August 13, 2024 • 12 mins
Today, we are delving into the world of scientist, geneticist and professor Dr. Marlena Fejzo and her work around pregnancy sickness and hyperemesis gravidarum.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Steffan
never told your prediction of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another feminist around the world. And today
we are jumping into the world of medical sciences and
we want to talk about scientists, geneticist and professor doctor
Malena Faso. So now, doctor Faso has been making headlines
in the last couple of years for her discovery after
years of research, and just this year she was selected
(00:39):
as one of the Time Women of the Year. So
it is twenty twenty four August of twenty twenty four
to be specific, So just for that timestamp, because who knows,
you may be listening three years on the road, huh. Anyway,
So what did doctor Faso work so hard to discover? Well,
she discovered the cost of morning sickness that so often
plague pregnant people. Her discovery, which hardly anyone wanted to
(01:02):
help with in the beginning, is one that could actually
help those who oftentimes are so affected by it that
they become unable to do everyday tasks. If you've been pregnant,
I know, you know what I mean. There's some people
who are like no, I wasn't a big deal. And
there's some people who are like, nah, I'm bedridden, Like
I'm in so much pain, I couldn't imagine. So doctor
Faso herself had struggled through some intense intents, and I say,
(01:27):
I feel like, say, morning sickness is not enough pregnancy sickness,
but like that still feels like it undermines it. Just
the overall ailments I guess that would often disrupt her life.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
In an article written for the University of Southern California,
they talk about doctor Faso's work and recognitions. Here's a
quote about it. Quote. Up to eighty percent of pregnant
women experience morning sickness, more accurately known as pregnancy sickness
since it can occur at any time of day. Another
two percent are affected by a severe form called hyperemesis
(02:00):
gravidarum or HG, which can cause dehydration, weight loss, electrolyte imbalances,
and hospitalization. Doctor Faso's persistence in understanding HG and her
exceptional research has advanced her understanding of the biology of HG,
which is information that will be used to improve health
outcomes for both mothers at risk and their children, said
(02:22):
Christopher Hyman, director of the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at
the Kech School of Medicine of USC.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Right and in the Times article that featured doctor Fasos
as one of the Women of the Year, they detailed
doctor Faso's own experience that helped lead her to her discovery.
Quote geneticist Marlena Fasos had a difficult start to her
first pregnancy. She suffered from nausea and vomiting, as roughly
seventy percent of pregnant people do, but pushed through until
the symptoms lesson with time. Her second pregnancy in nineteen
(02:52):
ninety nine was another story. For weeks, all Phaso could
do was life flat on her back, since even rolling
on her side that triggered debilitating nausea, eating or drinking
was out of the question, forcing her to get a
home ivy for nourishment. Every second, she says, was torture. Faso,
who is now fifty six and a clinical assistant professor
at the University of Southern California's Tech School of Medicine,
(03:15):
had something more serious than typical morning sickness. She was
ultimately diagnosed with hybrid missus Grabaduram HG, a condition that
Lisa extreme nausea and vomiting in one percent to three
percent of pregnancies.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And, as the article continues, haunted by her doctor's dismissal
in the limits of his care, Faso tried to learn
whatever she could about HG. While she recovered that turned
out to be not much at all. The condition was
barely studied at the time. There was so little known,
Faso says, but she had a hunch there was something
biological going on. She vowed to be the one to
(03:51):
find out what it was, both for her own sake
and that of her future children twin daughters who were
later born via surrogate. I didn't want my daughters to
have to go through that, she says, or anybody else.
And she knew that this was something that hasn't been
thoroughly liked that. In fact, according to a New York
Times article she was featured in, she talked about how
(04:12):
little information there was quote nothing was known, she said,
there was so little research. Hyperimesis has long been under
researched and insufficiently recognized, in part because about seventy percent
of pregnancies come with some degree of nausea and vomiting,
which is usually not dangerous. Doctor Toovic said healthcare providers
can be slow to differentiate between the more common mourning
(04:35):
sickness and the rareer but more severe hypoemesis, and to
offer treatment, including medications and nutrition. She said, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Disturbingly, with the little information about hyperomesis, doctors would blame
women for the cause. And here's more from the Times article.
Over the last century, physicians have claimed, without evidence, that
hyper emissis is a subconscious attempt at oral a bot
as if trying to throw up a pregnancy, a rejection
of femininity, a product of sexual rigidity, a strategy of
(05:07):
taking a time out from stressful household responsibilities, or a
bid for attention, as doctor Fazus's doctor had told her,
which as a result, women have often been blamed and
punished for their own illnesses. In the nineteen thirties, hospitalized
hyperardymussis patients were denied the solace of the vomitabowl and
(05:27):
forced to lie in their own vomit. So to this day,
patients hospitalized with the condition are sometimes isolated in a
dark room and prohibited from having visitors or access to
their cell phones. This treatment has been based in part
on the theory that hypardy missus is caused by a
woman's subconscious rejection of pregnancy, and the isolation would make
(05:47):
her accepted, said doctor Philip be Darewell, a professor of
obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Strausburg.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Via email and being an expert already working in women's health,
which included her doing research and breast cancer and in fibroids,
she started focusing on the root cause of her own experiences.
