Karen McCowen, MD

Karen McCowen, MD, is a board-certified endocrinologist. She has a special interest in the management of diabetes in pregnancy, technologies for managing type 1 diabetes, thyroid biopsy and thyroid cancer, and pituitary and adrenal diseases. Dr. McCowen also has expertise in providing gender-affirming care to transgender and nonbinary patients.

Dr. McCowen has been published in numerous publications including American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, Current Opinions in Gastroenterology and Nutrition in Clinical Practice.

Before joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. McCowen was a physician in the endocrine divisions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. McCowen completed fellowships in nutrition and metabolism and clinical nutrition from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She also completed fellowship training in metabolism from Joslin Diabetes Center. She completed a clinical fellowship in endocrinology from several facilities in Boston, Massachusetts at Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic and received her medical degree from Trinity College in Ireland. She is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.

UC San Diego Health Links
For more information, see Endocrinology and Diabetes and Thyroid Cancer Program.