The Early Years of PAG 1800’s (United States):

Common PAG topic - absence of the vagina and the development of surgical procedures to correct this anomaly.

Early 1900’s (Europe):

The first European textbook on pediatric and adolescent gynaecology was published in 1939 by Hungarian paediatrician Dr. L. Dobszay.

Society for Adolescent Medicine founded in 1968

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAM, now SAHM) was founded in 1968 as one of the first organizations solely devoted to adolescent healthcare, from which NASPAG would eventually stem. SAHM is a multidisciplinary organization committed to improving the physical and psychosocial health and well-being of all adolescents. Important reproductive health issues at the time were adolescent pregnancy, birth control, abnormal Pap smears and reproductive endocrine disorders.

NASPAG Founding - 1986

1982 - The first North American Chapter of the Federation Internationale de Gynecologic Infantile et Juvenile (FIGIJ) was created under the leadership of Drs. Alvin Goldfarb and Paul McDonough

Since 1986 there have been 35 Presidents, outstanding physicians and educators in their  fields: NASPAG Board of Directors History through 2025

Executive Directors

Albert Altcheck, MD, Ob/Gyn, New York. Executive Board, wrote a PAG textbook entitled, Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology; Comprehensive  Therapy – 1995.

The 1st annual clinical meeting of NASPAG was held at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, in Ohio in 1987. Dr. Gidwani served as the Program Chair.

The first PAG Fellowship in the USA was started at Boston Children’s Hospital by Dr. Donald Peter Goldstein in 1983.  Fellows included Drs. Odette Pinsonneault, Jacques Mailloux, Joan Wenning, Anne Davis, Karen Kozlowski, Lauren Brown, Linda Laras, Marc Laufer, Barbara Gardner and Barbara O’Connell. The Fellowship was discontinued in 1993 and was reestablished in 2018.

In the 2006 Bylaws Revision there were only 4 Committees - Publications, Program, Educational Development, and the Bylaws Committee. This current list of Committees exemplifies one of the many ways in which NASPAG has grown over the last 20 years. 

1941 - First textbook of Pediatric Gynecology in the US by Goodrich Shauffler