Dr. Marguerite B Vigliani, MD

I detected a sizable lump in my left breast and made an appointment with Dr. Vigliani for an exam. She palpated the lump .and agreed there was a mass. I was two years post breast augmentation and her diagnosis was that it was just scar tissue and I should go back to my plastic surgeon. I left the office with that information somewhat relieved that it was not pointing to cancer with no recommendation for a mammogram or any tests. I was 30. I saw my plastic surgeon several months later. I had a biopsy within days and yes it was cancer. A modified radical mastectomy at age 31 was devastating. I wish she had ordered thorough tests when I was examined. She made a huge mistake.

Dr. Vigliani is competent, but I've always found her brusque and even crabby. She's been my gynecologist for almost 17 years, so obviously I respect her diagnostic ability, but she'll never win any prizes for social grace. Her bedside manner has improved somewhat over the past five or six years; I think that's because her schedule is now less pressured than it was earlier.

I have stayed with Dr. Vigliani for many years because she was the only of many gynecologists I saw who was able correctly to diagnose and heal a rare problem that had caused me excruciating pain. I appreciated her expertise and was very grateful. However, be warned that she has a horrible bedside manner; is abrupt, sometimes tactless, and conveys the impression that she doesn't enjoy her work. Maybe it's different if you're an ob patient; I just see her for routine gynecological checkups.

Huge fibroids removed: I saw Dr. Vigliani when I was a poor grad student at Brown and because I went out of network to her, she literally saved my uterus and thus I have two healthy children, 18 and 16 years old, one born VBAC!.Dr. Vigliani told me when I woke up from surgery that it was a miracle that I came to her, truly. She had a strong woman assistant surgeon in the O.R. with her who said when she saw the size and location (in the uterine wall) of the fibroids, would have performed a hysterectomy right on the spot. Instead, Dr. Vigliani carefully, painstakingly removed all the fibroids without harming the integrity of my uterus and told me I could look forward to a normal vaginal delivery as well (which I did later!) Moreover, since fibroids are very likely to recur, but I was not at a stage in my marriage to consider having children yet, she advised, "Don't rush it. Go ahead and take birth control measures until the marriage is ready for children. If you need to, you can… have more surgeries to remove future fibroids until you are ready to be parents." In other words, she saw the importance of the social aspects of parenting readiness more important than the serious medical issues!On top of this, what I first saw her for was infertility treatment. Even though I was doing my post-doc 3,000 miles away from my husband and we could only afford to get together once per month, she said "No problem, we'll do whatever we can anyway." How many medical professionals would be willing to work on infertility with this geographic barrier?? Dr. Vigliani was the angel in my life and thanks to her, we have two wonderful, amazing offspring, one heading off to start a pre-med program in the fall !