Sometimes, life leads you in directions you had never imagined. And sometimes, where you land is exactly where you are meant to be.
Dr. Jennifer Even spent 10 years on active duty with the Navy, stationed at Cherry Point Hospital in North Carolina. When the board-certified OB-GYN completed her military service, she moved to Colorado in 2000 and entered private practice. After suffering a hand injury that precluded her from performing surgeries, she began taking care of insulin-dependent diabetics who were pregnant.
“I loved it,” she says. “I loved taking care of them.”
These women were, understandably, highly anxious. They had elevated blood-sugar levels and lipids. Many had anxiety and depression. Their pregnancies were high risk.
Dr. Even quickly realized that many of these women had expressed their concerns to medical professionals for years, but their questions often had been brushed aside. Many, it turns out, had polycystic ovarian syndrome—a condition that currently has no cure, but can be well managed with early diagnosis and treatment.
“I really developed a heart for the fact that this is really a multi-system failure for women,” Dr. Even says. “A lot of them get overlooked.”
She decided to change that and now works at The Family Practice, focusing on women’s health care with a special focus on the evaluation and treatment of polycystic ovarian syndrome.
What is PCOS?
PCOS is a hormonal disorder that is common among women of child-bearing age that often goes undiagnosed. Specialists typically look for two of these three symptoms: Irregular cycles, polycystic ovaries and/or excess androgen, which can cause unwanted hair and acne, among other issues.
The exact cause of PCOS is unknown; however, early diagnosis and treatment may reduce the risk of long-term complications such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. That’s why Dr. Even is actively trying to help women catch this condition sooner rather than later.
“It’s very prevalent. … Let’s wheel it back, look at where we can get people being funneled into the system before all of these crises,” she says.
The first step is diagnosis. The second is working with the patient and her family to make small changes in nutrition and exercise that could yield major improvements in her overall health and wellbeing.
“There are quite a few gaps in trying to meet patients where they are,” Dr. Even says.
She helps patients determine what went well in a given week, what challenges they faced and what they can build on. Some patients are overweight. Some are underweight. Some have other issues. It’s complex.
“We’re just trying to wrap our arms around the family. … We’re not approaching it from the scale,” she says.
Instead, she might show a patient how her liver is responding positively to eating more vegetables. There are no fad diets or drastic life upheavals here—slow and steady wins the race. Patients learn what their bodies are seeking and how to build sustainably healthy lives.
“My heart is taking care of people with PCOS. … I tell a lot of my patients please don’t look up PCOS online,” she says. “There’s 16 different opinions and none of them match. We kind of offer more of a global picture.”
Women’s Health
Women’s health has changed considerably since Dr. Even started as a practitioner and she has worked to stay on the cutting edge. Besides PCOS, one of her other areas of expertise is hormone replacement therapy.
Back in the day, many women of a certain age were put on oral estrogen. It made them feel better, but turned out to have some side effects. Subsequently, a whole generation of women went without hormones, and many of them were estrogen, progestin and/or testosterone deficient. “They were miserable,” Dr. Even says.
Fast forward to 2025, when safer and more effective forms of hormone replacement are available, many titrated to each patient’s needs, she says.
“I need my bones to be strong,” Dr. Even says. “I don’t want my joints to hurt all the time. That is not normal. When we didn’t have hormones, we put a lot of people on anti-depressants.”
She says her office is a no-judgment zone. Patients may talk freely here—no guilt, shame or embarrassment.
“I went into this field because I have a passion for women’s health in a way that I want everyone to feel accepted and heard and feel like they have an ally,” she says.
The Family Practice
TFP’s various providers offer global care for the family—beginning to end of life care.
“It’s very old-fashioned. … It’s really just a beautiful situation to have that old model be a workable model,” she says. “We don’t have criteria that we’re trying to meet—x-number of people a day. It has more of that mom-and-pop feel.”
Website: https://thefamilypractice.org/
Facebook + Instagram: @TheFamilyPracticeCOS
"Let’s wheel it back, look at where we can get people being funneled into the system before all of these crises.”