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Feminists Around the World: Dr. Marlena Fejzo · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Steffan
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  Speaker 1: never told your prediction of iHeart Radio.
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  Speaker 2: And welcome to another feminist around the world. And today
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  Speaker 2: we are jumping into the world of medical sciences and
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  Speaker 2: we want to talk about scientists, geneticist and professor doctor
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  Speaker 2: Malena Faso. So now, doctor Faso has been making headlines
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  Speaker 2: in the last couple of years for her discovery after
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  Speaker 2: years of research, and just this year she was selected
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  Speaker 2: as one of the Time Women of the Year. So
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  Speaker 2: it is twenty twenty four August of twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 2: to be specific, So just for that timestamp, because who knows,
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  Speaker 2: you may be listening three years on the road, huh. Anyway,
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  Speaker 2: So what did doctor Faso work so hard to discover? Well,
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  Speaker 2: she discovered the cost of morning sickness that so often
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  Speaker 2: plague pregnant people. Her discovery, which hardly anyone wanted to
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  Speaker 2: help with in the beginning, is one that could actually
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  Speaker 2: help those who oftentimes are so affected by it that
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  Speaker 2: they become unable to do everyday tasks. If you've been pregnant,
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  Speaker 2: I know, you know what I mean. There's some people
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  Speaker 2: who are like no, I wasn't a big deal. And
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  Speaker 2: there's some people who are like, nah, I'm bedridden, Like
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  Speaker 2: I'm in so much pain, I couldn't imagine. So doctor
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  Speaker 2: Faso herself had struggled through some intense intents, and I say,
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  Speaker 2: I feel like, say, morning sickness is not enough pregnancy sickness,
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  Speaker 2: but like that still feels like it undermines it. Just
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  Speaker 2: the overall ailments I guess that would often disrupt her life.
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  Speaker 1: In an article written for the University of Southern California,
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  Speaker 1: they talk about doctor Faso's work and recognitions. Here's a
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  Speaker 1: quote about it. Quote. Up to eighty percent of pregnant
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  Speaker 1: women experience morning sickness, more accurately known as pregnancy sickness
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  Speaker 1: since it can occur at any time of day. Another
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  Speaker 1: two percent are affected by a severe form called hyperemesis
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  Speaker 1: gravidarum or HG, which can cause dehydration, weight loss, electrolyte imbalances,
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  Speaker 1: and hospitalization. Doctor Faso's persistence in understanding HG and her
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  Speaker 1: exceptional research has advanced her understanding of the biology of HG,
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  Speaker 1: which is information that will be used to improve health
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  Speaker 1: outcomes for both mothers at risk and their children, said
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Hyman, director of the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at
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  Speaker 1: the Kech School of Medicine of USC.
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  Speaker 2: Right and in the Times article that featured doctor Fasos
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  Speaker 2: as one of the Women of the Year, they detailed
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  Speaker 2: doctor Faso's own experience that helped lead her to her discovery.
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  Speaker 2: Quote geneticist Marlena Fasos had a difficult start to her
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  Speaker 2: first pregnancy. She suffered from nausea and vomiting, as roughly
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  Speaker 2: seventy percent of pregnant people do, but pushed through until
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  Speaker 2: the symptoms lesson with time. Her second pregnancy in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: ninety nine was another story. For weeks, all Phaso could
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  Speaker 2: do was life flat on her back, since even rolling
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  Speaker 2: on her side that triggered debilitating nausea, eating or drinking
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  Speaker 2: was out of the question, forcing her to get a
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  Speaker 2: home ivy for nourishment. Every second, she says, was torture. Faso,
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  Speaker 2: who is now fifty six and a clinical assistant professor
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  Speaker 2: at the University of Southern California's Tech School of Medicine,
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  Speaker 2: had something more serious than typical morning sickness. She was
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  Speaker 2: ultimately diagnosed with hybrid missus Grabaduram HG, a condition that
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  Speaker 2: Lisa extreme nausea and vomiting in one percent to three
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  Speaker 2: percent of pregnancies.
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  Speaker 1: And, as the article continues, haunted by her doctor's dismissal
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  Speaker 1: in the limits of his care, Faso tried to learn
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  Speaker 1: whatever she could about HG. While she recovered that turned
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  Speaker 1: out to be not much at all. The condition was
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  Speaker 1: barely studied at the time. There was so little known,
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  Speaker 1: Faso says, but she had a hunch there was something
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  Speaker 1: biological going on. She vowed to be the one to
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  Speaker 1: find out what it was, both for her own sake
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  Speaker 1: and that of her future children twin daughters who were
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  Speaker 1: later born via surrogate. I didn't want my daughters to
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  Speaker 1: have to go through that, she says, or anybody else.
