Navigating the world of women’s healthcare without a reliable, experienced guide is often overwhelming and frightening.

 Working with Dr. Barbara Hessel is an entirely different experience. By encouraging you to take an active role in your own health and wellness and offering you an individualized care plan, it’s the level of treatment you deserve.

 Here are just a few of the services we offer:

Annual exams and well-woman care

Evaluation and treatment of gynecologic health concerns, including abnormal Pap tests, pelvic pain, abnormal bleeding and more

Minimally invasive surgical solutions (myomectomy surgery for fibroid removal, LEEP procedure)

Hysterectomy surgery options and alternatives (vaginal hysterectomy, total hysterectomy)

Menopause wellness/menopause treatment

Osteoporosis care

Family planning (contraceptive counseling, birth control methods including tubes tied)

In-office ultrasound and blood work for your comfort and convenience

Urodynamic testing for urinary incontinence, urgency and frequency

Infertility treatments

Hormone replacement therapy

Ovarian cancer screening

Dr. Hessel also offers specialized treatment for chronic pelvic pain, abnormal bleeding and uterine fibroids treatment.

Our Practice is one of the first in Queens to offer DySIS™ The latest colposcopy technology

Cervical cancer used to be the number #1 cause of cancer deaths in women just a few decades ago. Since that time, the Pap smear has become instrumental in lowering these numbers and making cervical cancer detection extremely effective.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just over 12,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2011.

Cervical cancer is one of the most treatable female cancers

The DySISmap is a unique color-coded digital scan of the acetowhitening process. Using a color scale the map indicates any area on the cervix that may have extreme acetowhitening. These are the areas that your physician may want to examine further through a biopsy.

As we age, our bones tend to thin out and become more brittle and prone to fracture. This is called osteoporosis or osteopenia (the early stage version). Osteoporosis is the most common bone disease. In fact, about half of women older than 50 suffer bone fractures from osteoporosis.

Diagnosis is fairly simple using a bone density scanner such as a DEXA. Calcium is an important mineral needed to form new bone. If you lack sufficient calcium and vitamin D in your diet, your bones are more likely to fracture. Other leading causes of bone loss are drops in estrogen among women in menopause and not enough exercise.

You can also lose bone density and thickness from:

• Being confined to bed
• Lack of weight-bearing activity
• Some other medical conditions (ask Dr. Hessel)
• Certain medicines (ask Dr. Hessel)

More common risk factors for osteoporosis are:

• Absence of menstrual periods
• Family history of osteoporosis
• Heavy alcohol consumption
• Thin frame, low body weight
• Smoking

If detected early, osteopenia is easier to treat and with more treatment options such as calcium, vitamin D supplementation and Genistein treatments (soy derivative).

Women worry about the treatment of osteoporosis with medications that can cause side effects. Dr. Hessel offers menopause treatment options that lower the risk of side effects and are personalized for your individual needs.

Using a small camera with a light, Dr. Hessel gently passes this flexible camera through the vagina and cervix to see inside the uterus.

Hysteroscopy is used to diagnose abnormal bleeding, to find an IUD that has moved, to look closely at the inside lining of the uterus, or it can be used along with laparoscopy when looking for physical causes of infertility.

Hysteroscopy is done in the hospital and you may be given something to relax you if the procedure is simple, or you may need to be completely asleep.

Dr. Hessel will talk with you before the procedure and help you decide what may be best. You will be able to go home immediately after the procedure and should be able to resume normal activities within a day or so.

Many common female conditions used to be treated with large incisions that took days or weeks to heal. Patients ended up with more pain, scarring and slower recoveries.

Today, Dr. Hessel uses a minimally invasive treatment approach called laparoscopy. Laparoscopy is used by many kinds of doctors to treat or inspect organs inside the belly.

Using just a few one-inch-wide incisions at the belly button and on the abdomen, a thin, flexible scope is used to examine your uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and tissues around them.

Samples can be collected for biopsy if needed or extra tools can be used to perform entire procedures like hysterectomy surgery or fibroid removal.

Laparoscopic hysterectomy surgery is a common and convenient way to remove the uterus, cervix or other female organs. Hysterectomy used to be a complicated procedure, but today’s techniques allow for less pain, bleeding and recovery time.

Using a lighted flexible scope and only a few small incisions on the belly, Dr. Hessel is able to remove the uterus without the large incisions of the past.

Recovery is much quicker, and some patients can even rest at home the same day. If a hospital stay is required, it’s usually just a day or two.

