On the issue of cervical cancer, after remembering Jan Hus – and heresy

The other day I tweeted: July 6 1415 Jan #Hus was burnt at the stake in Konstanz DE for #heresy against #doctrines of #Catholic #Church http://t.co/lM1SlwF

So what, you think to yourself? Okay, sure, you and many others have other things to be concerned about – and who cares about a 15th century heretic? Well, maybe some of us do, and I might on this occasion talk some heresy myself. How ’bout that?

But first, let’s be clear about what heresy is, and what Jan Hus’ heretic speech was about, very briefly. This, in case you don’t read the Wikipedia article http://t.co/lM1SlwF about the medieval thinker, a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, master and rector at Charles University in Prague, chaplain to the royal court, confessor to the queen,  a key predecessor to Luther and the Protestant movement of the 16th century. It was only some 150 years later that “in 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions” [indulgence = remission before God of the temporal punishment due for a sin after its guilt has been forgiven].

Master Jan Hus Preaching At the Bethlehem Chapel by Alphonse Mucha, 1916

The Czech king (“Good King Wenceslas” of the English Christmas carol fame) supported Hus preaching against indulgences and other such corruption of “the substance and spirit of the gospel“, but the church’s hierarchy, having declared war on Naples, needed vast revenues to fund the war effort… When the sales of indulgences continued, riots broke out in Prague. Three pro-Hus students were beheaded, and then buried to public acclaim in the Bethlehem Chapel. The hierarchy countered by excommunicating Hus (for the second time). The archbishop “interdicted” the city; that is, he deprived the people of al the spiritual resources of the church, a terrifying development in the middle ages.

This is citing from http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Heritage/Jan Hus.htm ; there too you can get the rest of the story about the General Council in Constance, which city was then in Switzerland, with Hus guaranteed a “safe conduct”.

You could see at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heresy that the dictionary defines heresy as (1) an opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine, especially of a church or religious system, and (2) as the maintaining of such an opinion or doctrine. In our time, reference could also be to other types of system or establishment.

More to the point of the Master Jan Hus anniversary, and for a scholarly treatise on the punishment that the medieval intellectual received from the then establishment, treat yourself to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_burning .

Preparing_the_execution_of_Jan_Hus --- Müller-Baden, Emanuel (Hrsg.): Bibliothek des allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens, Bd. 2. - Berlin, Leipzig, Wien, Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlaghaus Bong & Co, 1904.

For, now that I gave you a preamble, I’ll go into a bit of potentially or mildly heretical talk myself, in relation to cervical cancer (and other STDs, sexually transmitted diseases). It is not heresy to remind ourselves that the HPV vaccines do not cure cervical cancer nor do they prevent infection by all strains of HPV – but it could be heretical to discuss that there has been a grave concern among the public about adverse effects, injuries and even deaths in some young recipients of the vaccines.

And even more so to point out that behavior control (the personal health practices referred to below) is advisable in view of the fact that the cancer is associated with early start of sexual activity and with promiscuity. “It is well known that more than 90% of cases of anogenital warts are caused by HPV. HPV has been implicated in cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and oropharynx. The virus is a necessary cause of cervical cancer. [Note that] as many as 24 million American adults–that is, 1 in 5–may be infected with HPV.”

Sadly, and dangerously for the health of all of us, the above-cited phrase about “It is well known” is misleading because it pertains only to medical people (not even to all of them) as opposed to the general population. “Knowledge about the relationship of HPV to cervical cancer is low even in the United States and the United Kingdom.” One of the sources, on which this assessment is based, concludes: Cervical cancer risk factor knowledge, especially knowledge about HPV is low, even among women with the history of cervical cancer. Younger and more educated women are more likely to have HPV and cervical cancer knowledge accuracy. The importance of personal health practices and the focus on health education should be equally emphasized to achieve successful cancer prevention through vaccination. [Emphasis mine.]

In May, @bioZhena tweeted some on this subject. –

@bioZhena:                                                                                               Can #cervicalcancer #screening be done #simply at home as part of a precise determination of #fertile days? http://to.ly/xEO #womenshealth

@bioZhena:                                                                                               Why is it important to do regular #cervicalcancer #screening – besides the fact that #Merck says so? #Gardasil Why the Ovulona? http://to.ly/xEO

RT @BelievnTomorrow Julie Hewett by @bioZhena:                        The Pope, Condoms and HPV: What Pope Benedict May Not Know #PreventCC #HPV http://ow.ly/4Vo4W

@bioZhena:                                                                                            #fem http://bit.ly/k7As90 GARDASIL does NOT prevent all of #cervical #cancer Merck says: It’s important to continue regular #cervicalcancer #screening

@bioZhena:                                                                                     #Gynecology experts divided http://to.ly/awuh whether deaths & blood clots serious but rare side effects of the #HPV #vaccine #Gardasil #fem

@bioZhena:                                                                                       #Gardasil unexplained death http://to.ly/aB9A Coroner raises questions about #HPV #vaccination ¬es 78 US deaths related to Gardasil (51 by CDC)

@bioZhena:                                                                                               The Truth About #Gardasil http://to.ly/awu9 by @mariangreene04 No known treatment to help these girls as they suffer in silence #womenshealth

@bioZhena:                                                                                                             http://to.ly/awun reports of injury, death related to #Gardasil #HPV #vaccine It prevents positive #Pap – not CC [Cervical Cancer] Think Ovulona http://to.ly/xEO  AND THINK ABOUT THE BOLD-FONT STATEMENT JUST ABOVE.

Alphonse Mucha: Madonna Of The Lilies

There then appeared a physician’s tweet “in defense of” the HPV vaccines, dismissive of the public concerns:

@DrJenGunter tweeted:                                                                              @bioZhena don’t use media sources as references, there are excellent reviews of VAERS and Gardisil in real journals

@DrJenGunter tweeted:                                                            @bioZhena all the US deaths post Gardisil have been investigated and no causal relationship identified. Several good publications.

