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Sara Cichowski

Sara Cichowski

🇺🇸 United States🏥 Oregon Health & Science UniversityMD
Mentored by · fellowship 2014
Rebecca Rogers

Training and career​

  • Current position Professor of obstetrics and gynecology and vice chair for gynecology, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Portland12
  • Medical school University of Washington School of Medicine (2003)1
  • Residency Obstetrics and gynecology, Cleveland Clinic Akron General (2008)1
  • Fellowship Female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque (2014)12
  • Earlier career Several years working and teaching in a rural hospital in Kenya, and at the New Mexico Veterans Health Administration, where she studied sexual trauma and pelvic pain1
  • Fellows trained Program director, OHSU Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship, whose alumni list includes six graduates from 2021 to 20262

Contributions​

Her research covers patient counseling for fecal incontinence, pelvic pain and military sexual trauma in women veterans, and pessary complications.

  • Nonsurgical management of a pessary rectovaginal fistula (2013). First author, with Rebecca Rogers, of a case report in which a Gellhorn pessary stem left in place for several years eroded into the rectum; after removal and vaginal estradiol cream the fistula tract resolved within one month.3 Cited on WARWIKI: Nonoperative Management of Rectovaginal Fistula.
  • Mnemonic counseling for fecal incontinence (2015). Led a randomized trial in 90 counseling-naive women; a mnemonic aid did not improve recall of treatment options at 2 months but increased satisfaction with counseling and improved Manchester Health Questionnaire scores.4
  • Military sexual trauma and chronic pain (2017). Led a Veterans Health Administration database study of 516,950 women in which a history of military sexual trauma was associated with chronic pelvic pain, dyspareunia, irritable bowel syndrome and other chronic pain diagnoses (adjusted odds ratio 1.26 for any pain condition).5

Cited on WARWIKI

1 publication with Sara Cichowski as a listed author is cited on WARWIKI, ordered by the number of pages that cite them. Papers whose author list is shortened to "et al." before this name are not included.

  1. Cichowski S, Rogers RG. Nonsurgical management of a rectovaginal fistula caused by a Gellhorn pessary. Obstet Gynecol. 2013;122(2 Pt 2):446–449. doi
    Cited on: Nonoperative Management of Rectovaginal Fistula

Footnotes​

  1. Sara Cichowski, M.D. OHSU People, Oregon Health & Science University. Accessed October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship Program. Oregon Health & Science University. Accessed October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Cichowski S, Rogers RG. "Nonsurgical management of a rectovaginal fistula caused by a Gellhorn pessary." Obstet Gynecol. 2013;122(2 Pt 2):446–449. doi:10.1097/AOG.0b013e31828aec98 ↩

  4. Cichowski SB, Dunivan GC, Rogers RG, Murrietta AM, Komesu YM. "Standard compared with mnemonic counseling for fecal incontinence: a randomized controlled trial." Obstet Gynecol. 2015;125(5):1063–1070. doi:10.1097/AOG.0000000000000755 ↩

  5. Cichowski SB, Rogers RG, Clark EA, Murata E, Murata A, Murata G. "Military sexual trauma in female veterans is associated with chronic pain conditions." Mil Med. 2017;182(9):e1895–e1899. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00393 ↩