Latest news with #RoyalAustralianandNewZealandCollegeofObstetriciansandGynaecologists
The Age
01-07-2025
- Health
- The Age
Horror as 1000 children to be tested for STIs. Here's what comes next
The decision to mass-test children – at testing centres across the metro area – came after Brown tested positive for an STI, according to two police sources not authorised to comment. A Health Department spokeswoman said the department would not comment on the specifics of suspected exposure to protect children's sensitive health information. A government source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said authorities wanted to rule out the possibility that the children had been exposed to infections such as syphilis given the spike in Victorian cases over the last decade. How long will parents have to wait? Dr Nisha Khot, the vice president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said parents should know their child's health status relatively quickly. Loading 'STI screening results usually only take 24 to 48 hours, depending on what test is done,' she said. Khot said Victoria's health system had the capacity to conduct the tests the Health Department is urging for the children, but that the bigger question was ongoing support for alleged victims and their families. 'The children will need appropriately qualified clinicians to assess their needs beyond the tests.' The state government has established a dedicated advice hotline to assist families with health and screening information, as well as link them to specialist services such as mental health support. Will any infections be treatable? Doctors who spoke to this masthead said most STIs could be treated with antibiotics delivered either orally or administered as an injection. Khot said the exceptions were Hepatitis B and HIV, which can be managed with other treatments but not cured. If left untreated, gonorrhea, for example, can lead to permanent health problems involving scar tissue, long-term pain and infertility. Late-stage syphilis can cause brain damage, heart disease and even blindness. But Chief Health Officer Dr Christian McGrath said on Tuesday that affected families and the broader community could be reassured that any infections as a result of this case could be treated with antibiotics. 'There's no broader public health risk to the community,' he said. A suburban GP, who declined to be named due to the sensitivities of the matter, said childcare workers at the centres and police working on the case should monitor their mood over the next few weeks and speak to family, friends or a doctor if they notice any changes.
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
The controversial and very male history of naming body parts
Take a look at your body. All the parts you can see, as well as all those on the inside, have been given a name at some point in history. There are plenty of descriptive, fairly innocuous names. But many parts are named after people. The vast majority of these are men, whose identities are invisibly stamped on every human. This includes female body parts — even the G in G spot pays tribute to a man. "There are hundreds and hundreds of dead old white men living inside us," Adam Taor, author of Bodypedia: A Brief Compendium of Human Anatomical Curiosities, tells ABC Radio National's Late Night Live. But some doctors believe these names need to be retired, with more anatomically descriptive terms used instead. "The world has changed," says Nisha Khot, the president-elect of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. "So I think it's time to change the language that we use." Humans began carving up cadavers and taking a look at what's inside in ancient times. And the basic rule for generations of researchers was "name what you see". A leg bone looked like a flute, so it was given the Latin word for the musical instrument, the 'tibia'. Then there's the patella or the kneecap, which means 'little pan' in Latin. A less creative example is an unusually shaped bone in our pelvis called the innominate, which is Latin for 'unnamed'. That's because it doesn't look like anything else. Dr Taor describes the process as "like Pictionary but with a lot more blood on the floor". But as time went on, naming conventions became less descriptive and more personal. "Often body parts were named after people who discovered them … or doctors who were good at putting their name forward so that they got their name attached to bits of the body," Dr Taor says. As Dr Khot sums up: "It was a way of making sure that their memory stayed alive." Over more recent centuries, there were leaps and bounds in European anatomical study. And this was very much a boy's club. "It was men who