@bioZhena responded with a request for the source of the info, i.e., for those “several good publications”.

@bioZhena:                                                                                              Thanx @DrJenGunter for your msg on #Gardasil #Cervarix safety. Would you share references? I got CDC http://to.ly/aB3v                8% VAERS were serious (defined) = 1,468.

@bioZhena:                                                                                @DrJenGunter #Gardasil http://to.ly/aB4c ~half the adverse reactions required a trip to the ER & about 20% of those girls “Did Not Recover”

@bioZhena:                                                                                                 RT @DrJenGunter: @bioZhena 2011 meta analysis in peer reviewed journal > 44,000 girls no increase in adverse events with Gardasil vs. control #vaxfax — Any chance that you’d share the 2011 meta analysis reference, please?

@bioZhena:                                                                                             #Gardasil Gardisil Silgard Re: @DrJenGunter 2 @bioZhena “don’t use media sources as references, there are excellent reviews of VAERS and Gardisil in real journals”. Please cite them disproving deaths, harm. Email:  vaclavkirsner@yahoo.com . I look forward to hearing from you. Hard data is indeed necessary.

Did not receive any, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – in “Reports of Health Concerns Following HPV Vaccination” http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/hpv/gardasil.html – states, among other things (albeit not “in real journals”):

Blood Clots
There have been some reports of blood clots in females after receiving Gardasil. These clots have occurred in the heart, lungs, and legs. Most of these people had a risk of getting blood clots, such as taking oral contraceptives (the birth control pill), smoking, obesity, and other risk factors.
Deaths
As of February 14, 2011, there have been 51 VAERS reports of death among females who have received Gardasil. Thirty two of these reports have been confirmed and 19 remain unconfirmed due to no identifiable patient information in the report such as a name and contact information to confirm the report. A death report is confirmed (verified) after a medical doctor reviews the report and any associated records. In the 32 reports confirmed, there was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine and some reports indicated a cause of death unrelated to vaccination. END QUOTE.

Whereupon @bioZhena suggests: The anti-Hippocrates harm does not go away, and cervical cancer screening is no less needed post-vaccination than without it. That’s why @bioZhena’s interest in the topic, as we propose to introduce a better screen than the Pap – but this requires some funding. With our screen done automatically by women at home (in the background of the primary use of the Ovulona™ monitor), the concern that the Pap frequency would suffer in the West is or can be answered, and providing the screen to the population in the non-West countries is a big plus.
Posted by: http://twitter.com/bioZhena   5/26/2011 12:48:52 AM from Twitzer

@bioZhena:                                                                                                  India halts #HPV #vaccine trial after 6 girls die, US does nothing – 67 deaths http://to.ly/aALf #Gardasil & #Cervarix #cervical #cancer

@bioZhena:                                                                                       #vaxfax #womenshealth Worth repeating: Vaccination does NOT replace routine #cervicalcancer screening – does NOT protect against all #HPV types http://to.ly/aB3v And: Vaccines do NOT cure cervical cancer

@bioZhena:                                                                                              #HPV #PreventCC even vaccinated must screen4CC [must screen for cervical cancer]: 20-30 yrs old screen every 2 yrs, 30-65 yrs every 3 yrs if Pap is normal http://to.ly/aGu3

RT @MedscapeOBGYN by @bioZhena:                                             Cervical Cancer Screening Every 3 Years for Most Women http://bit.ly/mhop42

@bioZhena:                                                                                              #Vaccination does not replace routine #cervicalcancer screening! Vaccines don’t protect against all #HPV types http://to.ly/aB3v & they don’t cure it

Alfons Mucha, Malířství

@bioZhena:                                                                                     Comment from http://to.ly/aCD3 #Cervical #cancer “smear tests are invasive uncomfortable embarrassing & often are badly diagnosed”. Hear hear!

@bioZhena:                                                                                                  Comment from http://to.ly/aCD3 “De-stigmatize #cervical #cancer and do some work to make test less unpleasant – more #women will go”. Hear hear!

@bioZhena:                                                                                       #womenshealth RT @BelievnTomorrow #HPV and #cervical #cancer – (We can do better!) http://ow.ly/506ha ->Easy home screening http://to.ly/weK

@bioZhena:                                                                                                e-tech #medtech 4 getting #women everywhere screened 4 early signs of #cervical #cancer http://to.ly/aGtS  Innocuous, affordable.

That’s it – we can do better than the Pap.

But does anyone hear this?

@bioZhena:                                                                                             What is the significance of the #HPV epidemic? http://to.ly/aB44 Already in 1842 a Verona #doctor observed: #cervicalcancer is due to sexual activity http://to.ly/aB46

#Women who get #STD screening can avoid #infertility caused by #STDs http://to.ly/aIyq  Future home screen http://to.ly/xEO http://yfrog.com/kfgl0dfj

@bioZhena:                                                                                              Here is a thought. Daughters of @BarackObama too will benefit from our #medtech #fertility #cervical #cancer screen. See about the Ovulona at http://to.ly/xEO

Is this a heresy?

Instant detection of pregnancy and of Early Pregnancy Loss, EPL – the adversary of Trying To Conceive, TTC – especially after age 25

Early Pregnancy Loss is also known as #stillbirth or #miscarriage, or Early Embryonic Mortality (EEM), and the Ovulona™ is a tool of evidence-based personalized medicine.

After the optimum fertility age of the early twenties, achieving motherhood gets more difficult. It becomes even more essential than before to know your three fertile days, during which – and only during which – conception can occur.

