Life Cycles

The last block of our "essential core" classes is Life Cycles, a ten week course that catches us up on "special" populations. We begin with the male and female reproductive systems, fertility, reproduction, and developmental biology. We then do perinatal care, pediatrics, adolescence, and finally geriatrics. It's an interesting set-up, following a person from before conception to old age. While most medical schools do embryology early to explain anatomy, we instead cover embryology at the very end and use it to review anatomy. Indeed, the past week has involved several pretty intense sessions in the lab dissecting the pelvis and perineum. It's been a long year and a half since Prologue when we last saw the pouch of Douglas or tracked the ureter going under the ductus deferens. An odd feeling, being back in anatomy lab, but this stuff really deserves another look. This block has a lot of social issues such as domestic violence and child abuse, gender and cultural issues, and ethics (especially with prenatal care). I like using our knowledge of "normal" physiology and applying it to different physiologic states such as being a newborn or being pregnant. This is not my favorite block, as I have trouble with developmental biology, but it is certainly one in which I will learn a lot and hopefully enjoy. It will be practical for our rotations in Ob/Gyn and Peds.