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  Speaker 1: And she knew that this was something that hasn't been
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  Speaker 1: thoroughly liked that. In fact, according to a New York
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  Speaker 1: Times article she was featured in, she talked about how
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  Speaker 1: little information there was quote nothing was known, she said,
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  Speaker 1: there was so little research. Hyperimesis has long been under
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  Speaker 1: researched and insufficiently recognized, in part because about seventy percent
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  Speaker 1: of pregnancies come with some degree of nausea and vomiting,
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  Speaker 1: which is usually not dangerous. Doctor Toovic said healthcare providers
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  Speaker 1: can be slow to differentiate between the more common mourning
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  Speaker 1: sickness and the rareer but more severe hypoemesis, and to
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  Speaker 1: offer treatment, including medications and nutrition. She said, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Disturbingly, with the little information about hyperomesis, doctors would blame
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  Speaker 2: women for the cause. And here's more from the Times article.
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  Speaker 2: Over the last century, physicians have claimed, without evidence, that
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  Speaker 2: hyper emissis is a subconscious attempt at oral a bot
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  Speaker 2: as if trying to throw up a pregnancy, a rejection
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  Speaker 2: of femininity, a product of sexual rigidity, a strategy of
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  Speaker 2: taking a time out from stressful household responsibilities, or a
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  Speaker 2: bid for attention, as doctor Fazus's doctor had told her,
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  Speaker 2: which as a result, women have often been blamed and
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  Speaker 2: punished for their own illnesses. In the nineteen thirties, hospitalized
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  Speaker 2: hyperardymussis patients were denied the solace of the vomitabowl and
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  Speaker 2: forced to lie in their own vomit. So to this day,
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  Speaker 2: patients hospitalized with the condition are sometimes isolated in a
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  Speaker 2: dark room and prohibited from having visitors or access to
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  Speaker 2: their cell phones. This treatment has been based in part
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  Speaker 2: on the theory that hypardy missus is caused by a
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  Speaker 2: woman's subconscious rejection of pregnancy, and the isolation would make
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  Speaker 2: her accepted, said doctor Philip be Darewell, a professor of
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  Speaker 2: obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Strausburg.
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  Speaker 1: Via email and being an expert already working in women's health,
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  Speaker 1: which included her doing research and breast cancer and in fibroids,
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  Speaker 1: she started focusing on the root cause of her own experiences.
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  Speaker 1: The article continues about her research efforts quote. Unable to
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  Speaker 1: find a mentor interested in hyperemesis, doctor Faso took a
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  Speaker 1: job studying a varian cancer at the university, a position
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  Speaker 1: she stayed in mostly part time for twenty years, but
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  Speaker 1: she began piecing together research on hyperimesis during her evenings
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  Speaker 1: and weekends and on Fridays when she wasn't working in
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  Speaker 1: the lab. Her younger brother, Rick Schoenberg fifty one, a
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  Speaker 1: statistician at UCLA, helped her create an online survey of
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  Speaker 1: hyperomesis patients and the hyperomesis education and research. Her foundation
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  Speaker 1: offered collaborators and small grants to fund her work. In
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and five, doctor Faso also began partnering with
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  Speaker 1: obstetrician gynecologists at the University of Southern California.
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  Speaker 2: Right and although she was able to finally get samples
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  Speaker 2: for her tests, she wasn't able to get the funding
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  Speaker 2: she needed for the research. But she was able to
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  Speaker 2: to do so when she took a twenty three and
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  Speaker 2: me DNA test. Here's some more from her feature in
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  Speaker 2: the Times article. Then in twenty ten, she took a
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  Speaker 2: twenty three med DNA test that changed everything. When Faso
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  Speaker 2: saw the survey twenty three meters since to its customers
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  Speaker 2: to learn more about how their genes relate to their health,
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  Speaker 2: it sparked an idea. She persuaded the company to include
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  Speaker 2: questions about hg in a survey, and by twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 2: she had access to genetic data and survey responses from
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  Speaker 2: about fifty thousand people. By analyzing that trove of data,
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  Speaker 2: Faso was able to zero in on two genes of interest,
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  Speaker 2: One in particular seemed promising. It codes for the hormone
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  Speaker 2: GDF fifteen, which is linked to appetite suppression and vomiting,
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  Speaker 2: and which the body produces in earnest during a pregnancy.
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  Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, she published a paper in Nature Communications
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  Speaker 2: suggesting that a variant of that gene could predispose people
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  Speaker 2: to HG. She later bolstered that binding discovering a rare
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  Speaker 2: genetic mutation that seemed to be even more strongly linked
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  Speaker 2: to developing HG.