The simple basic principle is: Fertility status detection must be easy and reliable. PLUS early pregnancy detection is really important, and it should be built-in, an integral part of the conception-aiding tool.

Why? Because:

1) early in pregnancy the conceived baby would be harmed by some of the medications taken by the woman, e.g. by a psychiatric medication with teratogenic effect (harmful to the fetus, causing a congenital disorder);

and 2) because of the annual 600,000 miscarriages – per CDC statistics – out of the 6 million US births, which means that at least some 10% of pregnancies are lost to early pregnancy loss (EPL), miscarriage, stillbirth.

Many EPLs go unnoticed. The EPL is a part of the TTC [Trying To Conceive] or subfertility/infertility problem. Our Ovulona monitor of FOLLICULOGENESIS IN VIVO™ is the prospective solution for managing the problem.

The Ovulona™ detects the 3 fertile days for conception, and it will also automatically detect pregnancy immediately upon conception. Similar to early pregnancy loss — its detection is the inverse of pregnancy detection, which both involve the follicular waves. Like this:

Follicular waves disappear = pregnancy detected

versus

waves reappear in early pregnancy =  early pregnancy loss detected.

Furthermore, the cyclic profile data captured by the Ovulona can be used by your healthcare provider to assess what is going on, and provide more effective help.

DIFFICULT USE OF EXISTING OPKs [Ovulation Prediction Kits] is shown in the following tweet by a @WannaBeMom: “1st month using opk. Do the lines usually start light and then get darker day by day or do they ever go back & forth b4 ovulation?”

Our electronic device will take the WannaBeMoms into a different world of baby-making.

Honey is Sweeter than Blood by Salavador Dali, 1941

For a woman in her 30s who has had a miscarriage or even two or three, “any delay in attempting conception could further decrease the chances of a healthy baby”, says CNN reporting on a medical study, http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/05/miscarriage.try.again.asap/ .

“Study: Women who conceive within six months of miscarriage reduce risk of another.”

November 2016 review and meta-analysis (data on more than a million women): “With an Inter Pregnancy Interval of less than 6 months, the overall risk of further miscarriage and preterm delivery  were significantly reduced.”

These are fundamental principles.

And another principle, not brought up by the CNN or by the study itself, is that a tool for monitoring the early stage of pregnancy for EPL is most desirable. We’d say, mandatory. The Ovulona device monitors (or tracks the process of) folliculogenesis in vivo, which includes the follicular waves that occur after ovulation. The waves disappear upon conception because the reproductive system does not go into another menstrual cycle – it’s pregnant.

In case of EPL, Early Pregnancy Loss (miscarriage), the waves will come back. Early Pregnancy Loss, or Early Embryonic Mortality, is quite a common sad experience of many of us.

The essential point made here is that the woman’s and her physician’s decisions should be guided by the folliculogenesis cyclic profile (and/or its distortion due to distress of any kind). The woman and her doctor should not make decisions or pass recommendations working in the dark, and the data, on which any decision should be based, must be personal to the given patient.

That’s what the Ovulona from bioZhena is for. Personalized medicine. Evidence based medicine.

Automatic pregnancy detection is inherent in the Folliculogenesis In Vivo™ cyclic profile (follicular waves disappear).

This is a screen shot of one of my narrated slides about “what’s going on here” – view (and hear) the slide at https://biozhena.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/single-slide-unprecedented-wealth-of-info-narrated.pps.

Note specifically that: The follicular waves, which occur after ovulation [when the body prepares for the next menstrual cycle], cannot remain in place after fertilization succeeds and conception takes place [because the post-ovulation regime change is even more profound]. That is the principle of instant detection of pregnancy. As opposed to the waiting for the HPT [Home Pregnancy Test] result.

HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin laboratory signature of the biomarker – detected in a pregnant woman’s urine about 2 weeks into her pregnancy by a HPT home-use urine test – as a color change (into which color the HPT reduces the illustrated complex lab signature)

Should the conceptus [product of conception, early embryo] be lost to EEM, Early Embryonic Mortality (miscarriage), the follicular waves come back to be seen by the Ovulona. That’s the principle of early detection of the miscarriage, and of detecting the return of the non-pregnant condition.

Trying to conceive again should be based on the personal FIV™ [FOLLICULOGENESIS IN VIVO] cyclic profile data generated by the woman trying to have a baby. This is a principle of evidence-based medicine. Personalized medicine.

The Ovulona is intended to help people such as those writing in a forum as follows:

My partner and i started trying for a baby in jan And Concieved in the first month. Unfortunately in march at 8 weeks I had a miscarriage. We have been trying since with no luck. Could something be wrong. Please help this is really getting me down. http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=57881&f=5

We got pregnant the first cycle with both my ds and dd. I am most likely moving to cycle #11 with this baby. We did conceive on the second cycle of trying with baby #3 but we miscarried a week later. Nothing since then. I’m not sure why this time is taking so much longer. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?p=16029816

Can anyone advise? My daughter has been trying to get pregnant for several years. Her husband is fine. My daughter has now been asked to go for a scan which scared the life out of me (you automatically think something is horribly wrong). Can someone tell me what the scan is about – what sort of scan is it? http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=31528&f=5

The information contained in the folliculogenesis cyclic profile, as illustrated in the slide captured above, is meaningful and can help the healthcare provider to answer questions such as these.

Major studies decades ago revealed variability of menstrual cycles

But people are still naïve about the basic cause of the difficulty to achieve pregnancy

Sex education at school, its quality or otherwise, is likely to have much to do with fertility problems later in life. Many women (men, too, of course) can use the  keyboard with all their fingers (as well as their thumbs!) but have poor understanding of the basic functioning of their reproductive system.

colonial-classroom.jpg

That ignorance is well known, and is underlying the fertility problems. You should see the pregnancy doctors’ tweets – replying to some incredible questions, and then the talk of various mysteries!

