Written by yvonnethornton on July 6th, 2009
A new study by an Australian fertility expert, Dr. David Greening of Sydney IVF, has caused a bit of a stir. Greening studied 118 men whose sperm had greater than average DNA damage and found that, when they ejaculated daily, the resulting sperm was healthier.
All well and good so far but Greening’s prescription for greater fertility success made me cringe in empathy for my patients who are trying to get pregnant.
Greening recommends that couples engage in sex every day to improve their chances of conceiving.
Maybe it takes a woman to understand that this isn’t the greatest advice in the world. Too many women come to my office, sore and miserable, because their husbands want to do it every day. They don’t want to say no when they’re on a mission to conceive. And now, this (male, you’ll notice) doctor is saying this is the best way to go?
All right ladies, sit down (if you’re not too sore), because you don’t have to take Greening’s advice. Greening’s findings were that daily ejaculation improves sperm quality, not daily sex.
If you and the man you love want to improve your chances of conception, having intercourse three times a week is plenty.
Don’t look at clocks; don’t look at calendars and yell, “Honey, get in here quick, I’m ovulating.” That causes so much performance dysfunction for men. And it’s completely unnecessary.
All it takes is one sperm. Men ejaculate about 60 million of those little guys at a time. And the sperm hang around, ready to jump on that egg when it appears, for up to seven days. So, even though, when we ovulate, the egg is only fertilizable for up to 24 hours, it doesn’t mean that conception is now or never. With up to 60 million sperm hanging around waiting, one of them is likely to be in the right spot when the ovum shows up.
Most important for couples who want to conceive is to remember that sex, even when you’re on a baby-making mission, should never be a chore. Make sure neither of you skimps on romance, cuddling and cooing. In other words, keep the love in making love. It should be as much fun today as it was the first time (even if that first time was in the back seat of a vintage Chevy). Relax and enjoy the experience and each other. Soon enough, if neither of you has problems with fertility, baby will make three.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Fertility & Infertility, General health news, Pregnancy, Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: conceive, conception, Fertility & Infertility, fertilized egg, healthy sperm, infertility, medical study, ovulation, ovum, sperm count
Written by yvonnethornton on June 30th, 2009
The other day, a friend told me a joke:
“What’s the difference between love and herpes?”
I said I didn’t know.
“Herpes is forever,” she said.
While I’m not as cynical as my friend – I’ve been in love with my husband for 40 years and will love him for as long as I live – she’s right about one thing. Once you get herpes, you’ve got it for good.
So, what can you do to protect yourself?
Condoms offer better protection against HIV and pregnancy than against genital herpes. That’s because herpes lesions can appear just beyond the genitalia, in areas the condom doesn’t cover.
If you or your partner has herpes, the best protection against passing it on is suppression therapy – acyclovir or Valtrex. Whenever the infected person feels the tingles and other sensations that usually signal an imminent herpes episode, avoid sexual contact.
And if you’re just starting a new romance, be sure to have a frank talk about herpes and other intimate issues before you decide to take it to the next level. Remember, while it may be difficult at first to determine whether a relationship has staying power, you can be sure that herpes does.
– Yvonne Thornton, MD. MPH
Posted in Contraception (birth control), Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: condom, genital herpes, herpes, herpes prevention
Written by yvonnethornton on June 24th, 2009
Yesterday, at President Obama’s news conference, a reporter asked whether adding a “public option” – an option that allows people to buy health insurance from the government instead of private insurers – would, as insurers claim, drive them out of business.
The president answered:
“Why would it drive private insurers out of business?… If they tell us they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”
As a physician who has seen the ever-escalating costs of health insurance hurt my patients, I have to say, I agree with the president wholeheartedly.
A public option won’t drive insurance companies out of business. But lack of good, affordable healthcare options is forcing people to delay necessary medical care. That means that people are often sicker by the time they see a doctor. Sometimes, it means, by the time they see a doctor, it’s too late for us to help them. That’s a national tragedy.
We must turn the debate away from how to safeguard the insurers’ profits to how to safeguard our families.
I sincerely hope that the politicians and lobbyists will stop playing with people’s lives for the sake of the almighty dollar and, instead, think of the public good and pass real health reform.
– Yvonne Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in General health news, Health care policy, Women's health issues | 2 Responses »
Tags: health insurance, healthcare reform, Obama, pass real healthcare reform, public option, uninsured
Written by yvonnethornton on June 19th, 2009
Dear Daddy,
You know how much I relied on your guidance as I was growing up. But I wonder what you’d think if you knew that, even now, more than 26 years after we lost you to a stroke on a snowy February day, your wisdom still guides me.
