Presidential reflections: how we got here, where we might go

Abstract

Pieter van Keep was a founder and the third president of the International Menopause Society (IMS). He died, sadly, in 1991. Since then, every retiring president of the IMS has delivered the Pieter van Keep Memorial Lecture. This is an edited version of that lecture delivered at the 18th World Congress of the IMS in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022. In the article, President Steven R. Goldstein describes the path he followed that led him to the presidency of the IMS, including his original entry into transvaginal ultrasound, then gynecologic ultrasound and, ultimately, menopausal ultrasound. His was the first description of the benign nature of simple ovarian cysts, the ability of transvaginal ultrasound to exclude significant tissue in patients with postmenopausal bleeding and the significance of endometrial fluid collections in postmenopausal patients, just to name a few. However, it was his description of the unusual ultrasound appearance in the uterus of women receiving tamoxifen therapy that allowed his entry into the world of menopause. This, ultimately, led to leadership positions, and ultimately the presidency of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the North American Menopause Society and, finally, the IMS, all chronicled in this article. In addition, the article describes in detail the activities of the IMS during the COVID pandemic.