FGM - My First Personal Experience

So today I had a consult done in Emerg - it was a woman from Kenya who had a missed abortion (where the fetus is dead but the mom doesn't expel the product). I did the full history and physical exam, including a raging systolic murmur which is probably ASD. Then I did the pelvic exam and when I tried to open up her labia there was a very small opening to the vagina - very small and she has had 2 children. The speculum I had wasn't going to fit so my very lovely resident went to get a new one. On further inspection of her vulva we realized there were 2 openings and there was a skin bridge in between them formed by adhesions after the female genital mutilation she had received in Kenya. She has no clitoris because it was butchered from her and I'm sure birthing those babies was not a treat with that extra piece of tissue acting as a barricade.
Female genital mutilation http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.htm is one of the reasons I wanted to go into Obstetrics and Gynecology in the first place. It's still something we see in Canada because of immigration. The fact that a woman can get her clitoris hacked off and her vagina sewn up in 2006 is ridiculous to me. For people who say "feminism is dead" or that "there are no more women's rights issues anymore" obviously need to open their eyes.

Little Pleasures

It's been a while since I've posted. Mostly I've been working in Labour and Delivery so it's been really busy and when I'm at home I'm scrambling to not live in squalour and to get at least the appearance of some studying done. But last night I got an unexpected 7 hours of sleep on call which is absolutely glorious. On some services you can get a good sleep like that but OB/GYN call is at the bottom of the pack when it comes to sleeping on call. So since I got this unexpected gift I thought I'd write a quick post.
I've really enjoyed my OB/GYN rotation and it's still on the top of my list for future careers. I love being there with families in this emotional, "real" moment. And to see women so powerful is incredible. I've really enjoyed it and I really hope I match to OB/GYN in Edmonton come CaRMS time (CaRMS is the national residency matching service that decides our lives).
On Friday we went to see Tech's show in Toronto. He got us comps and we (okay me) felt very important. The show was wonderful (as always I'm absolutely in love with the creativity of RB) and Foreman liked it better than the last show. http://www.canstage.com/2005-2006/season/earth.asp. I always this that the creator of this show is incredible and has inspired the majority of my creative endeavors since I was introduced to his work.
Tech, Foreman and I went out after the show and had a lovely evening talking and drinking and eating appetizers. My friend Rakkel has found a keeper with that one. Good to see that her guy and my guy get along so well...