Tag: women’s health
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Dermoid
She was sitting in a black leather chair in the corner by the window holding a magazine in one hand. A small, thin woman in jeans and a black sweat shirt with short blond hair, she watched the room like a television screen. Even in the confusion of a pregnancy-filled waiting room, she looked oddly at ease, content, smiling at the life…
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Fibroids
I sometimes prefer to call them leiomyomas -it’s more descriptive of a condition that involves muscle cells- or even fibromas. I said this by way of beginning an explanation to a patient who was sent to me for them; she looked at me as if I had just sworn at her -belittled her condition. I hadn’t meant to… “Hiding behind medical…
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Hormone Replacement Therapy
Do you remember those Once-upon-a-time stories from when you were a child? They seemed to promise so much and yet, when considered in the light of the next day, offered so little. Sometimes I think that the story of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has a lot in common with those faerie tales. I mean it…
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Midwifery
Perspective is a mysterious thing: a thousand people crossing a single bridge is a thousand people crossing a thousand bridges. We can only see the world through our own eyes; none of us is exempt. When I first graduated, doctors were a cult, and immersed in it as I was, I would not have thought of it as such.…
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The Hormonal IUD
A few of my readers and a not inconsiderable number of my patients have encouraged me to comment on the hormonal IUD (IntraUterine Device). In the UK, it is often known as the intrauterine system, but here in Canada it is best known as Mirena. It is a plastic T-shaped device containing a synthetic progesterone (levonorgestrel)…
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Choice
What do you do if you just don’t like someone -or in the context of a doctor/patient relationship, what should you do? It’s a vexing question at the best of times, but perhaps even more so if you are a patient that has been referred to a specialist. Or you are that specialist… The question assumes a…
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Understanding Risk
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. This quote from Hamlet has always stuck in my memory; it reminds me to be humble, especially in the face of the unknown. Uncertainty has always been anathema to most of us. We need explanations and we crave stability; anything…
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