Word: ovum
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...with Duchenne dystrophy may have astronomically high levels, sometimes up to 1,000 units. Dr. Emery and his fellow workers at the Hopkins decided to check the creatine kinase level in mothers of normal boys, mothers of a single dystrophic boy (who might have produced a nonrecurring defective ovum and who might not be carriers) and mothers of two or more dystrophic boys who almost certainly would be carriers...
Suspicious Uncles. For a woman whose fertilized ovum has suffered a one-time mutation and who is not a carrier, the creatine kinase test is no predictor. Her level is that of a normal woman. But in many women who are carriers, the level can go as high as 40 units per liter. A woman who has had one dystrophic child or relative should have her creatine kinase level measured by means of a blood test, said Dr. Emery. Any woman who knows that a brother or an uncle or a great-uncle has died of the disease should likewise...
...sexual act is intended to produce children. The rhythm method, which first gained world-wide publicity in the early '30s, was eventually approved by the church because it does not directly interfere with the procreative purpose of sex, whereas any barrier put between the sperm and the ovum frustrates the natural design of the act. Equally sinful is sterilization, and when Pius XII, speaking to a group of hematologists in 1958, outlawed the oral steroid pills (TIME, March 20) when used as contraceptives, it was on the ground that they temporarily sterilize the female reproductive system...
Nature has an automatic regulator to prevent the too-rapid production of another, regardless of whether the ovum is fertilized or not, which might lead to overlapping pregnancies. After any one ovum is released, the body starts producing progesterone. Sometimes called "nature's contraceptive," this hormone serves mainly to prevent the ripening of another ovum until the next cycle starts...
...normally be building up hormones to promote ovulation, she takes the first of her progestin pills, and she takes one daily for the next 20 or 21 days. By some biochemical magic not yet understood, the progestin makes it impossible for a follicle to ripen and spill out an ovum. It also prepares the lining of the uterus for menstruation. By the 25th or 26th day, when all chance of ovulation, and therefore of conception, during that cycle has passed, the woman stops taking her pills. Within two or three days, the on set of menstruation signals the start...