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  Speaker 1: She soon would go on to be able to publish
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  Speaker 1: her findings, giving those who suffer these intense levels of
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  Speaker 1: pain and distress an option for possible treatment and preventative measures.
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  Speaker 1: Again from the Times article quote. Last year, more than
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  Speaker 1: two decades after her hairing experience with HG, Bezo had
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  Speaker 1: another breakthrough. In a paper published in Nature. She reported
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  Speaker 1: that people with HG tend to have high blood levels
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  Speaker 1: of GDF fifteen during pregnancy, yet produce lower than average
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  Speaker 1: amounts of GDF fifteen prior to pregnancy. When GDF fifteen
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  Speaker 1: levels naturally arise after conception, the shock to the system
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  Speaker 1: results in HG's relentless nausea and vomiting. That finding opens
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  Speaker 1: up promising avenues for treatment. Doctors could lower GDF fifteen
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  Speaker 1: levels during pregnancy, or if they could gradually supplement levels
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  Speaker 1: up the hormone and people who are not yet pregnant
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  Speaker 1: but deemed high risk based on personal or family history
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  Speaker 1: of HT, they could feasibly smooth the transition and avoid
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  Speaker 1: debilitating symptoms. FASO is now applying for funding for a
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  Speaker 1: clinical trial to test whether the drug met Foreman, which
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  Speaker 1: is approved to treat type two diabetes but is used
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  Speaker 1: off label for numerous purposes and has been shown to
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  Speaker 1: raise GDF fifteen levels, works as a preventative therapy.
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  Speaker 2: Right, I think a big question will be whether or
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  Speaker 2: not anyone will fund it, whether or not the government
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  Speaker 2: will see that as a need, because as we already know,
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to pregnant people in the US and
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  Speaker 2: everywhere else, they are not really taken care of and
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  Speaker 2: are expected just to suck it up. Like I'm just
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  Speaker 2: even thinking about how and I guess we should probably
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  Speaker 2: do this as a whole episode, But like how they
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  Speaker 2: glamorize and romanticize morning sicknesses and they really don't tell
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  Speaker 2: you what this is. And yeah, if I have talked
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  Speaker 2: to people who talked about being so much pain in
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  Speaker 2: different ways, they didn't realize was going to be a
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  Speaker 2: part of the pain. And then things like this about
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  Speaker 2: nausea and sicknesses. They just literally think, you know, eat
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  Speaker 2: a saltine cracker. Yeah, that's the solution. And I could
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  Speaker 2: not imagine. There's so many reasons why. This is also
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  Speaker 2: why I don't want to be pregnant, because they don't
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  Speaker 2: take care of you, and they don't care, and they
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  Speaker 2: blame you anyway. She has just recently been recruited by
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  Speaker 2: the Materna Biosciences as chief scientific advisor to help develop
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  Speaker 2: a GDF fifteen based treatment for HG which is going
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  Speaker 2: to be ongoing for a while and hopefully it won't
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  Speaker 2: be kept anytime soon because definitely need that. And again,
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  Speaker 2: her own experience and her own story talks about why
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  Speaker 2: she's like, I'm not getting pregnant again, no way in hell.
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  Speaker 2: And I think there's so many people who experience that,
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  Speaker 2: as well as the fact that they talk about the
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  Speaker 2: high suicide rate, high morbidity rate that happens within pregnancy
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  Speaker 2: people in general. So this could be a conversation about
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  Speaker 2: having pregnant people being comfortable and why that should be
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  Speaker 2: a standard. Like this whole level of like is a
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  Speaker 2: sind thing. This is that whole religious aspect and women
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  Speaker 2: need to suffer in order to have being blessed with
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  Speaker 2: a child. It seems like such a nonsense. But anyway,
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  Speaker 2: with works like what doctor Faso has been doing and
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  Speaker 2: continues to do, I think it's amazing and I hope
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  Speaker 2: that we get more information like this.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, it's so needed, and it's so sad that
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  Speaker 1: so many things like this we're like, Wow, only now
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  Speaker 1: somebody taking like, finally, you know what. People shouldn't just
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  Speaker 1: have to deal with this, right, this shouldn't be a thing.
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  Speaker 2: It shouldn't be a thing.
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  Speaker 1: This shouldn't be a thing. We should look into this. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we are glad that doctor Faso is looking into it,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure we'll return and discuss that more in
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  Speaker 1: depth because there is a lot to talk about there.
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  Speaker 1: But in the meantime, listeners, if you have any thoughts
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  Speaker 1: about this, any resources, if you have any suggestions on
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  Speaker 1: who we should talk about next, you can let us know.
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