Category Archives: Gynecology

Question Kegels?

By The Midwife | Published: December 3, 2011

One of my pregnant patients was asking me the other day about what your vagina is like after giving birth.  I reassured her that the tissue of the vagina and the perineum usually comes together very easily after a delivery, even if she tore, and that the perineum usually heals beautifully after a birth (a […]

Also posted in Miscellaneous, Postpartum, Research, Women's Health | 1 Comment

My Beautiful Cervix

By The Midwife | Published: December 8, 2008

This is a site I found through Women’s Health News, but I felt it really deserved a post all its own.  A midwifery student decided to take a picture of her cervix every day for one entire menstrual cycle, and the pictures are absolutely amazing.  I want to print them out and show them to […]

Also posted in Fertility and Conception, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Ovarian Cysts

By The Midwife | Published: October 9, 2007

I got a phone call last night from a good friend from college, who has just recently been diagnosed with an ovarian cyst, and had been told by her doctor not to worry too much about it and was prescribed birth-control pills to help manage the symptoms. She wanted a second opinion, and I told […]

Also posted in Primary Care, Questions, Research, Women's Health | 8 Comments

Texas HPV vaccine controversy

By The Midwife | Published: February 7, 2007

Texas governer Rick Perry has recently signed an Executive Order requiring all girls between the ages of 11 and 12 to be vaccinated with Gardasil, Merck’s new HPV vaccine, which is currently the only vaccine on the market that treats HPV (other HPV vaccines from other companies are in the pipeline and soon to be […]

Also posted in Choice, Politics, Primary Care, STIs, Women's Health | 5 Comments

Not everyone loves Gardasil

By The Midwife | Published: June 28, 2006

In addition to the moral debate that surrounds giving Gardasil, Merck’s new HPV vaccine, to young girls, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is also urging against a “universal use” recommendation by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on June 29th. The NVIC doesn’t feel that Merck’s clinical trials proved that the HPV […]

Also posted in Midwifery, New Products, Politics, Primary Care, STIs, Women's Health | 8 Comments

Cervical cancer vaccine approved

By The Midwife | Published: June 19, 2006

The FDA has recently approved Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine that helps prevent cervical cancer caused by Human Papilloma virus (HPV) strains 6, 11, 16 and 18. This is incredibly exciting news, since this is the first vaccine to target cervical cancer, and the first ever vaccine for cancer, period (amazing! a vaccine for cancer!!!). The vaccine […]

Also posted in New Products, Primary Care, STIs, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Reassuring women with abnormal paps

By The Midwife | Published: May 2, 2006

My friend and I spent a fair chunk of time this morning going over the management of abnormal pap smears. How ironic, then, to come home and turn on my computer and find this story on the BBC website about the high levels of anxiety women feel when they’re told they have an abnormal pap […]

Also posted in Primary Care, Research, Women's Health | 1 Comment

FemSpec and Beyond

By The Midwife | Published: January 26, 2006

Our midwifery department arranged a special treat for us today: a demonstration of the brand new speculum that’s out on the market, FemSpec. Looks pretty strange, doesn’t it? Has anyone ever used one of these things? Supposedly it works much better than a regular speculum because it doesn’t allow the vaginal walls to collapse inward […]

Also posted in New Products, Primary Care, Women's Health | Leave a comment

The Secret Garden

By The Midwife | Published: January 12, 2006

Today was devoted to the flora of the vagina: what’s normal, what’s not, what happens when yeast decides to take up residence, or when the lactobacilli flee in droves, or when all sorts of unfriendly sexually transmitted diseases invade. Our professor referred to the vagina as the secret garden, and that’s such a beautiful name […]

Also posted in Academia, Education | Leave a comment

Vaginotastic

By The Midwife | Published: October 24, 2005

Our peer pelvics are tomorrow, and the check-out exam for my partner and I is this Thursday, which is when we’ll perform our head-to-toe assessment, pelvics and all, in front of our professors! So, I’ll be seeing a lot of vaginas this week (although, given my job, I tend to see a lot of vaginas […]

Also posted in Academia, Education, Feminism | 1 Comment