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musingsonwomenshealth.com

Reflections on 40 years as a doctor in Women's Health

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  • The Mystery of Pain

    Obstetricians and midwives are, at times, unavoidable witnesses to pain; they wade through it, explain it, try to alleviate it, but never experience it because the physical sensation of pain cannot be transferred to anyone else. It is the one constant attendant in the labour room, the uninvited guest that, welcome or not, arrives early…

    gozzter

    June 19, 2014
    Uncategorized
    Elaine Scarry, etymology of the word pain, experience of pain, language of pain, McGill Pain Questionnaire, metaphor, metaphor of pain, midwives, mystery, Nietzsche on pain, obstetricians, Pain, pain has no voice, Physical pain, Shakespeare on pain, Theory of Mind, Virginia Woolf
  • Prostitution Laws

    Okay, I think you’re going to have to help me with this one. Suppose you have a product the courts have decided you are legally entitled to sell, but a new law is enacted making it both illegal to advertise or purchase it… Am I missing something here? In December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada, in…

    gozzter

    June 12, 2014
    Uncategorized
    Canada, government, New Zealand prostitution law, nordic model, prostitution, prostitution laws, Supreme Court, Supreme Court decisions, Supreme Court of Canada
  • Violence Against Women

    According to a recent meta-analysis by the World Health Organization, one in three women worldwide are subject to intimate partner violence (IPV) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6140/1527.short . And it’s not just a third world problem either, as we Canadians with our often parochial outlook would no doubt like to believe. True, some countries seem to be over-represented: ‘East…

    gozzter

    June 5, 2014
    Uncategorized
    Aboriginal women, British Medical Journal, intimate partner violence, IPV, meta-analysis, screening for domestic violence, Violence, violence against women, WHO, women, World Health Organization
  • The Wisdom of Experience

    Sometimes, I feel like a fake. I suppose the ability to see oneself from various angles is a gift of age, but I rather enjoyed myself more when I was sure of who I was –or at least didn’t trouble myself with the question. And yet, to dig for the core is to taste the…

    gozzter

    May 30, 2014
    Uncategorized
    Age, alternative therapies, doctors, experience, listening, menopause, menopause treatments, Wisdom
  • Should IVF be denied to Obese Women?

    Obesity has a long and chequered history. Different cultures have both defined it and viewed it differently: in some it was a sign of wealth and was seen as desirable; in others, a sign of weakness, dysfunction, sloth. I use the past tense advisedly, given the rise of fast food outlets throughout the world and…

    gozzter

    May 22, 2014
    Uncategorized
    autonomy, Beneficence, BMI, cultural differences, hypertension, infertility, IVF, IVF clinics, medical ethics, Non-Maleficence, obese women, obesity, obesity complications, pregnancy complications, weight
  • The Human Microbiome

        I have always been excited by a new paradigm. Captivated by its novelty. Intrigued by the realization that what we had previously considered to be self evident and true was not sacrosanct. Immutable. Of course I have to confess that it is often the perspective that interests me: that it sometimes okay to question the…

    gozzter

    May 15, 2014
    Uncategorized
    bacteria, bacterial organ, germ theory, germs, micro-organisms, microbes, microbiome, paradigm, theory
  • Performance Anxiety

    I have recently developed performance anxiety -no, not the wide-eyed, heart-thumping, late night Viagra-requiring variety… although that does sound interesting. And not the more artistic type you would expect to get while standing behind the curtain backstage before walking into the spotlight to the expectant applause of a full theater. I don’t have that kind of talent. And anyway…

    gozzter

    May 8, 2014
    Uncategorized
    digital, doctor-patient relationship, EMR, geek, medical challenges, nerd, performance anxiety, pocket protector, Viagra
  • The Cancer We Think We Know…

    In those early, once-upon-a-time days when I thought I knew everything and before humility had forced itself upon my stage, a haggard middle aged woman named Mary walked into my office a week early for her appointment. It was in the young days of my career and as it happened, a patient who was scheduled for that…

    gozzter

    May 2, 2014
    Uncategorized
    cancer, certainty, feelings about cancer, humility, knowing cancer, operations for cancer, ovarian cysts, ovary cancer
  • Human Embryology -Ontologically Awkward Thoughts

    Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny: foetal development goes through the same stages as evolution would have -Haeckel’s theorem. It’s a phrase -one of the few- I remember from my embryology classes in medical school. It’s a bit simplistic, of course, and long since discredited but nonetheless illustrative of some evolutionary phylogenetic similarities. It demonstrates the potential for variation in the…

    gozzter

    April 25, 2014
    Uncategorized
    embryology, evolution, foetal development, human embryology, ontogeny, Ontology, phylogeny
  • Are Human Rights Contingent?

    Here’s a question: are human rights contingent or emergent? In other words, do they depend on the circumstances and the cultural milieu? Do they depend on the context in which the events in question are imbedded, and maybe even the time-frame –the Epoch? Or, do they exist a priori and exist no matter what the circumstances and so transcend any particular event? An existential…

    gozzter

    April 17, 2014
    Uncategorized
    circumstances, contingent, controversy, culture, emergent, history, Human rights, law, rights, Trinity Western, Trinity Western University
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