A shining example is this tale of “mysterious conception”. For the whole story see the Alphabet of bioZhena under M, “Mysterious conceptions (OR THE NONEXISTENCE THEREOF)” on page 34 or thereabout, from which I cite:

QUOTE:  It appears that we must dwell on this topic, because of stories and notions propagated in various pertinent circles. This writing has been prompted by page 176 in the excellent 1999 book “Woman” by Nathalie Angier, where the Pulitzer laureate relates the story of the mysterious conception of her only child. Mysterious, because it occurred, she believes and makes her readers believe, outside of ovulation and of the fertile window.

The reason for this entry in the Alphabet of bioZhena is that there is NO SUCH THING AS MYSTERIOUS CONCEPTIONS, there is only lack of information, or ignorance of the facts. We might say, intellectual misconceptions lead to “mysteries” in terms of conception, of babies conceived supposedly when conception was biologically impossible, and vice versa, some women have difficulties conceiving for the same fundamental reason. We shall use Ms. Angier’s case to make this point. UNQUOTE.

To drive the point home, here is an excerpt from John J. McCarthy, Jr. and H.E. Rockette, “Prediction of ovulation with basal body temperature”, Journal of Reproductive Medicine, Volume 31 (No.8), Supplement, 742 – 747, 1986.

Referencing particularly large studies from 1967 and 1977, these BBT experts had this to say all those years ago (and never mind their “prediction” in the cited title whereas the BBT is well known to be no predictor):

QUOTE:  Cycle regularity is often assumed by both women and their physicians. The suggestion, that the BBT graph of the previous cycle can be used to identify the day of ovulation in the current cycle, requires nearly absolute cycle regularity. [However, note this:] The data collected by 1,085 women, who provided at least 6 or more charts each, were studied for cycle length variability. … The cycle length range was more than five days for 56% of the women who submitted 6 graphs, and for 75% of those with 12 graphs. … Absolute regularity was not demonstrated in as few as six cycles. Even when the cycle length that deviated the most was eliminated, less than 1% (8 of 1,085 women) had no variation in cycle length. When the number of cycles was extended to 12, no woman had variability of less than two days in cycle length. END OF QUOTE.

In real life, you realize, no cycle can be eliminated from the experience, and every day matters. Two days are very likely to make the difference between conception and the lack of it. And/or cause an unwanted pregnancy, for that matter.

Middendorf  – On the ball

The above findings are therefore the basis on which we can say quite categorically that nobody is as regular as a metronome (and nobody conceives in an anovulatory cycle), that there is no such thing as absolute regularity, whether 28 days or otherwise.

If you are in the sub-fertile category of people finding it difficult to become pregnant, you are likely to have cycle variability of more than 5 days over those months of your fruitless efforts that define your category. More likely than being one of the 0.74% of the population with no variation in cycle length, which under ideal conditions may also mean no variation in the time of ovulation. Persistent monitoring is well advised.

Parturition means birthing (birth) and dystocia a difficult one

And what is a parturition alarm?

For these and other entries, see the Alphabet of bioZhena at

https://biozhena.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/

Parturition alarm:

This is a concept that has to do with the need to know when labor or delivery is beginning, because the birthing female may be in need of help.

At the time of writing the first Alphabet draft more than five years ago, an Internet search produced only one such technology, a pressure-sensing girth, suitable for the horse breeder only, because it utilizes the fact that the horse mare lies on her side only in the process of parturition. To illustrate, we borrow a nice picture from a more recent publication found in today’s search on parturition alarm, which search still shows a preponderance of equine innovations:

In the originally noted publication, reference was made to some other method that would detect the emergence of the amniotic sac or of the foal from the vulva (vaginal orifice) but that was not a satisfactory solution. In the horse-breeding arena, about 5-6% of births require help. Various approaches to the birth alarm solution have been attempted.

These days, there are quite a few patents etc. found in the parturition alarm search. And even 5 years ago, a patent from New Mexico University should have been found because their intra-vaginal parturition alarm patent (basically for cows) was published in 1987.

In human obstetrics, where most births take place in hospitals, determining the right time of confinement would be very beneficial. bioZhena (and/or its sister company, bioPecus) will investigate our vaginal sensor technology – suitably modified – with a view to developing a parturition alarm applicable to any mammal.

Also relevant in this context is the implication of the Ovulona making available the menstrual cycle (folliculogenesis) data over many months or cycles before conception. This will enable a more accurate anticipation of the EDD, Expected Date of Delivery. You will understand this better below, under Parturition. I highly recommend that you check out Figuring Your Due Date, too – from the Midwife Archives.

Let us put it this way: Since this is the bioZhena blog (and not bioPecus, for veterinary tools), the EDD issue must be addressed first, before any parturition alarm developments. Because we are primarily concerned with the Rerum Naturare Feminina.

And it would still be of great interest to hear from an expert Latinist about the correct way of saying this in plural, the Natural Thing of Women, the Women’s Natural Thing…

This being a reference to /2007/12/16/cervix-uteri-and-seven-or-eight-related-things/ .

Parturition:

The process of giving birth; childbirth. [From Late Latin parturitio, from Latin parturitus, past participle of parturire, to be in labor.]

Parturition is illustrated at http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/esp/2001_saladin/folder_structure/re/m2/s5/ .

The illustration’s legend indicates that physicians usually calculate the gestation period (length of the pregnancy) as 280 days: 40 weeks or 10 lunar months from the last menstrual period (LMP) to the date of confinement, which is the estimated date of delivery of the infant [EDD].

