Form & Function Orthopaedics

Form & Function Orthopaedics Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Form & Function Orthopaedics, Medical and health, 9555 SW Barnes Road, Suite 275, Portland, OR.

Joint preservation for shoulders and knees

Orthopaedic surgery & regenerative care for active adults

Guided by the JointSpanMD™ approach

Founded by Dr. Nancy Yen Shipley

Portland, OR

06/19/2026

Once a month I make the drive to the Oregon coast to serve a rural community as a visiting surgeon. It takes me away from my family for a day or two, but it also gives me something I didn’t expect: space to breathe.

Today after surgery, I walked the beach alone. Heart rate monitor on, tracking my aerobic zone, doing the longevity thing.

And then I looked up and it hit me.

14 years ago I was a new mom and a brand new orthopedic surgeon at the same time. I blinked. And here we are, a decade and a half later.
We can chase longevity and we should. But the life we are trying to protect is also happening right now, in between the data and the optimization. The walks, the wonder, the quiet moments after a long day.

Don’t miss them.

For more on joint preservation, women’s health, and living well through midlife, follow along on Instagram at or subscribe on YouTube at .

06/16/2026

A landmark study out of Oxford just gave us the clearest molecular map of osteoarthritis we have ever had. And it confirmed something I have believed for a long time: what is happening inside your joints is not just a structural or mechanical problem. It is a biology problem.

Researchers analyzed synovial fluid (the lubricating fluid in your knee) from over 1,300 patients and measured more than 7,000 proteins per sample. The conclusion? Osteoarthritis is one disease with shared core pathways related to tissue injury and repair. But here is the part that really matters for those of us treating patients: factors like obesity, s*x, and age create variation in how that biology plays out. In patients with obesity, additional inflammatory signals were present in the joint, not the same kind seen in rheumatoid arthritis, but a tissue-injury response linked to systemic inflammation from excess fat tissue.

This is the question I ask in clinic all the time: why does one 250-pound person have no arthritis and another has bone on bone? It is not just the load. It is the environment the body is creating around those joints.

I want to be clear about something. There are excellent cartilage restoration procedures out there, and I perform them. MACI, osteochondral grafting, microfracture. But these work best for contained, traumatic cartilage defects, not necessarily for widespread wear-and-tear arthritis. I think patients sometimes get confused about this distinction and it matters deeply for making the right decision.

What this research reinforces is the case for treating the biological environment of the joint, which is exactly the philosophy behind regenerative medicine and behind the JointSpan approach. Local treatment of the joint environment plus attention to what is happening systemically.

The researchers also specifically noted that perimenopausal women face higher risk for accelerated OA progression. This is not a footnote. This is a reason to take your joint health seriously now, in midlife, not after things have progressed.

This study is a step toward treatments that actually modify the disease, not just manage symptoms. And it validates the conversation I want to keep having with you.

Full study in stories. Take the JointSpan quiz at f2ortho.com/jointspan-md-quiz to understand where your joint health stands today.

06/12/2026

The Oregon coast doesn’t rush. Neither do we.

At Form & Function Orthopaedics, joint preservation isn’t a last resort. It’s the first conversation. We combine regenerative medicine, minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery, and care that actually takes the time to understand you, not just your imaging.

If you’ve been told replacement is your only option, come talk to us first.

f2ortho.com | Portland, Oregon

06/01/2026

15 years in practice and every now and then a case makes you stop and go… whoa.

This is a prepatellar bursa. It sits over your kneecap and cushions the front of your knee. Most of the time you never think about it.
Until it looks like this.

This patient couldn’t kneel, couldn’t move comfortably, couldn’t even roll over in bed. When it gets to that point, we take it out. Full bursectomy. Clean removal.

And yes, that specimen is the size of my fist.

A note on steroid injections: I’m cautious. If there’s any bacteria in that fluid and you inject steroid, you can turn an annoyance into a serious systemic infection fast. I’ve seen it. So I’m selective about when I go that route.

