Imagine escaping the dreary February winter frost to meet up with your urology friends and colleagues from across the country in sunny San Diego for a fantastic scientific meeting. The meeting has the right mix of basic science talks, informative thought-provoking poster and podium presentations, insightful discussion during debates and breakout sessions, networking, empowering Zumba, clinical pearls, useful updates, camaraderie and fun for both the general urologist as well as the urologist specializing in urodynamics, incontinence, female pelvic medicine, neurourology and urogenital reconstructive surgery. The meeting I am describing is the Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine & Urogenital Reconstruction (SUFU) 2022 Winter Meeting that will be held at the Marriot Marquis San Diego Marina.

Many of us have fond memories of the SUFU 2020 Winter Meeting, which was held in Arizona the week before the country locked down for COVID. The SUFU 2021 Winter Meeting was very successful but virtual. I am very much looking forward to the in-person SUFU 2022 Winter Meeting February 22–26, which boasts a stellar program and venue, as well as diverse speakers and participants.

Some of the meeting highlights include updates in the basic science behind bladder and pelvic pain, focus on the social aspects of pelvic floor conditions, challenging treatment debates, surgical pearls, awards, ABU and coding updates and a session on how to use the excellent (but not well known) SUFU resources. As usual, there will be video, moderated podium and poster sessions focused on incontinence, neurogenic bladder, basic science, pelvic organ prolapse, reconstruction, neuromodulation, benign prostatic hyperplasia, interstitial cystitis and geriatrics. This year’s meeting also features some great opportunities for fellows and residents to network.

Some of the basic science talks at this year’s meeting that would interest all urologists include a lecture by Lisa Karstens, PhD discussing the role of bacteria in overactive bladder and urinary incontinence. A panel (moderated by Michel Pontari, MD) will discuss signaling in bladder pain (Pedro Vera, PhD), the effect of aging on immune activity (Indira Mysorekar, PhD) and neuro-immune interactions in chronic pelvic pain (Praveen Thumbikat, PhD). Keynote lectures by Stuart Brierly, PhD and Min Dong, PhD will discuss mechanisms underlying nociceptive bladder pathways and new frontiers in therapeutic toxins for urological disease.

Here are some of the challenging treatment debates at this year’s SUFU meeting: bulking vs mid-urethral sling vs autologous fascial sling for which patient? Bariatric surgery/weight loss vs surgery for the obese patient with stress urinary incontinence? Oral medications vs neuromodulation for a patient with fecal incontinence and overactive bladder? Mid-urethral sling vs bulking agent for primary stress urinary incontinence?

There are sessions focused on physician wellness and practice management. Mark Painter will give a coding update for 2022. There are breakout sessions to discuss physician burnout, optimization of advanced practice providers in practice and even a session where you can bring your own complex cases for discussion.

As always, there will be valuable expert talks about surgical management. One session, chaired by SUFU President Sandip Vasavada, MD, focuses on tips and tricks when things go wrong during female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (panelists Jason Kim, MD, Ja-Hong Kim, MD and Larissa Rodriguez, MD). The expert surgical theater (moderated by Michael Albo, MD) will focus on native tissue pelvic organ prolapse repair (Christian Twiss, MD) and robotic hysteropexy (Nirit Rosenblum, MD). Female cosmetic genital surgery (Linda Cardozo, MD) and flaps in female pelvic medicine (Schlomo Raz, MD) will also be highlighted. An expert lecture by Dr. Phillippe Zimmern will detail transvaginal native tissue repair for pelvic organ prolapse.

There are so many other outstanding sessions during the 2022 SUFU Winter Meeting that I have not mentioned in this article.

Dr. David Ginsberg is the head the program committee and has worked tirelessly to put together this program. The other program committee members are Benjamin Dillon, MD, Stuart Reynolds, MD and me, Doreen Chung. We hope to see you all there in sunny San Diego.