Indubitably, due dates are a little-understood concept:

“Truth is, even if you know the exact date when you ovulated, you still can only estimate the baby’s unique gestational cycle to about plus or minus two weeks” [ http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/dueDates.html ]. Why should that be? Because of the variability of your menstrual cycle lengths? (They vary even if you do not think so).

Statistically, the gestation time for human babies has a mean of 278 days and a standard deviation of 12 days, an uncomfortably large spread. The old Naegele Rule of a 40-week pregnancy was invented by a Bible-inspired botanist Harmanni Boerhaave in 1744 and later promoted by Franz Naegele in 1812. It is still believed to work fairly well as a rule of thumb for many pregnancies. However, the rule of thumb also suggests: “If your menstrual cycles are about 28 days, quite regular, and this is not your first child, your physician’s dating is probably fine. If your cycles are longer or irregular, or if this is your first child, the due date your physician has given you may be off, setting you up for all kinds of problems” (induction, interventions, C-section among them).

This is where the bioZhena technology can be expected to provide help, making it possible to reckon the EDD with recorded menstrual cycle (folliculogenesis history) data rather than merely with the LMP + 280 days. This, once properly researched, may be expected to have a significant impact on obstetric management. — Any comments?

It is ironic that, in this age of technological medicine, American women worry about their birthing process not being allowed to take its own natural course on account of an ancient method of predicting the EDD.

Ironically, the 40 week dogma – which is the gestational counterpart of the unacceptable calendar method of birth control (the so-called “Vatican roulette”) – does not reconcile the 295+ days of the 10 lunar months; and yet, at the same time, the U.S. has an unusually high perinatal death rate, resulting from high statistics of too early (preterm) labor. Quid agitur? See also under Gestation.

Dystocia or birthing difficulty:

Dystocia is difficult delivery, difficult parturition. From Latin dys-, bad, from Greek dus-, ill, hard + Greek tokos, delivery. Calf losses at birth result in a major reduction in the net calf crop. Data show that 60% of these losses are due to dystocia (defined as delayed and difficult birth) and at least 50% of these calf deaths could be prevented by timely obstetrical assistance. The USDA web site http://larrl.ars.usda.gov/physiology_history.htm is apparently no longer there but when it was it indicated that an electronic calving monitor was being developed to determine maternal and fetal stress during calving. These studies are important since they are leading the way for developing methods to reduce the $800 million calf and cow loss that occurs each year at calving in the USA’s beef herds.

In analogy with the superiority of in vivo monitoring of folliculogenesis versus tracking behavioral estrus (heat), in vivo monitoring of the progress towards parturition must be a priori a more promising approach.

The telemetric version of the BioMeter – the animal version of the Ovulona technology – will hopefully provide a tool for these efforts. Once tested on animals, human use will be a logical extension of the endeavor. (Or endeavour, should it take place in Europe! Smiley…)

Comment about the EDD and/or EDC issue, and request for input:

Again, EDD stands for Estimated Day of Delivery, while EDC stands for Estimated Day of Confinement.

Per Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, article Gestation Period and Gestational Age [ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2602/is_0002/ai_2602000272 ], ” a gestation period of thirty-eight weeks (266 days) is calculated for women who are pregnant by a procedure such as in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination that allows them to know their exact date of conception.”

The Ovulona device from bioZhena will provide to the woman user a very simple means to record the day of any intercourse. In every cycle, whether pregnancy is planned or not. This must become a part of the routine. The information will be electronically recorded along with the daily or almost-daily measurement data inherent in the use of the Ovulona. With that menstrual cycling history data, this intercourse-timing information will be available for optional use by the woman’s physician(s).

Therefore, the routine use of the Ovulona will provide for an equivalent of the above-referenced 38-week (266 days) calculation available to the women receiving IVF or artificial insemination.

This alone should be an improvement on the current way of EDD/EDC assessment.

In addition, an investigation should be undertaken into the question of whether any inference can be drawn from the woman’s menstrual cycle history prior to the conceptive intercourse. Any comments on this would be welcome, even about anecdotal or subjective or tentative observations that may be available already. However non-scientific, however tentative, however uncertain an individual answer or input from you may be…

E.g., do women with more or less regular cycles tend to exhibit a regular gestation period, and vice versa?

And, certainly, what evidence is available in medical literature (or maybe in unpublished records?) about the outcomes of the IVF and/or artificial insemination pregnancies, i.e., about their documented gestation periods? Does the 38 weeks projection work? Always? If not always, can anything be correlated with any deviation?

Do women with distinctly irregular menstrual cycles tend to have non-regular gestation periods?

The complicating effect of first versus subsequent pregnancy has already been noted, of course…

Conceivably, there is no such preliminary info available, and we shall have to try and gather even these preliminary data in a systematic manner, but – no question asked, nothing learned… Public or private input would be appreciated.

Birthday, and how it relates to the bioZhena enterprise – eukairosic™ diagnostic tools

Today is a major anniversary related to the bioZhena enterprise. Namely, a round-number (and not small) birthday of the offspring whose begetting had much, if not everything, to do with the inception of the project.

The biologically educated member of the would-be parental team insisted that medical help would have to be the very last resort, as she did not wish to be poked in and subjected to the various medical procedures available in the country of the proud Albion (that, alas, no longer ruled the waves!), where this awakening was going on. The image of what she resented getting into is telling, and it’s not even the whole story.

Awakening on the part of said couple, who till then took steps to minimize or theoretically avoid getting in the family way, owing to circumstances. As in too many instances the world over, the “awakening” was left until somewhat too late. I do not wish to talk about age specifics, but you probably know that particularly female fertility (more accurately put, fecundity or fecundability) decreases starting around or even before the Christ’s age, and so – in retrospect – it was no great surprise to find that achieving pregnancy was not as simple as expected. At the time, actually, this was a great surprise…

At the time, yours truly was not an expert in the field that deals with certain practicalities of the most important aspect of life, by which many of us mean procreation, reproduction, and its management. I am referring to some insight into the practicalities on the female side of things procreative, which insight was not there at the time – but the better half knew the basic fundamental that I now delight in referencing as eukairosic.