Happy to report this patient is back to projects around the house, sports, and life without an extra passenger on their knee. 🙌

Learn more about the conditions I treat at F2ortho.com

05/22/2026

A new paper from the Orthopaedic Research Society just said something that every woman in midlife needs to hear.

In mouse models of aging-related OA, female mice naturally maintain high estrogen levels — unlike human women, who lose estrogen at menopause. That difference matters enormously, because estrogen loss is one of the key drivers of accelerated joint degeneration in women.

So when researchers say a drug or treatment "didn't work" in animal studies... it's worth asking whether the animal model actually reflected the hormonal reality of the human women those therapies are meant to help.
Women develop OA at higher rates after menopause. We have more pain, more functional limitation, and historically less research designed around our biology.

This is why I talk about hormones and joints in the same breath. They are not separate conversations.

Follow me for more research translated into what actually matters for your body.

05/20/2026

Your bones are listening to your body. Let that sink in.

New research in Stem Cells Translational Medicine dives deep into osteocytes — the cells embedded inside your bone that sense mechanical forces and direct bone regeneration. They are your skeleton's internal communication network.

This is the science behind why load-bearing exercise matters for bone health, why sedentary behavior accelerates bone loss, and why regenerative medicine is advancing so rapidly.

me: dismissing bone health as "just take calcium and hope for the best" also me: reading about mechanotransduction pathways and bone tissue engineering at 11pm

This is the future of joint and bone care — and it's available now at Form & Function Orthopaedics in Portland. f2ortho.com — link in bio.

05/18/2026

The science is finally catching up to what women have been living in their bodies for decades.

A new editorial in Frontiers in Aging spotlights women at the forefront of musculoskeletal aging research — and if you've ever been told your joint pain is "just part of getting older" or dismissed because it doesn't show up on imaging, this is for you.

Your bones, joints, and muscle don't age the same way a man's do. Perimenopause and menopause are inflection points for your musculoskeletal health. The research is starting to say it clearly. I've been saying it in the clinic for years.

This is why representation in medicine matters — not just who's in the room, but who's being studied.

If you're ready to take your joint health seriously, visit us at Form & Function Orthopaedics. Link in bio — f2ortho.com

05/07/2026

Beyoncé wore her skeleton to the Met Gala.

Don’t sleep on yours.

05/02/2026

When I started in orthopedic surgery, women were 6% of the field. That number has likely doubled since then. Still a minority. But real progress.

And history tells us this is not new.

At a time when gender roles were far more rigid than today, women ran factory lines, riveted aircraft, and mastered deeply technical, physically demanding work. They built things with their hands in fields that were considered exclusively male.

Sound familiar?

Women in surgery. Women in engineering. Women in every hard field we were told was not ours. The pattern is the same. So is the outcome.

We keep showing up anyway. And the field keeps changing.

Follow to learn more about women in medicine and what we are building next.

Video Credit:

04/30/2026

Joking aside, I talk a lot about longevity. About protecting your joints, your bone density, your strength, so you can stay in the game longer. And I mean every word of it.

But longevity isn’t just about the body you’re building for the future. It’s about being present enough to actually live in the one you have right now.

I was recently on vacation with my family. I put the phone down. I watched my kid - growing faster than I ever imagined. I stood in front of something big - the ocean, the lava from a volcano - that reminded me how small and lucky I am at the same time. Mother nature has a way of doing that.

That is what we are preserving function for. Not just to move well, but to be fully there for the moments that matter.

Your body will ask for your attention eventually. I’d rather help you get ahead of it.

If you’re in midlife and ready to understand where your musculoskeletal health actually stands, visit F2ortho.com and sign up to be kept in the loop.

Follow for more real talk about your joints, your health, and getting more life out of your body.

Address

9555 SW Barnes Road, Suite 275
Portland, OR
97225

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 3pm

Telephone

+19719714325

Website

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