did all of the study of the human body … Women rarely got a look in," Dr Khot says. "So that's the reason most body parts were named after men." One review looked at 700 body parts that were eponyms, or named after people. There were 432 people's names around the body (as some names are connected to multiple parts). Of these, 424 were men. The rest consisted of five gods, a king, a hero and just one woman. Raissa Nitabuch was a little-known 19th century Russian pathologist who studied the placenta. The Nitabuch layer — a layer between the uterus and the placenta — is named after her. But, as Dr Khot points out, it's not exactly a major body part: "You can only see it if you look under a microscope." The study also found the average year of eponymous term attribution was 1847, meaning much of our body reflects the medical world of the mid-19th century. Even when it comes to a woman's reproductive parts, "dead men dominate living women", according to Dr Taor. Take the fallopian tubes. They're named after 16th-century Italian priest-turned-anatomist Gabriele Falloppio (who is also the eponym for the fallopian canal and fallopian hiatus). Once you start looking, there are male names all around the female pelvis. From the pouch of Douglas (a Scottish surgeon) to Skene's glands (a Scottish gynaecologist) and Bartholin's glands (a Danish anatomist). The G in G spot is named after German-born gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg. "I really can't see why we should use those names for [parts] that are very specific to women … It makes me feel uncomfortable," Dr Khot says. The pudendal nerves, which take sensations from male and female genitalia to the brain, is a less gendered term but still reflects a cultural bias. It comes from the Latin word 'pudere', meaning to be ashamed. "I think that says something about the attitude of the male doctors who name these things. No wonder that people feel shame about their genitals … when it's hardwired into us," Dr Taor says. Pudendum has also been a term for genitalia — especially women's. But due to this connection with shame, its use has been curbed. The domination of dead men's names for body parts isn't the only issue; some of them have problematic backgrounds and connections. For example, within your heart is a collection of muscle cells called the bundle of His, named after the Swiss-born anatomist Wilhelm His Jr who discovered it in 1893. And according to Dr Taor: "Every beat of your heart is a memorial to a prominent pre-World War II Berlin doctor who helped legitimise Nazi atrocities." His became the rector of the University of Berlin in the 1920s and was a prominent advocate of eugenics, a pseudoscience involving "cleansing" the gene pool to create a genetically superior race. The Nazis later used eugenics — what they called 'rassenhygiene' or racial hygiene — to justify forced sterilisations, murder and genocide. Then there's John Hunter. He was a superstar Scottish surgeon-anatomist in the 18th century. Hunter's canal in our thigh carries his name. Dr Taor calls Hunter "the father of scientific surgery … one of the most influential surgeons who ever lived". But Hunter was also a keen collector of oddities and a bit "creepy", Dr Taor explains. He infamously stole the body of Charles Byrne, known as the "Irish Giant" for standing 2.31 metres tall, and put him on display. This was very much against Byrne's wishes before he died. Most eponymous anatomical terms also have more technical names. For example, Hunter's canal is also the adductor canal. There has been a shift towards using these terms, but in many cases, the Falloppio and Douglas varieties still dominate medical, and therefore cultural, vernacular. Dr Khot wants a more concerted effort of change, particularly for women's body parts and also if the man in question is a "troubling" figure. "The description of using somebody's name doesn't tell you what the body part is … My view is that we should call things what they are anatomically," she says. As one example, Dr Khot advocates the use of uterine tubes rather than fallopian tubes. And she says similar changes have been made elsewhere in this space, like for various medical conditions that affect women. She points to Stein-Leventhal syndrome, originally named after American gynaecologists Irving Stein and Michael Leventhal, which is now called polycystic ovarian syndrome, also known as PCOS. "I'm not saying we should erase history … The majority of these men did good things. They described anatomy, which has helped us grow science and grow healthcare," Dr Khot says. "But we have more women studying [medicine] and more women doctors … So I think it's time to change the language that we have used."