In a nutshell, the word refers to the right time, opportune time – exactly what we are about – the strategic or “right time; the opportune point of time at which something should be done.” A window of opportunity is kairos time.

For more about this, the Wikipedia article can be recommended, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos . Let’s cite: Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the “right or opportune moment,” or “God’s time” [sic; thus said – but this should say “gods’ time”]. The ancient Greeks had many gods, and two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies “a time in between”, a moment of undetermined period of time in which “something” special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. END QUOTE.

If you visit that article, you will probably understand why I would like to look at the possibility of adopting as our company logo QUOTE a monochrome fresco by Mantegna at Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (about 1510 C.E.) that shows a female Kairos (most probably Occasio)… UNQUOTE.

You will also appreciate that, since we are not theologians, and because “eu-“ is the Greek prefix meaning well or good or true or easy, my choice of the adjective that we want to trademark as descriptive of bioZhena’s wares is eukairosic™.

And so here, for the sake of accurate definition, is one other item from The Alphabet of bioZhena – /2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/

Fecundability and fecundity:

Fecundability is the probability of achieving pregnancy within one menstrual cycle – about 20% or maybe 25% in normal couples [sic; the probability depends on many factors, including age – vide infra, or see below].

Fecundity is the ability to achieve a live birth.

Fecundability is strongly influenced by the age of the partners, and it is maximal at about age 24. There is a slight decline at ages 24 – 30, and a rapid decline after age 30.

The words are derived from Latin fecundus, fecund, from the root of fetus, via Old French fecond. Fecund means fruitful in children, or prolific.

As for the eukairosic diagnostic tools, their utility goes beyond reproductive management. Due to folliculogenesis (menstrual cycling), even things such as administration of medications or certain diagnostic examinations must be performed at the right time within the menstrual cycle…

Scire quod sciendum

fecundoscitus!!! 🙂

Thus spoke the exegete and father of Barnaby and Petrushka, Vaclav Kirsner © 2007

 ‘To know what is to be known’.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and PMDD

For these and other terms, see the Alphabet of bioZhena at /2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/

The bioZhena technology is useful beyond the fertility-tracking primary purposes

(i.e., beyond aiding conception and aiding birth control).

“PMS is one of the most common disorders treated by reproductive endocrinologists”

PMS is a combination of emotional, physical, psychological, and mood disturbances that occur after ovulation and normally end with the onset of the menstrual flow. The symptoms include abdominal bloating, breast tenderness, headache, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, and depression.

Why is this serious?

At least 30% of menstruating women experience distressing premenstrual symptoms that compel them to seek their doctor’s help, and as many as 60% to 75% of women experience some of the PMS symptoms. Of these, about 2% to 10% experience severe problems and functional impairment, which is called the premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PMDD.

According to the PMS expert, Dr. Joseph Mortola, PMS is one of the most common disorders treated by reproductive endocrinologists. Diagnosis depends on prospective recording of symptoms, and a documented symptom-free interval during the follicular (pre-ovulation) phase of the menstrual cycle.

PMS/PMDD is an entity that must be distinguished from (and treated differently than) anxiety disorders and depression. However, the research is still in its infancy. According to Dr. Mortola, the realization of the effectiveness of certain new drugs such as the GnRH analogs combined with estrogen/progestin replacement therapy is an important area for future research, where the optimal dosages of replacement therapy have yet to be determined. This is similar to the situation with perimenopausal HRT.

Therapeutic treatment of PMDD requires to ascertain whether the symptoms are unique to the premenstrual (post-ovulation) phase or not. This is to differentiate PMDD from clinical depression, for proper treatment. Current medical practice (both primary care and particularly psychiatry, which steps in afterward in some of the difficult cases) utilizes nothing better than the discredited calendar-based rhythm method rather than a rigorous technique for ovulation detection.

Needed: Differential diagnosis

Effective medical help for female patients requires differential diagnosis, for which the recorded symptoms must be correlated with the progress of the menstrual cycle (folliculogenesis). This correlation has not been available up to now and the diagnostician can only guess at how the scores of symptoms relate to the course of the menstrual cycle (folliculogenesis).

Differential diagnosis is essential because a clinical study found that more than 75% of patients presenting with the complaints of PMS had another condition that either could account for the symptoms or that required correction before an accurate diagnosis of PMS could be made [Mortola, JF: “Issues in the diagnosis and research of premenstrual syndrome”, Clin. Obstet. Gynecol. 35:587-598, 1992].

The physician user of our Ovulograph^TM technology will have the benefit of working with accurate and comprehensive data on each patient’s menstrual cycle history, and will be in a better position to provide effective help.

How Ovulograph^TM will help

Two examples of ovulographic correlation of symptoms (symptometric data, here the COPE scores) and folliculogenesis (Ovulona probe readings) can be seen below and – along with the answer to What is the meaning of symptometric data – in the document on the accompanying Page “What is symptometric?” at https://biozhena.wordpress.com/what-is-symptometric/.

Ovulographic correlation of folliculogenesis and symptometric data – click to open a clear PDF version of the image

In the first example, the cumulative COPE score rises on day 13, which is 3 days before ovulation (day 16), and we note that this is a case of an irregular cycle with a delayed ovulation. In the second example, the COPE score rises on day 17, which is 2 days after the day of ovulation (day 15).

We observe that, in the first example, in the absence of the Ovulona probe data, the “traditional” method of counting back 14 days from the first day of menstrual bleeding (namely, to day 12) would lead to the wrong conclusion that the score rise on day 13 is post-ovulatory.

