Stacey J. Rogers, MD
Gynecologic Oncologist, Virginia Oncology Associates;
U.S. Navy Medical Corps (Ret.)
The 15 years that Dr. Stacey Rogers spent in the Navy shaped her as a doctor, providing her with advanced training in her field, invaluable insights on teamwork and new perspectives on the sacrifices made by military men and women.
Dr. Rogers fulfilled her military commitment stateside, primarily caring for patients at Portsmouth Naval Medical Hospital during a four-year assignment. The majority were spouses or children of active-duty service members.
Without a large support staff, Dr. Rogers learned to handle multiple aspects of patient care beyond her gynecologic oncology specialty, including checking people in, taking vital signs, drawing blood for labs, doing EKGs and scheduling surgeries.
“It gave me a real appreciation of all the steps involved in complete patient care, in getting patients from their first appointments to the operating room,” she says. “Every single person in that process plays an important role. It taught me so much about camaraderie.”
The hospital also cared for trauma patients injured in combat. She adds, “To see them firsthand changes your view on what’s behind the freedoms that we’re afforded in the United States. I will never take those for granted.”
Dr. Rogers knew she wanted to go into medicine as a young child growing up outside Boston, Mass. Before applying to medical school, she earned a biology degree from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and a master’s in nutrition at Columbia University.
The University of Vermont College of Medicine was Dr. Rogers’ dream school, and she joined the Navy to cover its tuition. She completed an eight-week Officer Indoctrination Course between her first and second years of medical school, a physically and mentally demanding introduction to military life and structure.
“You leave with a deeper realization of the benefits of discipline, work ethic and collaboration,” Dr. Rogers recalls. “Those lessons helped me so much as a medical student and later in my training and practice.”
After graduating, Dr. Rogers did an internship and residency at Naval Hospital San Diego and a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She chose her specialty for its multi-disciplinary characteristics and focus on women’s health.
At Portsmouth Naval, Dr. Rogers was a staff physician and Division Director for Gynecologic Oncology from 2000 to 2004. While she loved the job, she elected to move into the civilian world to ensure she wouldn’t be away for extended periods as a mother of two young children.
Dr. Rogers joined Virginia Oncology Associates in 2004, seeing patients in its Chesapeake office and operating in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Along with Gynecologic Oncology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, she is Board certified in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine.
The most common type of gynecologic cancer today is endometrial cancer, with cases rising in large part due to increasing obesity rates. For patients with ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest forms, Dr. Rogers is excited about new FDA-approved PARP inhibitors for maintenance treatment of advanced recurrent disease after chemotherapy.
The medications aim to block a protein that helps repair cancer cells, hopefully stopping them from surviving and spreading. “Finally, it feels like we are making progress on this devastating disease,” Dr. Rogers says.
In her off hours, Dr. Rogers enjoys spending time with her family, and hiking, skiing, reading and cooking. She still keeps in touch with many of the close friends she made in the Navy.
“I have no regrets whatsoever about my time in the military,” she says. “It had a huge positive impact on my life.”
