Friday, July 11, 2008

Potato pessary

I've ran across a story on the internet about folk remedies for uterine prolapses that include lodging objects into the vagina as a pessary. One particularly colorful tale involved a Russian woman using a potato which subsequently germinated. Here is what snopes has to say:

Status: undetermined

Story: "An elderly female comes to the Emergency Department complaining: "I got the green vines in my virginity." The patient reports a two-week history of a vine growing from her vagina. On physical examination it is discovered that she does indeed have a vine growing out of her vagina, about six inches in length. A pelvic exam reveals a mass which is easily removed from the vaginal vault, vine still attached. Upon extraction, the patient reports that her uterus had been falling out and that she "put a potato in there to hold it up" and subsequently forgot about it."

Bayblab verdict: The story seems to have many variants on the web, so there may be a lot of embellishment. I have no doubt that someone out there has used a potato as a home remedy for prolapsed uterus. I have seen some weird stuff when i was hanging out in OB/Gyn but I'm not sure anything could germinate in the acidic environment of the vagina ~pH 4.0 . Perhaps we could test whether a potato would grow at that pH.


1 comments:

Buy Cialis said...

Potatoes are indeed a source of amazing vitamins and proteins, it is very good for the stomach as well.