jjablkowski's blog

I recently reread an article from the Netherlands where researchers selected 11 men and 14 women in a group of 144 people with a mean age of 82 who expressed a wish to die by their own hand even though they did not suffer any physical or mental disorder.[1] They considered their lives to be “completed.” The researchers followed this group yearly from 2013–2019. At the end of the study, 16 of the group were still alive, but 9 had caused their own deaths. Those who were still alive expressed somewhat similar reasons for not wanting to die yet.

Lawyer and poet William Ross Wallace published his poem, “What rules the world” in 1865 praising motherhood as a force for changing the world for the better. 

Blessing on the hand of woman!
Angels guard her strength and grace;
In the cottage, palace, hovel!
O, no matter where the place!...
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Cosmetic surgery: Is it empowering our patients’ confidence or hurting it? 

This is one of the biggest debates I’m hearing discussed in the health care sector, and I find the answer isn’t black and white. Cosmetic procedures have become increasingly popular and celebrated among today’s female patients. But what about male patients? 

Infertility impacts one in six Canadians of reproductive age. As doctors, we have the opportunity to raise awareness, promote education, and reduce the stigma surrounding this issue. Infertility Awareness Week in Canada is an annual campaign that takes place every April, aimed at shedding light on this often misunderstood and underdiscussed subject.

Matrescence is a concept introduced in the 1970s by anthropologist Dana Raphael in her book Being Female: Reproduction, Power and Change. She described the complex transitions that take place in a woman’s life as she becomes a mother. In a sense, like the term adolescence, matrescence refers to a healthy but demanding change. A mother-to-be experiences dramatic physical, hormonal, and emotional changes as well as changes in her body shape and in her social identity.