Hyperemesis gravidarum, more commonly known as severe morning sickness, is the type of intractable vomiting that lasts well beyond morning and well after the first trimester. It affects up to 2% percent of all pregnant women and often leads to serious maternal and fetal health complications, including mortality. Although many theories abound, hormone changes and […]
In the course of trying to figure out why I have certain symptoms normally associated with intersex conditions, but do not fit the criteria for any of the conventional genetic causes of intersex, I have stumbled across what appears to be a gigantic medical and pharmaceutical industry disaster that has been quietly unfolding ever since […]
DES is a synthetic estrogen-like compound developed in 1938 by English chemist Charles Dodd. German chemists under the employ of the Nazis were able to synthesize DES cheaply and easily from coal tar and used it to fatten livestock. There was a problem, however. The young boys who cared for the livestock, and thus were […]
Over the last several months, I have been exploring the origins of the pharmaceutical malfeasance. Thalidomide, the drug given to pregnant women to prevent morning sickness, stands as one example, in a long line of examples, of the complete lack of scruples associated with this industry. Here is a snippet of what I am working […]
Recently, I stumbled upon a 2006 editorial in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention circulating on social media. It introduced research linking infant leukemia to maternal pharmaceutical and environmental exposures. Digging deeper into the research highlighted by the editorial and the studies published subsequently over the last several years, led me to a very […]
In my ongoing research into in connections between maternal DES exposure and male sexual development, I recently obtained a copy of the 1953 Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR), a compendium of pharmaceutical products listed together with their manufacturer’s recommended usage. “Physician’s Desk Reference is published annually by Medical Economics, Inc., through the courtesy of the manufacturers […]
I found a pair of slides illustrating an important scientific discovery made in 1959, which became known as the Organizational-Activational hypothesis. A team of scientists experimenting on guinea pigs, discovered that hormones early in life play a crucial role in determining the sex of the brain, and whether an animal will have male or female […]
I had the great pleasure of speaking to the Washington Alliance for Responsible Midwifery (WARM) recently about re-framing the concepts around maternal health and understanding the biases in medical research. One of the great questions that has been occupying my time lately is understanding how the frameworks for understanding medical concepts emerge. Shorthand: how do […]