I know you regretted dropping out of school as a young man and, although you seemed content to work 16 hours a day, it must have hurt not to have the opportunity to better yourself.
I know you wanted better for us, your children.
We may have grumbled when we were kids because you demanded so much. You insisted we get the highest grades in our classes. An A wasn’t good enough for you. You expected every grade to be an A+. We had to reach so high that nobody could yank us back down.
People laughed when you told them your five girls were going to grow up to be doctors. Impossible, they said.
And yet, as the first African-American woman to be board-certified in maternal-fetal medicine (high-risk obstetrics), I’m living proof that your dreams weren’t impossible after all.
Your dreams and your demands for us to do our best are the reasons why, among your five daughters, two are now physicians, one, an oral surgeon and another grew up to be a lawyer.
But I owe you for more than my career in medicine, Daddy. There isn’t a problem that I come across in life where I don’t ask myself, what would Daddy do? There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of you. There will never be a time when I will stop missing you.
Even though, I know, you’re very much with me. Even now. Happy Father’s Day.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in The Ditchdigger's Daughters | 1 Response »
Tags: Donald Thornton, education, Father's Day, obstetrician, Yvonne Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on June 16th, 2009
For many women, taking the pill is more a matter of delaying pregnancy until the time is right rather than preventing it all together.
So, the big question becomes, how long after you stop taking the pill can you expect to become pregnant? No two women are alike but, generally speaking, pregnancy is possible the next time you ovulate. You may ovulate within two weeks after finishing up your last package of birth control pills. So, theoretically, you could become pregnant almost immediately. However, as we all know, there are many variables. Some couples try for years to become parents without success.
It almost seems an unfair trick of the heavens that it’s sometimes the women who don’t want to become pregnant who easily do.
That means, if you’re dead set against pregnancy, and you stop the pill, you need to begin another form of contraception immediately. I actually recommend that my patients begin using an alternate contraceptive before getting off the pill so they get into the habit of using it.
Otherwise, you may have to get into the habit of changing diapers.
– Yvonne Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Contraception (birth control), Menstruation, Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: birth control, birth control pills, Contraception (birth control), contraceptive, obstetrician, Pregnancy, the pill, your period
Written by yvonnethornton on June 12th, 2009
If you’ve ever gotten a hot flash, you know how odd it can feel. Usually, hot flashes don’t have a major impact on a woman’s life but some women suffer more than others. About 80 percent of women experience hot flashes and night sweats, which are short bursts of intense heat of the face and neck. Usually they begin in the early years of the transition to menopause and peak one or two years after the last menstrual period, remain for several years and then resolve over a period of time. I’ve had patients come in to see me feeling downright miserable due to pre-menopausal and menopausal symptoms. Some complain of waking up dripping wet at 2:00 a.m. with night sweats or feeling like tiny bugs are crawling all over them.
These symptoms will pass as your hormone levels adjust but what do you do in the meantime? Other than buying a small hand fan, there’s no single answer. Treatment has to be individualized for each woman. Avoidance of triggers, such as cigarette smoking, hot beverages, foods containing nitrites or sulphites, spicy foods and alcohol, may help limit hot flashes. Blood pressure medications have been prescribed off-label with some success. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Prozac® and Zoloft® or antidepressants such as Effexor® (venlafaxine) also offer relief. Oral estrogens or transdermal estrogen patches have been found to be very effective in reducing the incidence and the intensity of hot flashes. However, if estrogen is used, unless you have had a hysterectomy, an additional hormone, progesterone, must be added to the estrogen in order to decrease your risk of developing uterine cancer. Relaxation techniques, such as deep slow breathing, may also help with hot flashes.
Some women think first of herbal remedies such as dong quai, evening primrose oil or red clover. However, I discourage my patients from using herbs as they’re often ineffective. Soy (a phytoestrogen or plant estrogen) has been touted as a remedy for hot flashes. However, there is no conclusive evidence for its benefit and there are no long-term safety studies. If you are convinced that you want to go the herbal route, I strongly urge you to discuss these remedies with your doctor beforehand. Don’t assume that because you get it over the counter, it’s safe. Herbs are not regulated through government health agencies and can have potent unintended effects, and may interfere with other medications or cause harmful interactions.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Hormone replacement therapy, Menstruation, Women's health issues | 1 Response »
Tags: drug interactions, herbal remedies, Hot flashes, Menopause, night sweats
Written by yvonnethornton on June 10th, 2009
I usually blog about women’s health but I wanted to depart a bit from that today because of a letter that a young woman named Jacinta sent me.