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Ultrasound diagnosis could lead to faster treatment of endometriosis
People showing symptoms suggestive of endometriosis should be offered diagnosis options such as ultrasound so they receive treatment sooner, according to updated guidelines. Endometriosis can take years to be diagnosed, as it has previously required waiting for a surgical procedure to make the diagnosis. The condition causes severe pain, infertility and heavy periods – and occurs when cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body. As well as women, endometriosis also affects other people with a uterus and a small number of men. The living evidence guideline for endometriosis published on Saturday by Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog) recommends that a transvaginal ultrasound be used as the first-line investigation or, if not appropriate, a pelvic MRI. The recommendations are based on emerging evidence suggesting that a greater number of cases can be diagnosed with these non-invasive techniques with increasing accuracy. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The guideline replaces the first clinical practice guidelines published by Ranzcog in 2021. A 'living' guideline means recommendations are updated based on the latest research and emerging evidence. Historically, the gold standard of diagnosing endometriosis was to take tissue from a patient during an operation and review it under a microscope. But research from a variety of groups shows ultrasound can detect deep infiltrating endometriosis with 'excellent' sensitivity, said Dr Marilla Druitt, a guideline developer. However this method does have limitations to detect superficial disease, she said. While a traditional ultrasound looks at uterus, tubes and ovaries, a new Medicare item number for an endometriosis ultrasound will become available from November which will look for endometriosis tissue in places outside the uterus, including the ligament that holds the uterus to the inside of someone's pelvis. 'That Medicare item number will hopefully drive more thorough looking and more thorough assessment,' Druitt said. But in order for more patients with endometriosis to access it, more sonographers will need to gain accreditation, she said. Offering ultrasound first to diagnose endometriosis means patients don't have to endure long wait lists for surgery before they can start accessing treatments, whether for sub-fertility or persistent pain. The guidelines recommend starting 'with treatment and diagnosis in a parallel fashion, so there is absolutely no reason to delay treatment, which is the problem,' Druitt said. The guidelines will also support GPs to begin first-line hormonal treatment while diagnostic investigations are under way, with primary care specific resources to improve access to key evidence-based recommendations. Prof Danielle Mazza, the head of the department of general practice at Monash University and member of the guideline development group, said 'having clear, evidence-based tools like the quick reference guide and flowchart will be a gamechanger for primary care'. The guidelines also now recommend physiotherapy and psychology care as potentially useful for people with pelvic pain and endometriosis. The updated guidelines also say that people with endometriosis requesting information about cancer risk in reproductive organs, should be informed 'that although they may have a small increase in ovarian and endometrial cancer, the increase in absolute risk compared with women in the general population is low; and that they may have a reduced risk of cervical cancer'. Druitt said many other inflammatory conditions, like Crohn's or rheumatoid arthritis, are also associated with a slightly higher cancer risk, but when it comes to endometriosis 'the fact that you need that massive data to be able to prove that association tells us something about the absolute risk is still pretty jolly small.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion New resources for patients have also been developed. Alexis Wolfe, consumer liaison on the guideline development group, said the resources will give people information that would help them advocate for themselves and participate more confidently in decision-making with care providers. When it comes to the two different types of surgical treatments for endometriosis – ablation or excision – the guidelines state 'existing evidence does not support one technique over the other, with the exception of endometrioma [cysts on the ovaries]' with the certainty of evidence being identified as 'low'. The guidelines strongly recommend excision rather than ablation to treat endometriomas. Jess Taylor, the chair of peak body the Australian Coalition for Endometriosis (ACE), , said having a living guideline was 'critical' because endometriosis has a lot of new research activity. It was historically under-researched compared to other conditions, she said. While supportive living guidelines for health professionals and patients, Taylor said it was disappointing Ranzcog did not allow open consultation to the public. 'We requested formal sector consultation … and we followed that up multiple times, and it's disappointing that did not happen for a guide as important as this,' Taylor said. A Ranzcog spokesperson said they 'undertook sector consultation over a three-week period and extensions were granted where possible. The ACE requested a longer extension, which was not possible due to publication timelines. The spokesperson said the timelines were made in agreement with the federal department of health who was the funder. 'We are now working with ACE and the Department of Health to ensure that ACE's feedback can be incorporated into the next updates.'