Only the second example (documented post-ovulation rise of the COPE score) appears to be a case of PMS.

“Psychiatric instruments” will become women’s healthcare tools

COPE score refers to the well known “psychiatric instrument”, the Calendar of Premenstrual Experiences (COPE), described in a paper by Beck LE, Gevirtz R, Mortola JF: “The predictive value of psychosocial stress on symptom severity in premenstrual syndrome”, Psychosom. Med. 52:536, 1990.

The bioZhena technology should have a positive impact in the PMS/PMDD arena.

Two key words are pertinent in this context, namely psychoneuroendocrinology (or even psycho-neuro-immuno-endocrinology) and the much shorter psychosomatic, as in psychosomatic medicine.

See also “On the importance of symptometric monitoring” https://biozhena.wordpress.com/about/about-biozhena-tech-pitch/importance-of-symptometry/ .

Infertility and A.R.T. or Assisted Reproductive Technologies

For these and other entries, see the Alphabet of bioZhena at

/2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/

 

 

Infertility:

Clinical infertility is the inability of a couple to achieve a pregnancy or to carry a pregnancy to term after one year of unprotected intercourse. If the difficulty to conceive lasts less than a year, the condition is referred to as reduced fertility or sub-fertility (see the previous post at /2007/12/14/sub-fertility-or-reduced-fertility/ ). Clinical infertility is classified further into male infertility, female infertility, couple infertility, and unexplained infertility. Studies have shown that in the past 50 years the quality and quantity of sperm has dropped by 42% and 50% respectively. In the past 20 years the decrease in sperm counts has occurred at a rate of 2% annually. For further information refer to Xeno-estrogens (see the Alphabet of bioZhena at /2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/ and the web reference therein).

In the U.S. alone, of the 6.7 million women with fertility problems in 1995, 42% had received some form of infertility services. The most common services were advice and diagnostic tests, medical help to prevent miscarriage, and drugs to induce ovulation [Fam. Plann. Perspect. 2000 May-Jun;32(3):132-7].

 

 

 

A Glossary of Infertility Terms and Acronyms published by the InterNational Council on Infertility Information Dissemination is available at http://www.inciid.org/glossary.html .

 

 

ART or Assisted Reproductive Technologies:

 

Also referred to sometimes colloquially as the “heroic procedures”, they are used to treat infertility patients. ART refers to all techniques involving direct retrieval of oocytes (eggs) from the ovary. They are: artificial insemination (AI), IVF (in vitro fertilization), TET (tubal embryo transfer), ZIFT (zygote intra-fallopian transfer), GIFT (gamete intra-fallopian transfer), ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection), blastocyst transfer and other infertility treatments, such as IUI (intra-uterine insemination), assisted hatching (AZH), and immature oocyte maturation (IOM).

Web reference: http://www.ebiztechnet.com/cgi-bin/getit/links/Health/Reproductive_Health/Infertility/Education/Assisted_Reproductive_Technologies/

 

 

Sub-fertility or Reduced Fertility

For this and other entries, see the Alphabet of bioZhena at

/2007/11/28/the-alphabet-of-biozhena/

Subfertility (THE INITIAL TARGET OF BIOZHENA):

A state of less than normal fertility but not as bad as clinical infertility. Also called reduced fertility, it refers to the inability to conceive for more than about 4 months but not more than a year (which then becomes classified as clinical infertility, the inability to conceive after a year of unprotected intercourse). It is estimated that as many as one in six couples (17%) have difficulty in conceiving the number of children they want when they want them.

Again: Research suggests that between 14 and 17 percent of couples are affected by subfertility at some time during their reproductive lives. In fact, only eight out of 10 couples trying for a baby do get pregnant within 12 months. For approximately 10 percent of couples, pregnancy will still not have occurred after two years (clinical infertility). Sometimes the label of subfertility is used for couples who have had regular unprotected sexual intercourse for all of two years without conception taking place. This is a reflection of the fact that subfertility is becoming more and more commonplace.

According to one source ( http://www.womens-health.co.uk/ ), even for a healthy fertile couple, the ‘per month’ success rate (conception rate) is only around 15-20%, “so it is not at all uncommon to take some months to conceive”. Overall, around 70% of couples will have conceived by 6 months (a 30% subfertility rate). 85% conceive within 12 months (a 15% subfertility rate, “for the less impatient”). And 95% will be pregnant after 2 years of trying (technically, this is a conservatively estimated infertility rate of 5% – c.f. the 10% referenced above; or, this statistic might be perhaps considered the subfertility rate for the angelically patient). The monthly success rate in this population is 8%, and this statistic drops progressively as time goes on.

As for possible causes of difficulty to conceive, alcohol consumption, even in small amounts, can reduce a woman’s chance of conceiving by more than 50 percent, and smoking “…drastically reduced fertility in our sample”, as wrote a team from the Baltimore-based Health Care Financing Administration, in a report published in “Fertility and Sterility” (1998; 70: 632-637).

In terms of help, many people believe that fertility drugs, even when effective, remove conception from the intimate relationship between the partners, which means that it is to some extent beyond their control. Besides this loss of control, there are drawbacks and disadvantages to all forms of medically assisted conception. Some of them have potentially serious long-term effects. Consequently, many couples prefer to avoid these risks.

Women who describe overcoming infertility with the help of alternative therapists went to them because they had been offered drugs to induce ovulation but were reluctant to take them, when they learned of the possible side effects. Disturbing reports have appeared about the long-term as well as short-term effects of assisted conception. Increased miscarriage levels and premature and multiple births are not only very distressing but have considerable cost implications, both personally and societally (i.e., this is a public health issue). Babies born prematurely, or in multiple births, are at a disadvantage from the start. There are also some reports of increased rates of ovarian cancer in women who have taken fertility drugs, and of cancer in the babies of mothers who have had ovulation induced by drugs.

