Women's Health Blog

Like many of my patients, my life revolves around information. Personally, I use the same technology as most of you to keep track of obligations and loved ones. Professionally, the Houston Fertility Center team uses technology and constant communication to manage our patients' treatment plans.

Here's a situation that illustrates how fantastic medical advances don't always translate to patients benefiting in the clinic. For that to happen, the science needs to be carried along a pipeline of practitioner communication, all the way to the patient.

I know what you're thinking: How can an issue like infertility teach us about customizing healthcare? And how can the assisted reproduction field help raise standards in women's healthcare? But it can, and it does… or it should.

Orthodox Jewish women may follow an ancient tradition that requires sexual abstention during her menses and for the seven days that follow. Once the woman has completed this, she immerses in a ritual bath to purify her soul and then is encouraged to have intercourse with her husband but when your patient experiences infertility, how do you treat the infertility while maintaining respect for her religious traditions?

As a gynecological oncologist, I often see patients who want to be tested for cancer because a close family member has just been diagnosed. Understandably, they want to be sure they don’t have it.

The fibroid is a tumor that is very frequently encountered in the uterus on both clinical examinations as well as on routine pelvic sonography.

One of the problems with sonography of the early pregnancy is the inability to clearly determine if the gestation sac is intrauterine or extrauterine (ectopic) in nature. This task is even more complicated by the controversies arising from whether the “sac” seen is a true sac or a pseudosac of ectopic pregnancy.

She just paged you again. It is “urgent”, just like the last 5 times. You sigh deeply: no matter how many times you tell her that her labs are normal, explain that some shortness of breath is expected in the last trimester, or reassure her that her heartburn is not a first sign of a heart attack (yes, you checked) – it simply won’t stick.

When a graafian follicle ruptures to release an oocyte, it is transformed into a corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is lined by a layer of granulose cells which rapidly become vascularized; some of these thin-walled vessels can rupture. This causes bleeding into the corpus luteum, resulting in the formation of a hemorrhagic cyst of the ovary.

What are Uterine Fibroids? The walls of the uterus are made of smooth muscle called myometrium, and the inside lining, with glandular tissue, is called endometrium. “Uterine fibroid” is a slang term for leiomyoma, or often simply myoma. Fibroids are benign tumors made of smooth muscle cells.

Uterine Fibroids are classified by their location, which effects the symptoms they may cause and how they can be treated. Fibroids that are inside the cavity of the uterus (Submucous myomas) will often cause bleeding between periods and often cause severe cramping. Fortunately, these fibroids can usually be easily removed by a method called “hysteroscopic resection,” which can be done through the cervix without the need for an incision.

Significance of the umbilical cord: the umbilical cord can be aptly termed the life line for the fetus during its intrauterine life but can often be the cause for its misery in case of cord pathology.

Laparoscopic Myomectomy uses a small telescope placed through the belly button along Accurate diagnosis of uterine fibroids is essential in deciding if treatment is necessary, and planning appropriate treatment. While a physical exam may suggest fibroids, other conditions such as ovarian cysts or adenomyosis may be mistaken for fibroids. For this reason, I routinely do an ultrasound examination at the time of the first visit when a woman has symptoms of abnormal bleeding or cramping, or if I feel an abnormality on examination.

Laparoscopic Myomectomy uses a small telescope placed through the belly button along with several small instruments to remove fibroids from the uterus. The technique of actually removing the fibroid from the uterus is similar to that of an abdominal myomectomy except we use small instruments placed through the abdominal wall. Once the fibroid is freed from the uterus it needs to be removed from the abdomen. In order to remove a large fibroid from a small incision we use an instrument called a morcellator, to cut it into pieces small enough to be removed through the small incisions.

What are echogenic intracardiac foci (EIF)? EIF are small, echogenic lesions seen (on sonography) inside the left or right ventricles of the fetal heart within the papillary muscles or chordae tendinae. These lesions are not attached to the wall of the ventricles.