Sarp Aksel, MD; Robert Gennaro, MD; Patrick Cahill, MD; Antonios Panagiotakis, DO
March was Women’s History Month and women’s history has been fraught with sub-par medical attention. Earlier this year we reported on the decades-long cover-up of research on menopausal replacement therapy that has women saying—or shrieking—enough. For many women, the relationship with her ob/gyn is the most important one she will have with a doctor in her life. At Coastal Obstetrics & Gynecology, one of the last independent private practices in Fairfield County, patients are treated as partners in their care. Women’s voices are heard. Their preferences and needs are prioritized, and for new partner Dr. Aksel, this outlook on female care goes back to his youth.
Dr. Sarp Aksel, MD
NEW PARTNER DR. AKSEL & THE COASTAL TEAM
Sarp Aksel was born in Ithaca, New York, to Turkish immigrants who came to the States to pursue graduate degrees. “I come from a big family of engineers,” says Dr. Aksel. “I have vivid memories of my mom trying to teach me calculus when I was around 10. I just wasn’t grasping the concepts. She was like, ‘This is awful. What are you going to do with your life?’”
He turned to science and found his passion. “I loved biology early on,” says Aksel. “It started with animals, and then I got really excited about the human body. I started volunteering at around 13 at a women’s hospital, and it just launched from there.” He got a behind-the-scenes view of the inner workings of hospitals. “That was back when New York State tried consolidating health care systems. So this hospital, one of two women’s specialty hospitals in the country, was set to be acquired. It had long been a pillar of the community and required a big campaign to keep it from being shut down,” he explains. “Ultimately we were able to get the state to at least concede that they couldn’t shut down a labor floor. This was in the early 2000s, which foreshadows what’s going on right now with all these maternity deserts across the country. That was my first foray into seeing how differently women’s health was treated in America.”
In college at Cornell, Aksel became passionate about international women’s rights. “I did a lot of work around reproductive health and fistula care in the Congo,” he says. “The justice part of it has really spoken to me and that unfortunately hasn’t really changed in this day and age.”
Aksel received his medical degree with distinction in reproductive health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Montefiore Medical Center. He has been practicing in the NY/CT area since 2015 and joined Coastal, in Stamford, in 2022. “Dr. Gennaro started the practice in 1991. He did everything: delivered babies, did pap smears, hysterectomies,” explains Aksel.
Dr. Gennaro, who has brought thousands of babies into the world, says, “Now my focus is continuity. I focus on running the office and providing prenatal, well-woman and gynecologic care that doesn’t rush the patient. The relationship still matters. I still call all my patients on their milestone birthdays. My role has evolved into being that steady, familiar touchpoint in the community, someone who knows a patient’s history and can connect the dots over years, not just visits. Some of my biggest joys are caring for patients I delivered decades ago, who are now coming to me with their first pregnancies!”
Dr. Cahill is a certified menopausal practitioner. “Recently, there’s a lot of noise around menopause and perimenopause care,” says Dr. Cahill. “My goal is to turn that noise into digestible, individualized advice that takes into consideration a woman’s symptoms, health history and priorities. Some women feel great with non-hormonal options, while others do best with hormones.” He advises, “If your body feels like it’s changing the rules on you and messing with what your normal was, that’s the moment to come in. Sleep, cycles, mood, temperature regulation and focus can all be the first signs. I like to meet patients early, when symptoms are starting, because small thoughtful adjustments can prevent a spiral of trial-and-error frustration. My office staff get tired of me saying this, but if a patient calls saying their symptoms are affecting their life, don’t make them wait, bring them in. It makes for a messy schedule, but a much happier patient.”
Dr. Antonios Panagiotakis (“Dr. Antonios”) focuses on surgery. “A lot of my work is minimally invasive treatment of heavy bleeding, fibroids, polyps, endometriosis and pelvic pain,” he explains. “Common procedures include hysteroscopic polyp and fibroid removal, ovarian cyst surgery, endometriosis surgery and minimally invasive hysterectomy. I spend a lot of time counseling my patients on all their options. Sometimes the best surgery is no surgery. We pick the least invasive path that still solves the problem.”
Patrick Cahill, MD, and Sarp Aksel, MD
Dr. Aksel says, “I love obstetrics. It’s a big reason why I went into women’s health as a night owl. I thought the hours were epic. I like the adrenaline rush of getting called in the middle of the night. I also liked the idea of hanging up a shingle and being there for the community, being there for folks’ questions through pregnancy and after—having that longevity in the relationship.”
With the national cesarean rate hovering over 32 percent, where does Coastal fall? “Somewhere in the low 20s,” says Aksel. “There are a lot of things we do that are helpful in decreasing our C-section rate. For instance, I will deliver twins vaginally; that’s pretty uncommon even in the tri-state area. There is a lot that can be done to minimize intervention and allow women to stay out of the hospital as long as possible and put off as long as possible having to make that decision around having to deliver surgically. I also have women walk into my office and say, ‘I never want to deliver vaginally.’ I have others who want an unmedicated hypnobirth, no epidural. Bonding with patients over their vision of what they want their birth experience to be—I think that’s something that is incredibly rewarding.”
Dr. Aksel always make sure women are fully informed of risks and benefits but says, “I’m not going to prohibit a woman from practicing autonomy over her body. We offer choices and options.” Coastal has a midwife on staff, Cherida Lally, which is a reassuring sign to women looking for mother-centric care. “When I was in training, midwives taught me how to measure the fundus and how to put my hands on a pregnant person’s belly and have a sense of positioning and size,” says Aksel. “So I love exchanging stories with Cherida.”
Inspired by the midwife-assisted birth of her two sons, Cherida Lally (CNM) earned her Masters in Nurse Midwifery from Columbia University in 1997. “I no longer deliver babies, but after having 1,500 babies born into my hands, I’ve got a lot of good ideas about helping families cope well with labor,” she says. “I see my role at Coastal as having a strong educational bent. The doctors are all great—I’d have a baby with any one of them [she means in the delivery sense!]—but I like to take the time to address the things that might be worrying our patients. If I just ask how they are, they’ll often say fine… but then I probe a little deeper about what might be worrying or scaring them.” Whether it’s fears about knowing when they’re in labor, coping with the pain, understanding the physiology of how birth actually happens, or myths they’ve heard, Lally is there to offer patients unhurried counseling. “I talk to their partners about how they can be helpful,” says Lally, “because they’ll often feel useless, but they can actually make a huge difference.”
Lally is also passionate about postpartum care. “Everyone is so focused on bringing the baby into the world, and that is no small thing. But bringing your baby home is the real challenge,” she says. She encourages patients having a hard time to come in and get help. “The word ‘midwife’ is from old German and means ‘with woman,’” says Lally. “Midwives take care of women throughout their life span. The needs of patients who are not pregnant are just as important. So it’s helping young girls deal with menstrual problems and helping them avoid unwanted pregnancies (hope is not enough!), dealing with miscarriages and helping perimenopausal women cope with that chaotic transition. Midwifery care is more than babies!”
Dr. Shieva Ghofrany brings another facet to the practice, with her training in Integrative Health and Healing. She also brings personal experience as a mom and ovarian cancer patient to her approach and is the daughter of a female physician who was her role model in “leading with empathy.” Shieva shares a wealth of information about pregnancy, gynecology and mindset
@drshievag as well as classes and free resources at tribecalledv.com
Coastal Obstetrics & Gynecology
999 Summer Street, Suite 401
Stamford, CT
(203) 353-9099
coastalobgynct.com
Image By ANDREA CARSON