I know a woman who refused to take tamoxifen after her chemo, because it doubles the rate of endometrial cancer. It does appear to double the rate of endometrial cancer, from 1/1,000 to 2/1,000. However, it reduces the risk of recurrence by a third or more.

Reading that doubled the risk of my head exploding.

I remember arguing with a friend (who's very smart) that driving is more dangerous than flying. I made no headway at all. Yeah, I think risk (and probability in general) confuses a lot of people.

Allyson, how did they finally find the part? Will you write up the solution because it would be fun to share with the FB peeps I shared the first part with.

Did it claim to be a unicorn?

I would have enjoyed that more than it refusing to print postage so I could mail things to ita and amych.

It is here if anyone is interested, but I am super wordy and the topic is super specific, but I would be interested in anyone's perspective:

The super specificity of it is what makes it fascinating. There's obviously several decades of experience behind what you're writing and I think maybe you don't value that enough. But it's always compelling to hear a master discuss their trade.

More on risk: Your Home Birth is Not a Feminist Statement

Amy Tuteur wrote a great piece in 2009 at Science Based Medicine on the increased neonatal mortality rate associated with home birth. According to 2004 data from the CDC, comparing midwife-assisted births, infants born at home were 3x more likely to die than infants born in a hospital setting. Similar data were discussed in 2010 by Harriet Hall. A meta-analysis of studies of planned home births versus planned hospital births reveals that infants born at home, with a midwife in attendance, are 2x more likely to die than infants born in hospital with an MD or midwife in attendance. That is fascinating given that it is typically the ”lowest risk” women who are advised that they may be good candidates for home birth.

I really don't know much about the home birth movement, so I'm assuming these statistics are accurate.

Well, that's why they only agree to it with the lowest risk patients to start. Even someone with only one or two risk factors can't even use a midwife, or at least not in the states where I delivered, and that would have been hospital births anyway.

A hell of a lot can happen during even healthy labor.

As much as I agree with her on almost everything, I really can't recommend anyone read anything written online by Amy Tuteur. She's not good at Tone On The Internet. Really really REALLY NOT GOOD.

Harriet Hall is much much better. Same information, but less likely to send people into rage blackouts.

(And on further inspection, the actual linked article is by Dr Isis, who is also fairly awesome. So it's safe to click, as long as you don't follow any internal links to Amy Tuteur. Seriously, don't do it. But the rest of Science-Based Medicine is fantastic.)

Allyson, glad your car is done and fixed!

I love Bloggess. When one of hte kids is especially pesky, we yell, "KNOCK KNOCK" to replace the desire to yell Motherfucker at them.

And let's not forget that fake medicine is also a billion-dollar industry. It turns out you can make a lot more money when you don't have to prove that your products actually do anything. (Or, in the case of homeopathy, when the whole point is to guarantee that your products contain nothing at all.)

At yoga, my teacher was talking about the fact that her friend went to Deepak Chopra's We Care which, with a regiment of juice fasts and daily colonics, cures people who have cancer or at least prolongs terminal cancer patient's lives. My yoga teacher was deeply skeptical of that claim and said her friend went because she wanted to lose another 25 lbs. I mean, cures cancer AND encourages anorexia!

Have any of you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? Such an awesome book. But the fact that they used to treat cervical cancer by packing radium into the vagina and then sewing it in place? Fucked up. But fascinating.

But the fact that they used to treat cervical cancer by packing radium into the vagina and then sewing it in place?

The most effective treatment of my mother's cancer wasn't that different. They inserted thin hollow tubes around the tumor and put radium pellets into the tubes and exposed it to very focused radiation. Same idea but more refined.

with a regiment of juice fasts and daily colonics, people cure cancer or at least prolongs terminal cancer patient's lives.

The assumption being that people with terminal cancer want to spend more of their remaining time getting daily colonics?

Have any of you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?

It's on my list! But no, not yet.