Sunday, February 25, 2007

Here's One of the Many Reasons I'm Glad to Be a Man . . .

So if you've ever wondered why females are so complicated I have the answer - reproductive hormones. With guys, it's easy because there's essentially only one hormone to keep track of - testosterone. With women, testosterone also comes into play along side the ever popular estrogen and progesterone and the less familiar LH, FSH, GnRH, and even insulin. The control of female sex hormones becomes even more complicated one considers the multiple fluctuations they go through each month. This of course isn't including all the locations in the female body where these are being produced and all the endless ways they're regulated.

Of course the complexity of female hormones makes sense if you think about the complexity of the female 's primary sexual function - that is, to reproduce another human being. After all, all we have to do is somehow manage to get a sperm in there somewhere and the woman does the rest. It's quite an amazing piece of machinery the female reproductive tract is. However I could do without it.

I know women often refer to our simplicity with condescension but to tell you the truth I don't mind. Simplicity is good, dependable, something you can trust and count on. Complexity, well, um, you know . . .

Fortunately, modern medical technology has produced a means of female hormonal control with birth control. If only it had the same effects on emotion as it does on the menstrual cycle.

In other news, I'm getting anxious to end another block. As interesting as reproductive endrocrinology is I think I've had enough for a while. I don't think I can do OB.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

What's Colder . . . Grand Forks or the North Pole?