Word: pregnants
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...probed the evolution and hidden purposes of biological phenomena that most people take for granted: menstruation, morning sickness and allergic reactions. Profet's ideas about menstruation fit into a general theory that all these natural processes protect against infection and disease. Morning sickness, she believes, prevents pregnant women from eating certain vegetables or spices that might harm a fetus. Allergies give sufferers a defense against plant-borne toxins...
...what about women who are pregnant or have gone through menopause? Since they don't menstruate, how do they ward off bacteria? Profet notes that in the first six months of pregnancy and in some cases after menopause, the cervical entryway to the uterus is covered by a mucous plug. The mucus makes it hard for sperm -- and their nasty hitchhikers -- to enter the uterus, and thus reduces the need for a monthly blood flow. Profet suspects that doctors may be making a serious mistake by routinely regarding irregular bleeding as an endocrine problem to be stopped with hormone therapy...
Taking a page from Profet's own method, some critics challenge her by citing history. Today's women can have 400 menstrual periods over a lifetime, but earlier women probably had only a few dozen. Without birth control, they spent most of their reproductive lives pregnant or nursing. "Women were never meant to menstruate on an ongoing basis," says Dr. David Olive, the head of endocrinology at Yale University medical school. If menstruation is supposed to be a rare phenomenon, then how can it be a primary defense against infection? In fact, it may turn out that menstruation...
...consider getting a tattoo, kind of. I thought of all the possible places on my body where I wouldn't mind having a tattoo. I came up with one: my hip. Low enough that it really wouldn't be seen by too many people. ("What happens if you're pregnant someday? Won't it stretch out and look dumb?" one of my roommates asked. No, it would look cool, Seth told me when I repeated her question...
...wedding. Wai-Tung, Simon and Wei-Wei immediately rush into a frenzy to rearrange their lives and prepare for the parents' arrival. After Wai-Tung's parents settle in New York the plot becomes a little convoluted, ending with Wai-Tung and Simon fighting and Wei-Wei pregnant...