Jan L. Shifren, MD

About

Jan L. Shifren has spent her career on the end of the reproductive timeline that most fertility clinics treat as someone else’s problem. She served as president of the North American Menopause Society, the professional body that writes the standard position guidance on hormone therapy, and she directs Massachusetts General’s Midlife Women’s Health Center. She also trained as a reproductive endocrinologist, at UCSF, and still handles infertility: ovulation induction, IVF, fertility preservation and egg freezing.

That combination is the point of her practice. A patient at 43 trying to conceive, a woman whose periods stopped at 39 after chemotherapy, someone managing severe vasomotor symptoms years after a hysterectomy with her ovaries left in place — these are the same physiological problem viewed from different directions, and the physician reading them has to know both hormone replacement literature and ovarian reserve biology. Shifren’s published research is exactly at that seam: how estrogen and androgen affect menopausal symptoms, mood and sexual function.

She is the Vincent Trustees Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, an endowed chair, and has been in practice for over three decades. She studied psychology and biology at Yale College before Harvard Medical School, trained in obstetrics and gynecology in the Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s joint program, and took her REI fellowship at UCSF. Her clinic is at 2000 Washington Street in Newton rather than in Boston proper, which places her nearer for patients west of the city. Her profile lists degrees, faculty rank and society leadership; a board certification statement is not recorded there.

Clinical Expertise

• Menopause and perimenopause management: hormone therapy decisions individualized to symptoms, timing since last menstrual period, cardiac and breast risk, and personal preference, using NAMS guidance she helped steward
• Premature ovarian insufficiency: evaluation of amenorrhea before 40, bone and cardiac consequences of early estrogen loss, and contraception or pregnancy questions when ovarian function is unpredictable
• Infertility care with an endocrine lens: ovulation induction, IUI and IVF where pregnancy is still the goal, with realistic framing of age-related decline
• Fertility preservation and egg freezing, including patients deciding after a cancer diagnosis or a delayed family plan
• Mood and sexual function in hormonal transitions: the domains her own research addresses, treated as clinical problems rather than side notes
• Longitudinal women’s health: blood pressure, lipids, bone density and contraception managed in the same visit as reproductive concerns

Why Choose Dr. Shifren

The menopause leadership is national, not local. Past president of NAMS means she was elected by the society that sets the US standard-of-care statements on hormone therapy — a credential very few fertility physicians hold.

An endowed Harvard chair. The Vincent Trustees Professorship in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology is a named appointment attached to one person, not a hospital brand.

One physician across two decades of the same life. Patients who do fertility treatment and then, years later, face menopause, do not have to re-explain their history elsewhere.

Newton instead of Longwood. Her practice site at 2000 Washington Street puts her on the western side of the city for the I-90 corridor.

Professional Affiliations

North American Menopause Society (past president); American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility; Endocrine Society. Director, Midlife Women’s Health Center, Massachusetts General Hospital. Vincent Trustees Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School. Practices in Newton at 2000 Washington Street.

Suitable For

• Patients in their early forties wanting an honest assessment of how much time and which treatments are worth pursuing
• Women under 40 with absent or irregular periods, especially after chemotherapy, ovarian surgery or radiation
• Menopause symptom management for patients who also want contraception, bone or cardiovascular risk discussed in the same visit
• Former IVF patients transitioning into midlife care who do not want to start over with a new clinician
• Women with PCOS past childbearing age who need the metabolic and hormonal follow-through that continues after fertility treatment ends