Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A drug requiring a prescription, as opposed to an over-the-counter drug, which can be purchased without one.

A physician’s order for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a patient. A prescription has several parts. They include the superscription or heading with the symbol “R” or “Rx”, which stands for the word recipe (meaning, in Latin, to take); the inscription, which contains the names and quantities of the ingredients;…

The fold of skin that covers the head of the penis. Also known as the foreskin. Only about 1 in every 20 boys is born with a retractable foreskin. This reflects the fact that the histologic (tissue) development of the foreskin is usually not complete at birth. The foreskin is thus not fully separable from the glans…

Before puberty, the period during which secondary sex characteristics start to develop and the capability for sexual reproduction is attained.

Care given before surgery when physical and psychological preparations are made for the operation, according to the individual needs of the patient. The preoperative period runs from the time the patient is admitted to the hospital or surgicenter to the time that the surgery begins.

Short for preoperative; before a surgical operation. The opposite of preop is postop.

The process of growth and development within the womb, in which a single-cell zygote (the cell formed by the combination of a sperm and an egg) becomes an embryo, a fetus, and then a baby. The first two weeks of development are concerned with simple cell multiplication. This tiny mass of cells then adheres to the inside wall of the uterus.…

Occurring or existing before birth. Prenatal care is the regular health care women should receive from an obstetrician or midwife during pregnancy. Prenatal development is the growth of a single-celled zygote formed by the combination of a sperm and an egg into a baby. Prenatal diagnosis is diagnosis before birth by techniques such as ultrasound, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), and amniocente+D13sis. The word “prenatal” comes…

Short and slangy for a premature baby. A preterm infant. Also often spelled (for obscure reasons) preemie.

A combination of physical and mood disturbances that occur in the last half of a woman’s menstrual cycle after ovulation which normally end with the onset of the menstrual flow. Physical features of the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) include breast tenderness and bloating. Psychological changes include anger and depression. Monthly chemical changes may be responsible for PMS. The chemical changes…