Heavy or abnormal vaginal bleeding can be difficult to manage. Thankfully, you can live better with a simple, 8-minute procedure that stops heavy bleeding for good.

Completed in the office or hospital, a small balloon is placed through the vagina inside the uterus (no incisions required) and filled with fluid so it shapes to the inside of your uterus.

The fluid is then heated. Once the procedure is over, the balloon is drained and removed and the lining of the uterus will shed off like a period for the next week or so. Afterward, you can expect lighter, more manageable periods.

Most women say that the Thermachoice treatment reduced pain, cramping and how heavily they bled during their period.

Using laparoscopy, Dr. Hessel is able to examine and remove uterine fibroids. Fibroids are benign (not cancerous) tumors that can grow inside the uterus, causing pain, heavy bleeding and irregular periods.

After fibroid removal, Dr. Hessel can reconstruct your uterus. Myomectomy surgery is different from hysterectomy surgery because you get to keep your uterus and only the fibroids are removed. Uterine fibroids treatment is done in a hospital and you will be asleep for the procedure.

In some cases, you may be able to go home the same day or you may stay overnight to make sure you are recovering properly.

Early treatment for pre-cancerous cells in the cervix found in abnormal Pap tests can prevent cervical cancer. LEEP uses a small wire loop to remove sections of abnormal cells from the cervix and reduce the number of abnormal cells that grow in the future. You will not be asleep for the procedure, but your doctor will numb the area before the procedure or give you a sedative to relax you and keep you comfortable.

LEEP uses a gentle electric current to remove abnormal cells. After the LEEP procedure, Dr. Hessel can send the tissue that has been removed off to the lab for extra testing if needed.

You will be able to go home right after the LEEP procedure and may have some light vaginal bleeding for a few days after. In many cases, LEEP completely removes abnormal cells and no other treatment is required. Dr. Hessel will monitor you closely and recommend more treatments if they are needed.

Feeling your best isn’t always about what’s happening inside your body—but how you feel about the outside, too.  Here in our office we encourage every woman to live a healthy lifestyle filled with exercise, proper nutrition and the right kind of habits that help you be your best no matter what. But we know that there are times that a little “jump start” can be very important on your path to feeling more confident and sure of yourself.

That’s why we are proud to offer aesthetic solutions to help you shape, tone, and smooth your body for a boost of confidence when you need it most. All of our aesthetic options are non-invasive (there’s never any stitches or surgical procedures) and don’t require any down time or healing time. You can even come in for a session and return to work immediately after.

This unique option in body shaping technology has been featured on programs like The Doctors and The Rachael Ray Show. Using LiLa Body Contouring technology, just one session painlessly shrinks fat cells and produces inches of fat loss! LiLa therapy can target those trouble zones that just aren’t responding to diet and exercise without any downtime—you can return to work right after your appointment, and there’s never any pain.

And remember: Our body contouring services are perfect for men and women alike who want to tighten, tone and shape their bodies quickly and effectively.

Tired of wrinkles making you look and feel older that you are? Are you hoping to regain your youthful appearance?

We are proud to offer leading treatments to help relax lines or plump skin that’s lost its elasticity so you can have the smoother skin you’ve been wishing for.

 Getting the body of your dreams can feel like a nightmare. Even with perfect diet and exercise habits, trimming that one stubborn spot—or maybe more than one—can feel like it’s never going to happen. If you have just had a baby you may know this feeling even more so. Everything feels like it’s sagging, bagging and relocated to the wrong place on your body. While recovery after a baby, or tackling your trouble zones in the gym does take time, there’s a new, faster, painless way to see results.

With the Strawberry Laser now you can say goodbye to stubborn fat. Ideal for men and women (yes men are always welcome) the Strawberry Laser laser targets fat cells deep below the skin’s surface and shrinks them. As the cells begin to release their contents it is processed and moved out for disposal by the body’s lymphatic system. The Strawberry Laser doesn’t destroy fat cells, but rather makes them smaller and less likely to refill with a sensible diet and exercise plan

This unique option in body shaping technology has been featured on programs like The Doctors and The Rachael Ray Show. Using LiLa Body Contouring technology, just one session painlessly shrinks fat cells and produces inches of fat loss! LiLa therapy can target those trouble zones that just aren’t responding to diet and exercise without any downtime—you can return to work right after your appointment, and there’s never any pain.

And remember: Our body contouring services are perfect for men and women alike who want to tighten, tone and shape their bodies quickly and effectively.