Hypospadias describes a penile condition in which closure of the structures around the urethra are incomplete. This cause a variety of problems, depending on where the failure to close occurs, which may cause the affected patient to sprinkle instead of urinate, as well difficulties with sexual performance. Incidence of this problem has almost doubled in Sweden since 1990. According to The Independent, Swedish researchers are unable to determine the cause of this marked increase in hypospadias. Numerous possibilities are bandied about in the article, leaving out the most obvious “endocrine disruptor” of all: hormonal birth control. For example, Medroxyprogesterone comes with a hypospadias and genital malformation warning, and there’s no way to suck the ‘Depo’ shot back out if a woman becomes pregnant after administration.
Tag: birth defects
Consequences of Methotrexate Use for Pregnancies Misdiagnosed as Ectopic
A group of medical researchers in the U.S. and Canada have collected data on the catastrophic consequences of using methotrexate for pregnancies misdiagnosed as ectopic.
The reasearchers concluded, based on the always dire outcomes, and frequent misdiagnosis, up to (40-50% in the ER), of ectopic pregnancy, that a non-judgmental system to allow further collection data on errors in the use of methotrexate needs to be collected. Fear of reprisal severely inhibits the reporting of these cases.
Ectopic pregnancy, occurring when the embryo develops outside the uterus, is often treated by salpingectomy (removal of the embryo and fallopian tube), salpingotomy (less drastic), or the use of methotrexate to cause demise of the embryo, and resorption. Use of this drug has increased drastically in the last 10 years as a means to preserve fertility for the mother. Controversy surrounds the treatment for those who view it as a direct and specific attack on the developing human, or for those who cite the probability of incorrect use. Diagnostic emphasis in recent years seems more geared towards avoiding missed cases of ectopic pregnancy, rather than being most certain that the pregnancy is actually located outside of the uterus.
The authors argued that ectopic pregnancy should be substantiated by a confirmatory ultrasound, and methotrexate used only after careful consideration. They cited the alway disastrous results of misapplied methotrexate treatment, including deaths of otherwise healthy unborn babies, or babies born with severe skeletal and cardiac defects.
Does this mean that stat orders for methotrexate from emergency departments, and orders of this drug for “possible ectopic pregnancy” should cease altogether?
Wall Street Journal Takes On the Male Biological Clock
The Ticking Male Biological Clock – WSJ.com.
Yes……….. guys have a biological clock too. A newer field of study is correlating male age with accumulated mutations in the sperm, and increased probabilities of birth defects.
Keith Olberman, Just another Failure of the Education System
Over at Newsbusters, Noel Shepherd caught excessively liberal Olberman displaying that he has no understanding of the causes of birth defects, and those listed as being influenced by prior abortions. Boy-Keith was trying to imply that the association of abortions with some birth defects suggests that Palin might have had an abortion.
Abortions can cause damage to the reproductive tract, most particularly increasing the problem of incompetent cervix. This leads to premature births, and the related congenital problems associated with prematurity. There are also some troubles associated with failed attempts to abort medically.
Down Syndrome is most often the result of trisomy 21, (three copies of 21st chromosome). This follows a nondisjunction event, during meiotic division to produce the gametes (sperm or oocytes) , unevenly allocating three copies of that chromosome to a resultant human individual. The entire chromosome need not be involved, There is Robertsonian translocation in which the critical part of the 21st chromosome might be attached to the 14th chromosome for example. This can be displayed phenotypically as down syndrome. There is also a minor mechanism producing Mosaicism, in which uneven chromosomal distribution occurs in cell divisions of the developing embryo.
You can see from the above mechanistic explanations that these have nothing to do with prior abortion events.
The imperfect chromosomal distributions occuring in the cell divisions are associated with pregnancies later in life, and this was the case for Palin’s fifth child, Trig.
Olberman has displayed that he has NO idea what causes Down syndrome, and was too lazy to check before he made a fool of himself.
Anyone with energy and Olberman’s email address, feel free to forward this to him, if it so amuses you.