Dr Anna Bonder-Nowicka | Expert in men’s health
Warsaw is my place on earth – the city where I was born, grew up and which has witnessed my professional career. I have always been fascinated by human stories, and my curiosity about the world and desire to help others led me to choose medicine. My passion for surgery and my discovery of urology led me on a unique path, where every day I gain experience and seek the best solutions for my patients.
My path to medicine
I was born, raised and have always lived in Warsaw. The capital city is my great love and fascination, I have explored it far and wide. I have seen many cities in my life, but I have always wanted to live only here. This is also where I finished high school and medical school. I was the last class to receive a diploma with that name; the following year, the university was renamed the Medical University of Warsaw.
International experience and specialisation
I like to attend international conferences and observe how colleagues in other countries work, exchange experiences and learn new things. This curiosity led me to an internship in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2023, where I explored the pathophysiology of erectile dysfunction. A year later, I ended up in Istanbul, Turkey, where I learned microsurgery and penile implant placement. I perfected the latter during an internship in Amman, Jordan, where, under the watchful eye of Dr Mohammed Hamdan, I placed 44 implants in less than three weeks (quite an achievement!). I returned from there convinced that now I could finally offer men everything! I would find an effective solution for them at every stage – ESPECIALLY if they thought it was already “too late”.
I always wanted to be a surgeon. I didn’t torment amphibians as a child or try to see “what’s inside a hamster”, but my favourite reading material was a slightly mouldy textbook from the 1950s called “Women’s Health” that I found in my grandfather’s attic. At first, I understood every 10th word, but that changed over time. Then, when I discovered what it felt like to hold a scalpel in my hand and see the immediate effect of my treatment at university, I fell head over heels in love with it.
I ended up in urology by accident (as all the most important things in life happen) and from the very first moment I felt like I was “in the right place”. I began my specialisation and independent career at the Bielański Hospital in Warsaw.
At the beginning of my specialisation, while on duty at the hospital, I was browsing through a publication by Prof. Izdebski on the sex lives of Poles. My eyes fell on the words: “44% of patients with sexual problems first visit a urologist’s office.” I was paralysed with fear because I realised that I would not have much to offer such patients, as the specialisation programme at the time did not cover this topic in great detail. The next morning, I enrolled in a postgraduate course in “Clinical Sexology” at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (another name that no longer exists, now known as SWPS University). There were 35 people in the year: psychologists, psychotherapists, educators… and me. The only doctor. My classmates welcomed me with some distance and disbelief, but eventually we became good friends. The programme was a springboard, allowing me to see the diversity and richness of human sexuality. Since graduating, I have been ready to hear everything that patients are ashamed to say and often effectively remedy their problems. With each passing day, I gain more and more experience because my curiosity has never waned.
