Category Archives: Uncategorized

“Salt Water” that’s exactly a concentration of 0.9% salt, specifically called “Normal Saline”.  This is the concentration of all the fluids in our body.  There’s no problem injecting fluid that’s this concentration.  But if we inject fluid with higher salt concentration, it can cause serious dehydration.  If we inject 100% water, it can overwhelm ourContinue reading “Saline”

Irregular bleeding can mean lifelong history of irregular periods, regular periods with spotting in-between, changes in the length of periods, or bleeding after menopause.  The worst condition, which is often the focus of diagnostic studies, is cancer. As mentioned elsewhere, bleeding conditions can originate from the vagina, which is easily noted on Pelvic Exam. HereContinue reading “Irregular Uterine Bleeding”

Here we’re talking about painful periods that occur time after time.  We’re not talking about a new symptom that never happened before.  If that occurs & the pain is bad enough for a woman to seek medical care, we address it as pain with bleeding, not “painful period” (see Low Abdominal Pain). Painful periods (dysmenorrhea)Continue reading “Painful Periods (Dysmenorrhea) — Full Text”

Many women have pain during their periods.  If this begins during teenage years, there is probably no underlying illness involved.  If it begins after 25, we’d have concern for a specific cause. If periods are especially heavy, see also our topic Heavy Menstrual Periods. Painful periods are rarely if ever due to anything that wouldContinue reading “Painful Menstrual Periods (Dysmenorrhea)”

Heavy periods are common as a woman approaches menopause, and can also happen to teenagers when their periods first begin.  Periods then can also be irregular.  At those times of life, we don’t do work-ups for unusual conditions.  But we might if periods are becoming progressively more painful (see Painful Periods), and certainly if weContinue reading “Heavy Menstrual Periods — Full Text”

Here we discuss Heavy Regular Menstrual Periods which are not painful. If pain is a significant symptom, see Painful Periods). See also Diagrams — Female Genital System. Causes of Heavy Non-Painful Menstrual Periods • Uterine Fibroids (aka leiomyomas)• Adenomyosis• Hypothyroidism• Copper IUD (ParaGard®, etc.)   • Bleeding Disorders (various diseases; esp. xxxxVon Willebrand Disease, alsoContinue reading “Heavy Menstrual Periods”

Worrisome involuntary weight loss (losing weight without trying) is defined as losing >5% of normal body weight within 6 months.  Of course, losing it sooner is even worse.  Obese patients who lose weight always make us worry, since they’d never been successful before.  If they can’t describe in depth how they’ve managed, we start toContinue reading “Involuntary Weight Loss — Full Text”

Wendy Scott had Munchausen’s disease, in which patients may go to extremes to fake illness in order to get some sort of psychological comfort.  She was well-known throughout the U.K. for her notorious history of fabricating all sorts of diseases, & getting herself hospitalized repeatedly. But then she actually recovered and went on to activelyContinue reading “Sad Story”

Here, our first step is to rule out infection (UTI; or STD’s: See “Painful Urination” for either Women or Men).  But if there is no pain, no suggestion of white blood cells in the Urinalysis (UA), STD tests are negative and no bacteria grow on Urine Culture, we address other conditions. Urinary Frequency means urinatingContinue reading “Frequent Urination”

We approach men completely differently from women, because men don’t often get typical urinary tract infections (UTIs) from common bacteria (we always abbreviate “Urinary Tract Infection” as “UTI,” pronounced letter-by-letter “You-Tee-Eye;” never “Yootee” nor “Ootee”).  But they do get Genital Tract illness, which in males is shared with the urinary tract (see Diagram: Male GenitalContinue reading “Painful Urination in Men — Full Text”