I started a new series 2 months ago at Gross Human Body - The Vulgar Tongue.
Each Saturday, I post about a different slang term for anatomy.
This week's was launch, which surprisingly has to do with babies!
I've also written about burker, corporation, occiput, bingy, hammy, cuff, ape leader, trotters, and aris.
If you can't guess what those mean, head over to Gross Human Body and find out!
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| Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash |
The current English vocabulary fails to capture the actual inherent differences in sex and gender in the human population. For too long, society has used a binary to describe a spectrum, and it's causing problems.
In Science, we’re still trying to untangle the traditional conflation of sex and gender. This is in addition to recognizing the hormone-related differences in disease, as well as the injustices of not recognizing the full scope of intersex manifestation.
Read more about Gender vs. Sex in Biology and how genitals aren't used to play sports.
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| Image by Jan Marczuk from Pixabay |
As of July 15, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reported 69 illnesses in 28 U.S. states among consumers of a specific brand of recreational candies — Diamond Shroomz. The company claims that there are no illegal substances in their products, but the University of Virginia Health Toxicology Laboratory found psilocin, an hallucinogenic found in “magic mushrooms”, as a contaminant in their gummies. The company has issued a recall, but not all retailers have pulled the products.
How did this happen? And why does it matter?
Read more at Psilocin in Microdosing Gummies Is Making People Sick
Mosquitoes are probably best known as annoying buzzing insects that interrupt summer outings or quiet evenings by the fire pit. But some members of this family of Diptera kill millions of people a year. The most well known mosquito-borne disease is probably malaria, but there are dozens more, from parasites that infect pets with heartworm to viruses that cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in humans.
Read about why mosquitoes bite, how they spread disease, and the diseases they cause at Sick from Mosquito Bites in Maeflowers on Medium.
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| Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash |
Interested in learning about rare genetic disorders?
I've written on a few of them over at Medium in the last few months. You can find them in the Rare Disease section of the Maeflowers pub or click the links below.
First there was acrocephalosyndactyly type 1 - or Apert Syndrome. It's premature fusion of the bones caused by an autosomal dominant mutation.
Then I wrote about monosomy 9p, also known as Alfi's syndrome. And the rather recently recognized Loeys-Dietz syndrome.
Finally, in recent months, I've also written about the causes of Aicardi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that results in parts of the brain not properly forming.
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| Underside of the brain. Gray’s Anatomy. Public Domain. |
This was originally published in Maeflowers on Medium Aug. 4, 2023
This particular topic is one that seems academic but actually hits close to home. In this politically rife time of book banning and abstinence-only approaches to education crossing swords with hot-headed discussions about abortion, maternity care, and birth control, it seems we’ve completely lost the plot. Let me tell you a story…
Fifth grade was my first year in public school. I had gone to a small church-affiliated school up until that point. We had a very small library of approved books. I had advanced through the curricula for math and reading so I’d go to the older kids’ classrooms for those subjects. We had a full hour of “Religion” every morning and Chapel on Wednesdays. I had never heard of “Health class”. There were 3–5 kids in my class depending on which year it was. It seemed perfectly normal.
I transferred to public school and there were five classrooms of 20 kids each in my grade. We moved between remedial, normal, and gifted classrooms for different subjects and if you needed to be moved up or down you missed what you missed. It was chaotic and inefficient compared to where I had come from. But one day, early in that first semester, they divided the girls and boys into two different classrooms and gave a health presentation about our bodies. I learned about menstruation for the first time — I had my first period just a couple weeks later.
If it hadn’t been for that health presentation about my body in public school, I would’ve woken up one morning thinking I had been mauled in my sleep. As it was I was shocked that it was actually happening. How traumatic to not know what you’re own body is capable of!
I was staying at an older cousin’s house — so she had the supplies I needed and it was all normal to her. I thought I’d have to explain it to my mom because it had never been spoken of — instead she had a party waiting for me to welcome me to womanhood. I was mortified and so very very confused. If it’s such a huge thing, why didn’t I know about it?
Too often we leave young people out of topics that affect them. Under a misguided attempt to shield some mythical concept of innocence, they are left vulnerable to fear, misinformation, and unintended consequences.
Everyone deserves to know about their body so they can make decisions about their health. Despite the stigma that sex ed introduces children to sex (a natural part of life they’re going to see, hear, talk about, and experience eventually anyway), such programs may be the only information an adolescent receives about a major event in their physiological (and psychological) development. Everyone should be armed with factual information about pain, bloating, mood swings, fertility, and cancer, among others.
Adolescents go through major changes, and sometimes they can lead to life-altering shifts. Menstruation should not be a mystical “welcome to womanhood” surprise. Pregnancy should not be a mystical “you’ll feel better once the baby comes” experience. Menopause should not be dismissed as the end of a woman’s worth or hysteria.
Just this year (2023), Washington, DC became the first education jurisdiction in the United States to have specific menstrual health education standards. The. First. Welcome to the 21st century.
It’s not just the young who are ignored. Last year, a clinician at the MayoClinic stepped up to start working on menopause awareness. Not only should women going through “the change” know what to expect and what needs a doctor’s keen eye, there are treatments to make the transition easier and help adjust risk. This is important not just for comfort, but for health and quality of life as the hormones that cause menstruation and menopause have varying associations with cancer. Birth control also plays a role in this risk, with newer versions (progesterone-based) offering protection against uterine cancer but potentially increasing breast cancer. Genetics likely plays a role, which means research is needed. But we’ve traditionally struggled to have female cohorts in studies, now we want them to focus on female-only disorders?! Yes, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
The North American Menopause Society can be a starting point for anyone looking for a doctor or treatment for their hormonal transition.
We need sex ed — the children need it. Right now, schools are the best way to reach a large swath of the population at the right age to ensure that puberty and its ramifications don’t surprise anyone. But I’d suggest classes in communities for adults as well. Maybe at hospitals, like the classes for expecting parents, only it’s basic anatomy and hygiene. “Human Body 101”. We all have a body, even as children. We need to learn how to live with it. Why it’s so shameful to recognize that is beyond me.
If you’re looking for more information, I highly recommend the books written by OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter, particularly The Vagina Bible and Menopause Manifesto.
Also see the statistics on the harm of abstinence-only education at the Guttmacher Institute and the School of Public Health at Columbia
Gross: adjective, 1. indecent, obscene, horrifying. 2. the bulk or whole, e.g., gross anatomy
Are you interested in unique, weird, and fascinating facts about the human body? The Gross Human Body is a biweekly newsletter offering everything you didn't want to know.
On Mondays you have the word of the week (this week's is flatus!). On Thursdays is an informative post about some aspect of the human body - usually some sort of oddity or secretion. Occasionally there will be bonus posts of a news item of interest or factoid.
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