By: Molly Franzonello
Editor’s Note: In this week’s special feature blog, we are delighted to feature Dr. Lynn Keenan, one of our expert speakers at our upcoming virtual conference, Lifestyle for Healthy Cycles, on October 10th-11th . Dr. Keenan will present on sleep and its impact on the female cycle. We are excited to share her story with you! In case you missed it, we also featured conference speakers Dr. Amaryllis Sanchez Wohlever , Ginny Noce , and Teresa Kenney . As a reminder, the early bird registration deadline is next Wednesday, September 10th, so register before then and save!
A Mission Rooted in Care
For more than two decades, Dr. Lynn Keenan has advanced Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM), a field that addresses root causes of reproductive health concerns through science, education, and patient partnership. A retired clinical professor of medicine at UCSF Fresno, she is board-certified in both Sleep Medicine and Internal Medicine. Today, she serves as the president of the Institute of Restorative Reproductive Medicine of the America (IRRMA) and as managing editor of the Journal of Restorative Reproductive Medicine .
What began as a dream of serving as a medical missionary abroad gradually shifted as she found abundant opportunities to change lives closer to home in the United States. Early in her career, while working as an internist and raising four children, she pursued training in NaProTechnology and later NeoFertility to offer women care that restores rather than suppresses.
From Primary Care to Sleep Medicine
For 10 years, Dr. Keenan directed Primary Care at UCSF Fresno, integrating restorative approaches into patient care and resident training. She later developed and led the Sleep Medicine Fellowship for nine years. These fields revealed common ground: both were new, often overlooked, and capable of transforming lives.
“She saw repeatedly how restoring healthy sleep improved fertility, hormonal balance, and overall wellbeing.”
One Spanish-speaking patient with a third-grade education had suffered constant bleeding despite repeated ablations. By charting her cycles and treating her severe sleep apnea alongside progesterone support, her cycles normalized, and the abnormal bleeding resolved. “Even with broken English, she became one of my best teachers,” Dr. Keenan said. “She would bring her charts to clinic and explain them to residents. She showed everyone that understanding your body is within reach for every woman.”
Teaching and Advocacy
Dr. Keenan consistently brought restorative approaches into medical education. Students often left her lectures seeing—some for the first time—how fertility awareness and sleep intersect with health outcomes.
“The taglines don’t change hearts,” she said. “But when you present the science, students begin to see the beauty of it for themselves.”
“Dr. Keenan consistently brought restorative approaches into medical education ‘When you present the science, students begin to see the beauty of it for themselves.’”
Her advocacy also extended beyond the classroom. At UCSF Fresno, she secured recognition as an NFP-only physician in her contract, creating institutional space for restorative practice. She partnered with Margaret Howard to help launch a California-based Creighton program to train new educators and later became one of the first U.S. physicians to pilot Dr. Phil Boyle’s NeoFertility model.
She has served as President of the California Association of Natural Family Planning (CANFP), advancing education and policy advocacy across the state. Her leadership on the boards of IIRRM and IRRMA has supported physician training, mentoring, and international collaboration.
Her collaborations included early work with Dr. Marguerite Duane of FACTS, where they shared lectures and strategies for introducing fertility awareness into medical education.
Beyond reproductive health, she has also advocated for physician wellness. At UCSF Fresno, she led a campus-wide project on resident sleep deprivation, offering lectures, home sleep studies, and interventions that improved outcomes and reduced medical errors.
She continues this work publicly, presenting at conferences and in professional publications. “I love to speak about the impact of sleep on women’s health,” she says. “At the upcoming FACTS Virtual Conference on Restorative Reproductive Medicine, I’ll review the risks of poor-quality sleep, the disorders that complicate pregnancy and postpartum, and practical tips for treatment.”
Dr. Keenan has also pushed colleagues to recognize sleep as central to women’s health.
“I’d look at Venn diagrams listing all the contributors to infertility or complications like preeclampsia, and sleep was never included,” she said. “I kept reminding colleagues: sleep belongs there too.”
Building a Culture of Health
Dr. Keenan hopes more young women will learn to chart their cycles during adolescence, before facing infertility or untreated reproductive disorders later in life. She also calls for routine screening of sleep disorders in pregnancy and more research focused on women, where most sleep studies have historically centered on men.
“ Dr. Keenan hopes more young women will learn to chart their cycles during adolescence, before facing infertility or untreated reproductive disorders later in life. She also calls for routine screening of sleep disorders in pregnancy.”
Her career demonstrates how persistence reshapes systems. She challenged institutional norms, expanded education through CANFP and IRRMA, and linked sleep and reproductive health in clinical practice. Her ongoing leadership reflects a clear goal of building a medical culture that values both rest and reproductive health as essential to women’s wellbeing .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Molly Franzonello
Molly Franzonello is the FACTS Communications & Social Media Coordinator. Molly brings extensive experience in health care management, program design, and health policy, holding a MS in Nursing and a Master of Health Administration. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Midwifery at Columbia University’s School of Nursing. She previously served as a Health Equity Specialist at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working on ways to reduce maternal mortality through a special project. Molly contributed to the Defense Health Agency in several roles, improving access to primary care clinics. She will create engaging content and co-manage our online presence to promote fertility awareness and looks forward to continuing to advance healthcare through education!
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