FACTS Benefactor: Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald

By Tucker Brown, MD

Executive Director’s Note: Fulfilling the mission of FACTS takes a strong team. It’s true! As we seek to educate medical professionals all over the world about the science supporting fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs), we benefit from the talents of many colleagues. Meet Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald, a family physician and Creighton Medical Consultant who has contributed to the work of FACTS in many different ways since our earliest days.

FACTS is able to accomplish its mission through the hard work and dedication of people who share our passion for ensuring women receive the health care they deserve. Medical professionals and experts in the field of fertility awareness give their time, expertise, advice and sometimes even financial support to make this work possible. Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald has contributed in all of these areas as a steadfast supporter of FACTS and its mission from our earliest days more than a decade ago. Through her direct primary care (DPC) practice as a NaPro-trained family physician, she demonstrates how to provide authentic women’s health care to the next generation of physicians by educating medical students in our FACTS elective.

Dr. Golden-Tevald has practiced Family Medicine in New Jersey for over 30 years. Her journey with FABMs began in 2002 when she read the book “Physicians Healed,” which inspired her to seek training in the Creighton Model so she could provide more comprehensive care to women.

“It changed my life and my practice,” she said. Ten years later, her passion for women’s health and her experience integrating FABMs into clinical practice proved pivotal to the growth of FACTS. Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald participated in the first meetings designed to get the FACTS collaborative up and running. Since she had not learned about these methods until later in her career, she was delighted to learn of an initiative to educate medical professionals and students earlier in their training.

According to Dr. Marguerite Duane, Executive Director of FACTS, Dr. Golden-Tevald “played a critical role in some of our early successes at FACTS, including the publication of our systematic review of the effectiveness of FABMs for preventing pregnancy. This helped put FACTS on the map as an academic medical organization focused on evidence-based FABMs.”

Several years ago, Dr. Golden-Tevald converted her practice to a direct primary care (DPC) membership model.* She states:

“This was the best thing we ever did for our practice and for our patients. The incentives are aligned; the patient is incentivized to ask for help; and the doctors are incentivized to spend the time necessary to help patients get and stay healthy.” This practice model has given her more time to engage with patients and use FABMs to provide the care they deserve.

Her practice is now expanding, with a new physician, trained in FABMs and Restorative Reproductive Medicine, and a new satellite office in Pennsylvania.

We at FACTS are profoundly grateful to Dr. Golden-Tevald for her involvement and support. She has been a trailblazer with FABMs for over two decades. As a direct primary care doctor, she is a wonderful role model for medical students, showing them that it is possible to take time with patients, address issues discovered with FABM charting, and provide options and guidance to her patients. Additionally, Dr. Golden-Tevald has been a featured presenter at our FACTS CME Conferences since we held our very first one in Cleveland in 2019. Finally, we are thankful to her for supporting FACTS every month with a financial gift, making it possible for us to continue this important work!

In her words: “You need to know about FABMs, even if you think the mainstream approaches to family planning and treatments for women’s health problems (PMS, dysmenorrhea, infertility, recurrent miscarriage) are fine. There are many women who don’t want that approach, and as a clinician, you need to know the full scope of what is available in order to provide true, shared decision-making to your patients. If you study and practice FABMs and restorative reproductive medicine you may come to the conclusion that I did — that it is superior medical care.”

More about Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald

Dr. Golden-Tevald completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City, before completing medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Family Medicine residency at Union Hospital, Union, NJ.

She is board certified in Family Medicine and a Certified FertilityCare Medical Consultant as well as Certified in Functional Medicine by the Institute of Functional Medicine. She is also the bestselling author of “Hope and Healing, What Ultimately You Need from Your Doctor.”

*Executive Director’s Note: As a family physician with a direct primary care medical practice, I echo Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald’s sentiments that this model gives us the time necessary to educate our patients and empower them to truly care for their health. To find a DPC practice near you, click here. To find an FABM trained physician or education near you, click here.

Our donors make a difference!

The FACTS online elective is meeting the needs of medical students, residents, and health professional students in unique ways that include self-paced learning, live case studies, telemedicine, in-person options, and more! During the 2020-21 academic year, 225 students completed the course. Thanks to our donors, we expanded the elective and filled all 270 spots through May, 2022!

With your ongoing support, we hope to grow further during the 2022-23 academic year, increasing our capacity to 300 students per year.

We are grateful for monthly donors like Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald, who fuel our work so we may continue to reach medical professionals with accurate information about FABMs.

Your generosity allows us to meet our students’ needs!

Your generous contribution enables us to educate and engage medical professionals and students by sharing the evidence supporting fertility awareness-based methods with them.

$100 provides a scholarship for a student to attend a FACTS conference
$250 covers the registration for a student to enroll in the FACTS online elective
$500 funds a FACTS speaker to educate students about FABMs

We appreciate all our donors. Thank you!