musingsonwomenshealth.com

The Uber-obvious in Medicine

I don’t know what atavistic urges compel me to rail against reporting the obvious as if it were something new -something clever. Reporting something as if the rest of us would do well to take note of it and spread the revelation to the uninformed like evangelists. Of course I don’t mean to confuse the…

gozzter

September 12, 2015

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advice, atavistic urges, BBC news, Delphian urge, doctors in Quebec, Dr. Google, exercise, hormone replacement therapy, hormones, Martin Juneau, menopause, placebo, prescription, prescription pads, primum non nocere., the obvious, weight loss
The Problem of Freedom

The rough, shadowed texture of a log fallen across a meandering stream, the scattered sparkles of the water as it murmurs briefly to a rock it passes, the deep, barely moving green of the leafy tunnel that shrouds the gently dancing blue beneath -these are what I know of freedom: permission to imagine, permission to…

gozzter

September 9, 2015

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abstract, Alison Gopnik, baby, baby’s movements, baby’s thoughts, due date, Fetal distress, Freedom, Non stress test, NST, permission, problem of freedom, Robert Frost, The Philosophical Baby, ultrasound, Voltaire
The Mistaken Identity

Communication is a fascinating thing. It enables descriptions of the world in different sounds, different gestures, different expressions. A shrug of indifference in one culture is a greeting in another. A nod can convey a myriad of intentions -context is everything. Only the smile seems a common currency. As a gynaecologist, I am ruled by…

gozzter

September 3, 2015

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baby, Cantonese, communication, culture, Gynaecology, language, pregnancy, pronunciation, referring doctor, Rosetta stone, smiles, translator, United Nations
The Gyne Weed

I think most of us have a rather Schadenfreude relationship with weeds: on the one hand, they are undesirables, illegal aliens usurping land otherwise dedicated to something useful; but on the other, some of them are quite pretty -even beautiful. Especially in someone else’s garden. Of course it’s all a matter of context, isn’t it? It’s a…

gozzter

August 30, 2015

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Anne of Green Gables, Gender, gender preference, lesbian, male gynaecologist, Pap smears, Schadenfreude, sewing seeds, weeds
Aphantasia?

We are a culture of categorists. Slotists. Namists. It is a society of Nomino, ergo sum. It’s as if we can sleep more securely knowing we have named and categorized everything we have seen that day –no matter how bizarre, no matter how unimportant. No matter, even, how mistaken the belief that by so doing,…

gozzter

August 28, 2015

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aphantasia, BBC news, Bell curve, boundaries, curiosity, Hamlet, hyperphantasia, Jeremiad, naming, Professor Adam Zeman, psychopathology, Rorschach inkblot, taxonomy, University of Exeter
Pregnancy Stress

Curiosity is a curse sometimes. It strikes in the most unusual circumstances and often with little warning. Some little thing will set it off and bang, you’re hooked. I’m an obstetrician, so procreative issues are constantly surfacing in my life. Environmental stressors and reproductive failure also seem to be de rigeur in the social media nowadays…

gozzter

August 25, 2015

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curiosity, effects of earthquakes on sex ratio, environmental stressors, gender regulation, human sex ratio, JOGC, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada, obstetrician, pregnancy, primary sex ratio, Quebec referendum, Quebec secession, secondary sex ratio, social media, stress, stress hormones, stress in pregnancy, tertiary sex ratio, Trivers-Willard Hypothesis, women’s health
Gynicles

I’m not sure why I’m so much against what are now politely referred to as listicles. Maybe they’re too much like sound-bites and too little like enjoyable prose; maybe it’s because if I gloss over the word quickly, it always looks like testicles… I have nothing against lists –pithy reminders of what I need to…

gozzter

August 24, 2015

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David Leonhardt, electronic tablet, facticle, Homer, Huffington Post, information, listicles, lists, New York Times, Sound Bites, the Iliad, University of Vagina, vaginal problems, vinegar douche
What’s in a Word?

Alexithymia. Ever heard of it? Me neither. It sounds like one of those words you’d get in a national spelling bee when they’re trying to off you. Fortunately it has a rather pedestrian etymology: ‘a’ meaning ‘without’; ‘lexis’ –speech, or words; and ‘thymos’ – soul, or emotions. In other words: no words for feelings. Hmm……

gozzter

August 22, 2015

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alexithymia, BBC, cancer of the cervix, cervical biopsy, etymology, Iago, maelstrom, malignant cells, Othello, Pandora, Pap smears, schizophrenia, screening tests, Shakespeare
The Black Sewing Box

I love mysteries, and if they involve finding buried treasure, so much the better. Thoughts of treasure chests used to conjure up maps and pirates hiding valuable things in faraway and largely inaccessible places. I suppose that shows my age, because nowadays, the more likely proxy for a treasure chest in the popular imagination is a flight data recorder –a black…

gozzter

August 19, 2015

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Belling the cat, Black box, Canadian Medical Association Journal, evidence of malpractice, Hidden treasure, Jason and the Golden Fleece, knowledge, malpractice, medical incompetence, Medical information, monitoring surgeons, Morbidity and Mortality assessments, Operating Room, outcome assessment, surgery, surgical complications, technology, Tolkien, treasure chest
Placentaphilia

Finally! Somebody has had the courage to think the unthinkable and say what most of us have been too shocked to verbalize, too nauseated to contemplate: that eating your baby’s placenta is not a plus. My risen gorge has been vindicated. An article in the BBC news http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33006384 reports on a review article on placentaphagy…

gozzter

August 18, 2015

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Archives of Women’s Mental Health, BBC, birth, midwife, Northwestern University, placenta, Placenta eaters, placental traditions, placentaphagy, placentaphilia, skin-to-skin contact