Vaginismus

My apologies for an absence! There were finals, work, a brief foray at an ivy league university, and two family emergencies–and my birthday was a week ago. Time marches on. Now I am back to talk about a subject I know quite a bit about–vaginismus.
Vaginismus is a disorder of the muscles in [...]

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Fallopian Tubes

What springs to mind when Fallopian tubes are mentioned?  That they “connect” the ovaries to the uterus which leads finally to the vagina and the outside of the body?  Perhaps you think about ectopic pregnancies, as most ectopic pregnancies are indeed “tubal” pregnancies.  Whatever you may think of when Fallopian tubes are brought up, they [...]

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The First Oophorectomy

Having had an oophorectomy, I am incredibly interested in the surgical removal of ovaries.  Removal of one ovary is called a unilateral oophorectomy; removal of both is bilateral.  Usually, when an ovary is removed, the fallopian tube associated with it is also removed.  This is called a salpingo-oophorectomy.  My interest usually lies in new surgical [...]

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Vaginal Rejuvenation

While there are a myriad of possible gynecological surgeries, which ones do women elect to have performed?  In the past tubal ligation and varying degrees of hysterectomy have been the most popular elective gynecological surgeries.  In the 1990s, though, elective c-sections began to boom.  Recently, however, a growing movement has developed in backlash to the [...]

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Diaphragms

Diaphragms are a popular type of contraception that consist of a sheath of silicone or latex around a
circle-molded spring that is placed in the vagina prior to intercourse to prevent sperm from entering the uterus.  Having discussed with many women my age various types of contraception, the diaphragm is probably one of the least discussed [...]

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Crabs: What Are They?

In school growing up there were numerous crab jokes made by my classmates.  If we wanted to give the ultimate insult we would say, “S/he’s got crabs.”  Of course, we didn’t really know what crabs were.  We knew vaguely they were something one acquired in the genital region generally from a sexual encounter and are [...]

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Introduction to the Cervix

The word cervix has only recently come to refer almost exclusively to the portion of the uterus that narrows between the vagina and the body of the uterus (corpus uteri). Cervix is from the Latin for “neck” and uterus is from the Latin for “womb.” Thus, the cervix is the neck [...]

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History of the Pap Smear

Let’s talk about how Pap smears got to where they are today. A lot of people never consider the name of the test and where it originates. Even ones who do think about the name assume Pap smears have something to do with human “PAP”illoma virus, or other such gynecological term contain the [...]

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Oncofertility: A Budding Field

So, another topic brought up by my time at the bioethics conference in Cleveland:  oncofertility.  I had often thought about this very idea, but didn’t realize there was a field, the name coined of 2006, addressing just this.  Basically, it is what its name indicates–fertility options for persons with cancer.  De facto, it addresses women’s [...]

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