Category: Pregnancy

One in Three People Has This Eye Parasite

It can damage your vision, be harmful during pregnancy and may not initially cause symptoms. Take these steps to prevent infection, and greater care if you are pregnant. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Toxoplasma gondii is the parasite responsible for the infection toxoplasmosis. If the parasite reaches the retina, it causes ocular toxoplasmosis, with symptoms including lesions on…


Can Men Really Get Pregnant?

I was recently asked by a good friend and well known, respected national columnist to explain what would happen if men could really get pregnant. My first response was that women are much stronger than men, and none of us would be here if men were the ones getting pregnant. However, he persisted and wanted…


A Doctor’s Perspective: Can Men Actually Get Pregnant?

I was recently asked by a good friend and well known, respected national columnist to explain what would happen if men could really get pregnant. He wanted a real medical explanation. When I started thinking about it more, I was reminded of the 1994 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito called “Junior.” In this…


Dad’s Letter to His Childless Self Inspires Gender-Role Talks Between Couples

“Be the kind of man that improves the reputation of men.” This is advice from Ted Gonder, 32, husband and father, who is doing his best to live by his own counsel as he supports his wife and three kids. Three years ago, Gonder—who’s the co-founder of Moneythink and has been named on the Forbes…


New Micro Device Increases Chances of IVF Success

A research team led by the University of Adelaide has helped develop a groundbreaking new device that significantly improves the efficiency of the only fertility treatment currently available for men with low sperm counts. Created in partnership with medical tech company Fertilis, this first-of-its-kind device will enable more IVF (in vitro fertilisation) clinics to offer…


The Baby Effect

Most women know the downsides of having children later in life, but the positives often get overlooked. One of the major upsides is that women who have children later in life may live longer than childless women or women who have children at younger ages. That’s what a 2015 study, published in the journal Menopause,…


Flawed CDC Study Wrongly Concludes COVID Vaccines Safe in Pregnancy

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this spring recommended women who are pregnant, recently pregnant, who are trying to become pregnant now or who might become pregnant in the future get the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC made the recommendation after concluding, in a Jan. 7 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, that data support the safety of COVID…


How a Baby Becomes Part of a Mother

In the early weeks of pregnancy, a connection is made between the mother and her growing baby as they exchange cells across the placenta. This little-known phenomenon will affect both of them for decades to come. Microchimerism is when cells from one individual persist in another. The term means a “small chimera”; in Greek mythology,…


Study finds link between glyphosate exposure and pregnancy length

Women exposed to the herbicide glyphosate were more likely to experience shorter pregnancies, according to a study published last week in the journal Environmental Research. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup. Most research on the health effects of glyphosate has focused on workplace exposures — people who work in agriculture and as…


Why Aren’t More Babies Being Nursed?

The day after Leslie Ott’s daughter, Ella, was born at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, Arizona, a doctor came into her room and threatened to separate Ott from her baby. “The pediatrician told me I was starving my baby and would have to give her a bottle, or she was going to be admitted…