Leading the Way on Women's Health

JoAnn E. Manson '75, one of the nation's foremost experts on women's health, has had a very personal interest in medicine from an early age

It was then that her cousin developed juvenile-onset diabetes. And Manson's mother was a medical social worker and her father was a scientist, Medicine and science were frequent topics of discussion around the house.

Now, almost 40 years later, Manson is a principal investigator for the largest study ever of women's health issues, the co-director of women's health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and one of the top 10 "Heroes in Women's Health" named by American Health for Women magazine.

The future doctor, however, was not solely concentrated on medicine during her undergraduate years at North House, and later Quincy House. "I was more interested in the arts at that time," she says.

Manson wrote dance reviews for the Harvard Independent and particularly enjoyed biology courses with Pelegrino University Research Professor E.O. Wilson, as well as classes on China and the law. "My fondest memories are of time at the Quincy House grill and Tommy's Lunch," she says.

She refers to the people she met during her undergraduate years as the true highlight of her time at Harvard. "You meet people from different cultures and different countries, with different life experiences," she says. Quincy House was also the home of Christopher N. Ames '75, Manson's future husband.

After graduating from Harvard, Manson wasted no time in starting her medical career. She attended Case Western Reserve Union University Medical School, and then returned to Boston to complete an internship and residency in internal medicine, followed by a fellowship in endocrinology. She studied biostatistics at the Harvard Medical School and has been there ever since.

But it was a serious family illness that turned Manson toward women's health, the field that became her specialty. Manson's mother developed ovarian cancer in 1979 and died several months later.

"I discovered that there were a lot of areas that hadn't been addressed at all," Manson says. Since then, she has devoted a great deal of time and effort to research in women's health, especially regarding lifestyle influences on disease and the prevention of diabetes.

Manson has so far been pleased with the progress of the Women's Health Initiative, a $628 million program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health that studies crucial issues in women's health, including diabetes and cancer. Manson is a regional coordinator for the initiative.

"We successfully completed our first goal, which was to recruit 5,000 Boston-area women to participate," she says. "Now we're trying to keep the high compliance and participation rates."

While it will be several years yet before the complete results of the survey are known, Manson is not shaken by some early results that show that estrogen supplements may not be an effective treatment for heart disease--and that they may in fact increase the risk.

"It shows that the Women's Health Initiative is more important than ever, because the jury is still out on the effectiveness of these treatments," she says.

Another component of her job, and one that Manson says she finds very satisfying, is teaching. She has spent about 300 hours each year for the last 14 years mentoring medical students from the School of Public Health and elsewhere who are interested in epidemiology, the study of the causes and spread of diseases within populations.

While her career has been studded with success, Manson says there have been some disappointing moments as well. She served on a committee charged with determining the effects of beta-carotene treatment on cancer. "Unfortunately, though the treatment showed some promising prospects originally, the research showed that it had both no benefit and no risk for the patients," she says.

Manson suggests that the University could encourage more medical research.

"Harvard could provide small seed grants to young researchers at critical stages when they have an interesting idea," she says. She also praised the Medical School's "Scholars in Medicine" program, which provides grant support to faculty members at difficult times in life when they're juggling their career and family.

Indeed, Manson says, her family is her top priority. "I do sometimes think about early retirement," she says, only half kidding.

She has a daughter, Jenn, 12, and a son, Jeffrey, 11, both avid soccer players. Pictures of them adorn her office, sharing space with the results of recent medical surveys.

Manson says she considers the field of medicine a noble pursuit.

"It is fascinating as a way to combine service to society with an intellectual pursuit," she says of her research in women's health. "It is exciting playing a role in trying to get the answers to medical questions. These are historic and unprecedented studies."