women's health
purepedantry | December 13, 2006This is actually not a silly question. Birth control pills on the market such as Seasonale allow women to postpone having their period for three months and to only have four periods total per year. The way these oral contraceptives (OCs) work is relatively simple. Monthly birth control includes a withdrawl phase where the progesterone is removed. Without the hormonal support the endometrium dies, and the woman menstruates. OCs that extend the cycle to 3 months simply exclude the withdrawl phase for two of those months.
However, this begs the question as to whether the withdrawl phase is…
What is the responsibility of the health care team with patients who refuse evidence-based medicine?
terrasig | October 10, 2006I'm a day late in recommending this, but I encourage all who are interested in alternative medicine for cancer to spend the time it takes to get through Orac's heartwrenching documentation of the case of a young breast cancer patient who is likely to die in the very near future, through no fault of medicine.
The bottom line: likely curative therapy (i.e., "upwards of 93% long term survival with proper surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy") was refused by a young woman with a small, treatable, breast mass, only to have her lack of success with alternative therapies bring…
terrasig | August 26, 2006Four years ago at 11:24 am EDT (1624 GMT), your humble blogger was handed the keys to a whole new vocabulary of love.
The gift came in the form of a 7 lb. 13 oz. (3,544 gm), 20.5 inch (52 cm) bundle of drooling, peeing, meconium-pooping bundle of baby girl, yanked from an incision in PharmGirl's abdomen.
The lessons of compassion and unconditional love I have been taught by these two women have comprised the most formative experiences of my life.
In return, PharmGirl has suffered tremendous indignancies on my behalf: the necessary biological machinations required to mix haploid DNA…
terrasig | August 24, 2006The wimpy approval of OTC status today for Plan B emergency contraception only for women 18 and older has me nonplussed.
I've been disgusted by the intrusion of politics into science and medicine on this issue for quite some time.
As some Terra Sig readers know, a major network news outlet keeps the real Dr Pharmboy on their experts list for commentary on pharmacotherapy issues but my exact comments rarely make it on-air. Perhaps these will be inflammatory enough to get a call to be on this time, and then you'll all know who I am. (No, I am not Dr Raymond Woosley, but I wish I were.)
So here…
terrasig | August 11, 2006Welcome feminist bloggers and commentors from Coturnix's guest post at Echidne of the Snakes.
Howdy, folks. Let me introduce myself. I'm the guy who got this discussion started at Terra Sigillata, where Coturnix's home blog is hosted by ScienceBlogs.com.
Short story is that I asked a rhetorical question about a single Hooters establishment (on the San Antonio, TX, Riverwalk) that sits within two blocks of the world's largest international breast cancer research conference held every December, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).
My wife is a medical oncologist specializing in…
terrasig | August 7, 2006...all without being perceived as capitalistic, misogynistic, or otherwise demeaning to women?
This is an open thread for y'all because I have to go to a funeral and won't be able to oversee the discussion today.
I brought this point up over the weekend with my ScienceBlogs.com colleagues and it got such a passionate response that I thought I'd open it up to the blogosphere.
I have a very serious question (below) related to breasts, and I really hope the women bloggers and readers will weigh in. I know that there are many high-profile female bloggers out there with a heavy feminist worldview…
terrasig | July 31, 2006Interesting timing: former US National Cancer Institute director and current acting FDA commish Dr Andrew von Eschenbach is about to go before the Senate tomorrow regarding his nomination for the permanent position. You know that he was going to get reamed over FDA's delay of over-the-counter approval for the Plan B emergency contraceptive, despite all scientific reasons to move forward.
Well, the Associated Press is now reporting that:
The Food and Drug Administration notified manufacturer Barr Laboratories Inc. Monday that it wanted to meet within seven days to define new steps the…