Sunday, May 9, 2004

Max Ortiz Dr. Susan Hendrix

2OO3 Michiganians of the Year

Dr. Susan Hendrix: She is helping change the way menopausal women are treated

By Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News

Dr. Susan Hendrix Age: 51 Residence: Grosse Pointe Park Occupation: Associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Wayne State University Medical School Why honored: For co-authoring two analyses of a groundbreaking national study on the effects of hormone replacement therapy Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

For 60 years, doctors prescribed hormones for women dealing with the symptoms of menopause.

But a major study last year found the treatment had little benefit. Even worse, the same analysis had determined a year earlier that hormonal therapy raised the risk of strokes, heart attacks and breast cancer.

The findings caused doctors to rethink a half-century of medical thought and begin looking for new ways to treat menopause.

Dr. Susan Hendrix of Wayne State University played a key role in the groundbreaking work, which began in 1991 and continues today.

Hendrix, who is a teacher, researcher and practicing physician, is Michigan’s principal investigator in the national study, which involves 161,000 women from age 50 to 79. As the lead investigator, she spearheaded the interviewing and collection of data from 3,500 women in Michigan.

Dr. Christine Comstock, director of fetal imaging at Beaumont Hospital, said Hendrix used her high energy and people skills to accomplish a Herculean task.

“She had taken a very big project and followed it through,” Comstock said. “It’s a huge amount of work. It took some personal sacrifice and hard work — very, very hard work.”

While the study’s results came as a shock, Hendrix’s involvement in it should not, say those who know her.

Colleagues and friends describe the associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology as tireless, personable, competitive and resilient. She’s married to Dr. S. Gene McNeeley and has a son, Kyle Peterson.

Hendrix knew who she wanted to help even before she knew she wanted to be a doctor. As a teen, she worked in a nursing home and became interested in the plight of residents.

“No one wanted to take care of older people,” she said.

Before she was able to help middle-aged and older women, she had to overcome a few hurdles of her own.

The Maryland native didn’t decide to become a doctor until she was 25. Though she was just four years older than other medical school applicants, schools balked at accepting someone whose career, and contributions to medicine, would be more limited than most applicants. She eventually got into medical school and graduated from the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

She joined the MSU faculty in 1988 and switched to Wayne State four years later. Then, in 1994, she took a huge career gamble.

The National Institutes of Health had launched the Women’s Health Initiative, a massive research project aimed at a group usually ignored in such studies — women.

For three months, Hendrix put the rest of her career on hold while she worked on a grant to become part of the project. Sleeping and eating became optional.

Hendrix said the process was a grind — sort of like balancing being a teacher, researcher and practicing physician.

“It’s not an easy thing,” she said. “Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined. But I love taking care of patients. I love trying to find answers for them.”

That includes answers that are a long time coming — 60 years to be exact.