusion in T&F’s sales deals
that have extended reach and accessibility, improved
marketing, and an Editors’ Resources website. The moveis expected to take place in July­August 2015.

PLEASE CONTACT CARLOS OR HEATHER IF YOU
HAVE SUGGESTIONS OR WISH TO BE INVOLVED

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