Jacinta read my memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, and found in the story the encouragement she needed to become a doctor herself. But let me allow her to tell it in her own words:
“I am 19 years old. I just finished reading your book and it truly inspired me. I want to work with children in the medical field and reading about the obstacles that you overcame to work in the medical field really encouraged me to work harder to accomplish my dream. The thing that really encouraged me was at the end of the book when you and your sisters were sitting around reminiscing about the things that your dad had taught you down through the years … ‘Daddy was the bow, we were the arrows and he aimed high. He didn’t say midwives, he said doctors. He didn’t say dental assistants, he said dentist.’ He always encouraged you all to be leaders and to be the best at whatever you did. That really stuck with me when I read it.
“I can be a leader. I love kids and I always knew that I wanted to work with them, but I never really decided how I wanted to work with them. So I decided that I would either be an obstetrician or a pediatrician.
“… I watched your interview on C-SPAN and I remember you saying that your father told you that the only person that can stop you is you. Well I’m not going to let me stop me so I decided to work towards all my dreams.”
As those who have already read The Ditchdigger’s Daughters know, my father was a blue collar laborer and my mother cleaned houses for a living. But they were determined to see their five daughters do better. They insisted that we work hard, get as much education as we could, and aim for the top. My father had a dream that we would all become doctors. Two of us are physicians now, one is an oral surgeon, another became a lawyer with a Ph.D., and one, a court reporter.
I want to take this opportunity to speak to all those like Jacinta, whose families may not have all the advantages. You can make a better life for yourself. If my sisters and I could do it, you can do it. Believe in yourself and be willing to work harder than you ever imagined possible. Then, work harder still. Stay in school, study like your life depends on it (because, in a way, it does), and don’t let anything hold you back, especially not your own negative notions about the limits placed on you from the outside.
And I want to say thank you to Jacinta. Knowing that my book touched you means so much to me.
It’s letters like yours that have inspired me to begin working on a new memoir that picks up where The Ditchdigger’s Daughters left off. I hope that this book, too, will persuade readers to reach higher, study harder, and pursue their dreams.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Media appearances, The Ditchdigger's Daughters | 1 Response »
Tags: education, inspiration, memoir, obstetrician, succeeding, The Ditchdigger's Daughters, Yvonne S. Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on June 5th, 2009
Forbes reports on my study, showing that obese pregnant women should limit weight gain as does Medline.
Other media outlets giving the study prominent coverage are United Press International, Yahoo News, The Baltimore Sun, US News and World Report, and even the Times of India.
– Yvonne S. Thornton
Posted in Childbirth & delivery, General health news, Media appearances, Pregnancy, Women's health news | No Responses »
Tags: gynecologist, infant, Institute of Medicine, IOM, Journal of the National Medical Association, MD, obese, obesity, obstetrician, Pregnancy, study, weight gain, Yvonne S. Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on June 4th, 2009
Let me start by saying that I love Oprah. And I am forever grateful to her for having me on her show because appearing on Oprah helped me introduce my memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, to a huge audience. I’m sure it contributed to making my book a bestseller.
All that said, I have to agree with this Newsweek article. The authors argue that the medical advice given by some of the guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show is dubious at best, especially the claims about bio-identical hormones made by celebrities with no medical knowledge or training.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in General health news, Hormone replacement therapy, Women's health issues, Women's health news | No Responses »
Tags: bio-identical hormones, Hormone replacement therapy, junk science, medical advice, Oprah, The Ditchdigger's Daughters, Yvonne S. Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on June 3rd, 2009
I’m pleased to see that the media is getting the word out: obese pregnant women should be eating healthier diets and limiting their weight gain.
In the past few days, I’ve been interviewed by a number of news organizations about the study. You can see some of the reports at the following links:
WebMd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Science Daily
The Los Angeles Times
and Health Day
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Childbirth & delivery, Media appearances, Pregnancy, Women's health issues, Women's health news | 1 Response »
Tags: gynecologist, infant, Institute of Medicine, IOM, Journal of the National Medical Association, MD, obese, obesity, obstetrician, Pregnancy, study, weight gain, Yvonne S. Thornton
