“Women are beautiful, no matter what their size or shape. If they feel this way, they will project this belief in themselves. This confidence is what really makes a woman beautiful". Dr. Peña
About Dr. Christina Peña- Gynecologist, Bio-Identical Hormone, NaProTechnology & Functional Medicine Specialist located in Miami, FL
Dr. Christina Peña was born and raised in Miami, FL.
She graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine as President of her class. She completed her internship training at the Albert Einstein University Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, and graduated from OB/GYN Residency at the University of Texas.
Dr. Peña has served as member and president of multiple medical committees in her career. She is a medical correspondent for multiple television and radio networks including Telemundo, Univision and NPR.
Passionate about education, she is an Associate Professor of the Florida International University School of Medicine. She has mentored nurse practitioners and medical students throughout her career.
She has served on the Board of Trustees, and continues as a Medical Advisor for Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Crisis Centers. She is a Medical Physician in the Abortion Pill Reversal Network.
Certified in DaVinci Robotic Surgery, Dr. Peña was the first female gynecologic surgeon in South Florida operating out of both Baptist and HCA Hospital systems.
Dr. Peña has continued her education in women’s health under the Creighton Model Medical Consultant Education Program at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. She is a NaProTechnology Medical Consultant offering an advanced level of expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of complex Obstetric and Gynecologic conditions including Infertility.
Aware that healthcare for women is a changing field -especially in obstetrics and gynecology- Dr. Peña is ready to meet the whole range of medical concerns and options over the span of a woman’s lifetime.
Meet Dr. Christina Pena
Christina , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
I had always struggled with trying to find time for God and my studies. This was a struggle all the way through medical school. When could I find the time to read the Bible for example, when I had huge text books to read and study for exams? Then one day in my medical school clinical rotations, a patient had a very difficult decision to make. She was pregnant with twins. She was only in her second trimester of pregnancy and one of the babies died in utero. She had a condition where the babies shared a placenta. It was only a matter of time before the second baby died as well. It could be days but it could also be weeks. She needed to decide when she wanted the remaining living baby to be delivered. The decision was not easy because if the baby was delivered then, there was no guarantee the baby would survive due to how early she was in the pregnancy. But every day she may have tried to gain by keeping the baby growing inside of her, risked death of the second baby as well. I remember this as clear as if it were happening before me now. She looked me in the eyes so closely, and asked “What should I do?”
All that came to me was that this was a question for God. I would not have an answer for her. Then it became so clear to me. It is in this field that I would be forced to find the time for God. I would have to talk to Him daily, to know what He wants of me and what He wants for those He is using me to serve. It was this moment that made me decide to become an Obstetrician/Gynecologist.
Christina , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a medical doctor whose goal is not to treat symptoms but to find and treat the underlying cause. I have also always been a naturalist. I have never been a fan of medications which have long lists of side effects. At the risk of sounding religious, I firmly believe that God provided us with everything we would ever need to not only heal but prevent disease. Having said that, there are definitely diseases we haven’t figured out how to cure yet. We also see more and more illness due to exposures to toxins we have ourselves created.
While I originally trained to practice Obstetrics & Gynecology, I have extended my training in Functional Medicine and NaProTechnology, These two sub-specialties have allowed me to continue to practice in the holistic and natural way I have always desired, and with proven successful outcomes. Functional Medicine uses a more ‘root cause’ approach and benefits from the usage of labs which have also sub specialized. They offer advanced technologies which help find what traditional labs appear to be missing many times. NaProTechnology is specific to gynecologic health, including the enormous benefit it has provided to menstrual disorders and infertility.
Our success with infertility is not only more than double that which exists with artificial infertility methods, but has multiple advantages. Discovering the root cause of infertility allows the patient to be able to get pregnant naturally, and repeatedly if desired. The patient is not put through protocols of extreme hormonal fluctuations which have significant effects on her both physically and emotionally. The couple is not risking their life savings for expensive artificial methods which cannot guarantee success. A naturally conceived pregnancy is also lower risk than one artificially conceived.
We have had many patients in our practice who have successfully gotten pregnant naturally through our workup and care, despite having had multiple failed artificial attempts prior. But I will say that fertility success using NaProTechnology has been clinically proven to be even greater for patients who never underwent the artificial techniques before. Some of the factors for this include being able to assess the patient’s baseline state without the hormonal alterations the treatments may have caused. Another factor is age related. A person’s age and egg quality is very important. Many patients don’t hear about NaProTechnology until after they have gone years with the problem, with or without having gone through artificial infertility treatments.
I wish more couples suffering with infertility knew about this method. Currently there are only 2 Obstetrician Gynecologists in Florida trained and certified in NaproTechnology. If you are reading about this now and are struggling with infertility, or know of someone who is, please reach out to us. Our calling is to help you. We welcome you at Gables Health, We are located at 3850 Bird Rd Ste 402, Miami, FL 33146. You may call us at 305-227-8727 or email us at MyHealth@GablesHealth.com
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would do the same. While I have to admit I would probably cry if I had to do it all over again, as it was so hard on so many levels, I would find the strength to do it all over again. I truly believe I didn’t choose this career or specialty, but God chose it for me. This is God’s purpose for me and that will never change.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Every patient I care for is unique. Taking the time to treat each patient as a whole, with the necessary detail for a proper workup, is important. When patients voice their appreciation for this level of care, it makes me realize how much medicine has changed out there. One to one patient care, and their own referral through word of mouth to their loved ones has more meaning than any marketing one can hire.
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