Letters to the Editor
Rachael F.
Published Letters: 157 Editor's Choice: 17
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That OTC swab
[Read the article: That little itch could be telling you something]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just tests vaginal pH, IIRC. So it tells you whether you've got the correct acidity for yeast or bacteria (which thrive at different pHs), but doesn't actually directly test for any microorganisms. And yeast thrive in what's considered a normal, quite acidic (below pH 4.5, typically) vaginal pH.
So the test tells you you don't have a bacterial infection, most likely. But in that case, then, it tells you what you do have is as yet unexplained itching with a normal vaginal pH - could be yeast, or it could be any number of other infections.
And I'm not sure that the pH test rules out all STIs. High pH indicates a high likelihood of bacterial vaginosis, which is not actually an STI, but I'm not sure that you can say that "normal" pH rules out, say, chlamydia.
I think it's just another useless bit of snake oil, myself, this test kit.
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@whaddami
[Read the article: Fear of a female planet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]XX vs. XY only determines gonadal sex; everything after the gonad gets determined as "ovaries" or "testes" is hormonal.
So we're either looking at massive levels of sex-reversal (XY females), or the death of XY fetuses due to excess estrogen exposure. It's unclear.
Or due to something else - while I agree that environmental estrogens are the likely culprit, more data are needed to demonstrate them to be the cause.
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Because
[Read the article: Fear of a female planet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hormone levels affect whether men make sperm at all, but don't seem to have an effect on which sperm survive (X vs. Y). (IIRC - I didn't bother to do the PubMed search on this one.) It's almost certainly a post-fertilization issue.
Not to say it's impossible, but I'm sure the scientists involved are doing the experiments to determine that as we speak, or have already done them - by doing genetic tests on the girls to see if they're XX or XY, for a start. It's an easy experiment - I could teach anyone to do it in five minutes, and that's not an exaggeration.
I want to know whether these are XY girls or there's simply an increase in spontaneous abortion of XY fetuses.
Partly because XY girls will be sterile, thus compounding the population problem in the next generation.
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Hmm....
[Read the article: Fear of a female planet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is further from my area of expertise, so I can't be sure - there is research out there about the spermicidal nature of estrogen imbalance, but IIRC it's having low levels that make one inhospitable.
At any rate, I don't think it'd make a difference which type (X or Y) of sperm were involved.
X and Y sperm aren't very different from one another, except in mass and motility. The X-bearing sperm are heavier and slower than Y-bearing sperm.
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Oh, and
[Read the article: Fear of a female planet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Agreed that environmental estrogens can't be a GOOD thing, health-wise.
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Right
[Read the article: Fear of a female planet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But a person who was secure in their attractiveness and likeability to women wouldn't need to bitch daily about how dishonest women (and, apparently, all men who get to have regular sex) are, and also wouldn't need to prove their attractiveness to a bunch of strangers in a chat room.
And why mention that she was a black woman?
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White dresses
[Read the article: A white wedding for mommies-to-be?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is there to say, except "that's what people wear"? As has already been stated, white is now just the traditional bridal color - it's expected. I have to get married twice next month; one dress is red (Vietnamese), the other is ivory (Western) - both were chosen based on what the culture in question expects. And, well, because they're pretty.
As for the hypothetical trend towards getting married pregnant - I'm with those who think that it's just a change in whether or not the crowd knows you're pregnant, not a real change in the frequency of prenuptual pregnancy.
I considered starting to try before my wedding, but - what if I succeeded? Who wants to have morning sickness at their wedding? And not be able to have champagne or wine? What if you timed it too soon, and your dress had to be repeatedly let out to accomodate the belly?
Impractical. ;)