Health and medical information

Is a rabbit killed each time a woman is tested for pregnancy? Is this really how pregnancy tests are done today?
P.L.
Jacksonville, Arkansas
Only in the movies. “The rabbit test” is historically interesting, but it is not used any longer. Pregnancy testing dates back to the Egyptians who, in those days before modern plumbing, noticed that the urine of pregnant women caused certain flowers to bloom. The urine contained biotropic substances. In 1927, the first “modern” pregnancy test was developed—a bioassay based on the studies of Drs. Aschheim and Zondek, two physicians who discovered that specific hormones developed during pregnancy. Their test changed forever the way women would know they were pregnant.
Ironically, the first bioassay pregnancy test was performed on a mouse. A woman’s urine was injected into a mouse that had not yet begun to ovulate. Five days after being injected, the mouse was killed and its ovaries were examined by a lab technician. If the urine was from a pregnant woman, it would contain hormones that would have caused the mouse ovaries to mature rapidly and develop blood spots. If the urine was from a woman who was not pregnant, the mouse ovaries would still be small and immature. Depending on the state of the mouse ovaries, a woman would be told whether or not she was pregnant. This method was used from 1927 to 1929.
In 1929, an improved pregnancy bioassay, which only took two days, was developed using immature rabbits instead of mice, and henceforth, the bioassay was known as the rabbit test. But all the wives who told their husbands they were pregnant by using the expression “The rabbit died” were saying something that didn’t apply. In the rabbit test, all the rabbits died, not because they were injected with a pregnant woman’s urine—they were killed by doctors who were examining their ovaries. Fortunately, with the advances in pregnancy testing today, no rabbits are dying because no one is doing a bioassay.
The urine test is not one of the innovative testing methods, but it is still frequently used. Two weeks after a woman misses her period, her urine may be tested for the presence of HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin), a hormone that pregnancy causes to rise. Physicians often perform convenient urine slide tests in their offices by putting a drop of a woman’s urine on a slide and adding a test solution and HCG antibodies. Within two minutes, if the test is positive, the mixture turns a milky white but remains smooth. When the result is negative, the mixture stays clear and gets a lumpy sour-milk consistency.
If a doctor prefers not to conduct a slide test in his office, he may send the urine to a lab for analysis. The laboratory test of a woman’s morning urine is based on the same principle as the slide test. The urine is mixed in a test tube with a test solution and HCG antibodies. After two hours, if a red ring appears at the bottom of the test tube, the test result is positive. A woman learns she is pregnant, but she has had to wait two weeks beyond a missed period before she knows. The new pregnancy tests eliminate the wait.
A radioimmunoassay (RIA) blood test for the beta-subunit HCG, the placenta-produced hormone that increases with pregnancy, can determine a pregnancy within a week after conception, even before a missed period. It is probably the most popular pregnancy blood test today. The RIA is extremely sensitive and if it is carefully conducted in a reputable laboratory, it is virtually free from error. Another pregnancy blood test, the radioreceptor assay (RRA) is equally sensitive, and is also used in several laboratories. The beta-subunit HCG was undetectable before the development of these blood tests.
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In addition to the common environmental health threats faced by both women and men women encounter particular diseases that are specific to their sex. Environmental health threats very well may play a role in their development and persistence. The following conditions are currently being studied to determine specific environmental influences.

Breast cancer
Scientists are studying the possible links between environmental estrogens and breast cancer. Environmental estrogens are synthetic and natural compounds scientists believe may mimic the female hormone estrogen and may either act like estrogens or block the body’s natural hormone. Environmental estrogens are found in pesticides, PCBs, and even natural plant products in our diet.

Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a condition in which the tissue that lines the uterus and is shed during menstruation grows outside the uterus, often creating painful implants on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and ligaments that support the uterus. Again, environmental estrogens are suspect in the development of endometriosis.

Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis, a debilitating bone fragility, commonly occurs in postmenopausal women. Scientists think that cadmium, lead, and possibly other heavy metals in the environment may contribute to the development of this disease.

Autoimmune diseases
Women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma (a connective tissue disease), and systemic lupus erythematosus. Scientists have linked autoimmune diseases to chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, solvents, and food additives.
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Is endometriosis cancerous?

Endometriosis is definitely not a form of cancer, nor is it a pre-cancerous condition.

Endometriosis is sometimes referred to as a benign cancer because it behaves like cancer in some ways. Like cancer, it is able to grow and expand, to implant itself in a distant part of the body after having been transported there by the bloodstream or the lymph vessels and to invade or penetrate organs and tissues in the body.

But unlike cancer, endometriosis does not destroy the organ or tissue on which it implants itself.

Any tissue in the body can develop into cancer. Therefore, theoretically, any endometrial implants and endometriomas have the potential to become cancerous. But it is extremely rare for endometriosis to become cancerous.

Is adenomyosis the same as endometriosis?

Adenomyosis is sometimes confused with endometriosis because some gynaecologists still refer to adenomyosis by its old names of ‘internal endometriosis’ or ‘endometriosis interna’. These terms should no longer be used as endometriosis and adenomyosis are two quite different conditions.

Adenomyosis is a condition in which the endometrium lining the uterus penetrates and grows into the adjacent muscle layer of the uterus. How the endometrium invades the muscle wall is not clear.

Adenomyosis is most commonly found in women in their 40s and 50s who have had children.

The main symptoms of adenomyosis are heavy bleeding and painful periods. It is thought that about 25% of women with adenomyosis have no symptoms at all.

The severity of the bleeding is related to the extent of the condition and in some women the bleeding is so excessive that the woman is actually haemorrhaging.

The severity of the pain appears to be related to how far the endometrium has penetrated into the muscle wall and some women may experience severe and incapacitating pain during menstruation.

A doctor may suspect that a woman has adenomyosis from her symptoms and an examination will usually indicate a moderately enlarged uterus. A definite diagnosis is difficult and is often only made when the uterus has been examined following a hysterectomy.

The drugs used for the treatment of endometriosis are not effective in the treatment of adenomyosis and for many women the only treatment for adenomyosis is hysterectomy.

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