Subfertile couples are naturally interested in methods and tools that can help them to overcome the difficulty to conceive. The endocrinologist professor Brown may be quoted: “Failing to conceive when wanted is stressful and therefore favours infertility. It should be remembered that, apart from a few conditions such as blocked fallopian tubes, absent sperm and continued anovulation, most couples will conceive eventually without help. However, the modern expectation is one of immediate results, and the main function of assisted reproduction techniques is therefore to shorten the waiting time for conception.” To which we would add that bioZhena aims to offer a more affordable and safer alternative.

With the mentioned statistics of the fertile-age women suffering from the subfertility problem, this is a truly large opportunity in a constantly renewing and growing market. We are talking about 9 or 10 or even 18 million women in the USA alone – or quite possibly many more, taking into account all the impatience and demand for instant gratification in people today; plus about 50% of the 10 million of clinically infertile US couples, that is those who cannot afford the very costly ART treatments. [A.R.T. = Assisted Reproductive Technologies.]

This is the initial, early-stage, mission of bioZhena Corporation: To provide a definitive timing aid to couples experiencing difficulties in conceiving a baby. See also the entry for the Ovulona, where it is explained that, in this situation of reduced fertility, the basic problem is the proper timing of the intercourse.

 

BIOZHENA’S MISSION: A HEALTH TOOL FOR EVERY WOMAN

Far more than a tool to aid achieving and avoiding pregnancy

In the early years of the project, I published here a modestly formulated version of bioZhena’s vision statement. That was before a female OBGYN physician joined the team and together we broadened the vision and mission.

With the “Ambassador for the Vagina” it became plausible to fully explore the broad applicability of the technology, and to plan pregnancy monitoring and the transformation of the daily-inserted Ovulona™ into the semi-permanently worn telemetric cervical ring version that Kim the OBGYN named the Halo™.

The Ovulona™ and logo

For healthcare providers the Ovulograph™, and the Halo™ cervical ring for all women

Our vision is to create a product that practically every woman will want to use. The woman of the 21st century is envisaged to become accustomed to using her daily Ovulona and/or Halo self-check about as routinely as she is using her toothbrush.

It is pertinent to note that a May 2017 Human Factors in Computing Systems study found that the smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles “often disappoint users with a lack of accuracy… and an emphasis on pink and flowery form over function and customization”. Significantly, too, “teenage girls were relying on smartphone apps as their primary form of birth control”. Such evidence indicates that the market is primed for the bioZhena technology breakthrough.

The Ovulona™/Halo™ will be useful to the point of becoming an essential tool of women’s health management, both at home and, when appropriate, via the Ovulograph™, for the provider in the doctor’s office – and for the payer, too. Accordingly, the Ovulona will be supremely user-friendly and affordable for everyone.

See and listen to the slides in the link at the end of the post.

 

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Go to New mostly narrated slides 2017

Slide show takes a few moments to open

The Alphabet of bioZhena — Abeceda bioŽeny

THE ALPHABET OF BIOZHENA WITH CLICKABLE TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Alphabet of bioZhena

A glossary of biomedical terms for bioZhena Corporation

The glossary-and-primer of bioZhena is attached; click on one of the links above.

The glossary is just that! For more details with illustrations and more substantial treatment of certain topics, please go to the the blog, starting perhaps with the Table of Contents . Or try one of the two About pages – one about the blogger and the issues covered here , and the other About bioZhena – tech pitch . See if both these pages include the link to a quick pictorial summary of the bioZhena project, called Tweetroducing bioZhena in 8 slides = https://biozhena.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/tweetroducing-biozhena-in-8-slides-e19e2on011820.pps

In THE ALPHABET we expand on – and explain the meaning of – the one brief sentence: We have invented the new technology of ovulography™, fundamental to women’s health and lifestyle.

Ovulography is bioZhena’s proprietary technology for monitoring folliculogenesis in vivo. To tell the woman user, which are the three days when she can become pregnant (and the rest of the month when she cannot). And there is more, much more, which is what THE ALPHABET OF BIOZHENA is about. As is the whole of bioZhena’s Weblog .

This glossary/primer of bioZhena Corporation is no Alphabet of Ben Sira — an anonymous work, which has been dated anywhere from the seventh to the eleventh century, and which tells the story of the conception, birth, and early education of the prophet Ben Sira.

There were twenty-two stories (mimicking the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet) to answer the questions posed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Apart from being notable for the story of Lilith, the primordial first wife of Adam, what makes this ancient text particularly unique and fascinating is its irreverent tone …And, we get to learn of the angels who are in charge of medicine: Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof!

For more information on the ancient and irreverent Alphabet of Ben Sira, go to http://www.google.com/search?q=Alphabet%20of%20Ben%20Sira !

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And now, as the ancients would say, remotum joco (roughly, “joking aside”):

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A simple description and pictorial representation of the female reproductive organs is available at the American Medical Association’s web site “Atlas of the Body: Female Reproductive Organs”: http://www.medem.com/MedLb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ8QKJ56JC&sub_cat=2

A more detailed treatment of Sexual Reproduction in Humans is given in http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/S/Sexual_Reproduction.html

For a particularly enjoyable, stimulating and informative source on the intimate geography of womanhood, reach for Natalie Angier’s Pulitzer Prize winning book “Woman – An Intimate Geography”, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999, ISBN 0-395-69130-3. An excellent background read for the appreciation of bioZhena. But read Mysterious conceptions, under M.

For all that, go to the attached Alphabet of bioZhena file: The Alphabet of bioZhena (glossary/primer with clickable table of contents in PDF format).