The article continues about her research efforts quote. Unable to
find a mentor interested in hyperemesis, doctor Faso took a
job studying a varian cancer at the university, a position
(06:16):
she stayed in mostly part time for twenty years, but
she began piecing together research on hyperimesis during her evenings
and weekends and on Fridays when she wasn't working in
the lab. Her younger brother, Rick Schoenberg fifty one, a
statistician at UCLA, helped her create an online survey of
hyperomesis patients and the hyperomesis education and research. Her foundation
(06:39):
offered collaborators and small grants to fund her work. In
two thousand and five, doctor Faso also began partnering with
obstetrician gynecologists at the University of Southern California.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Right and although she was able to finally get samples
for her tests, she wasn't able to get the funding
she needed for the research. But she was able to
to do so when she took a twenty three and
me DNA test. Here's some more from her feature in
the Times article. Then in twenty ten, she took a
twenty three med DNA test that changed everything. When Faso
saw the survey twenty three meters since to its customers
(07:14):
to learn more about how their genes relate to their health,
it sparked an idea. She persuaded the company to include
questions about hg in a survey, and by twenty sixteen
she had access to genetic data and survey responses from
about fifty thousand people. By analyzing that trove of data,
Faso was able to zero in on two genes of interest,
One in particular seemed promising. It codes for the hormone
(07:37):
GDF fifteen, which is linked to appetite suppression and vomiting,
and which the body produces in earnest during a pregnancy.
In twenty eighteen, she published a paper in Nature Communications
suggesting that a variant of that gene could predispose people
to HG. She later bolstered that binding discovering a rare
genetic mutation that seemed to be even more strongly linked
(07:59):
to developing HG.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
She soon would go on to be able to publish
her findings, giving those who suffer these intense levels of
pain and distress an option for possible treatment and preventative measures.
Again from the Times article quote. Last year, more than
two decades after her hairing experience with HG, Bezo had
another breakthrough. In a paper published in Nature. She reported
(08:31):
that people with HG tend to have high blood levels
of GDF fifteen during pregnancy, yet produce lower than average
amounts of GDF fifteen prior to pregnancy. When GDF fifteen
levels naturally arise after conception, the shock to the system
results in HG's relentless nausea and vomiting. That finding opens
up promising avenues for treatment. Doctors could lower GDF fifteen
(08:55):
levels during pregnancy, or if they could gradually supplement levels
up the hormone and people who are not yet pregnant
but deemed high risk based on personal or family history
of HT, they could feasibly smooth the transition and avoid
debilitating symptoms. FASO is now applying for funding for a
clinical trial to test whether the drug met Foreman, which
(09:16):
is approved to treat type two diabetes but is used
off label for numerous purposes and has been shown to
raise GDF fifteen levels, works as a preventative therapy.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right, I think a big question will be whether or
not anyone will fund it, whether or not the government
will see that as a need, because as we already know,
when it comes to pregnant people in the US and
everywhere else, they are not really taken care of and
are expected just to suck it up. Like I'm just
even thinking about how and I guess we should probably
do this as a whole episode, But like how they
(09:49):
glamorize and romanticize morning sicknesses and they really don't tell
you what this is. And yeah, if I have talked
to people who talked about being so much pain in
different ways, they didn't realize was going to be a
part of the pain. And then things like this about
nausea and sicknesses. They just literally think, you know, eat
a saltine cracker. Yeah, that's the solution. And I could
(10:10):
not imagine. There's so many reasons why. This is also
why I don't want to be pregnant, because they don't
take care of you, and they don't care, and they
blame you anyway. She has just recently been recruited by
the Materna Biosciences as chief scientific advisor to help develop
a GDF fifteen based treatment for HG which is going
to be ongoing for a while and hopefully it won't
(10:31):
be kept anytime soon because definitely need that. And again,
her own experience and her own story talks about why
she's like, I'm not getting pregnant again, no way in hell.
And I think there's so many people who experience that,
as well as the fact that they talk about the
high suicide rate, high morbidity rate that happens within pregnancy
people in general. So this could be a conversation about
(10:53):
having pregnant people being comfortable and why that should be
a standard. Like this whole level of like is a
sind thing. This is that whole religious aspect and women
need to suffer in order to have being blessed with
a child. It seems like such a nonsense. But anyway,
with works like what doctor Faso has been doing and
(11:14):
continues to do, I think it's amazing and I hope
that we get more information like this.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes, absolutely, it's so needed, and it's so sad that
so many things like this we're like, Wow, only now
somebody taking like, finally, you know what. People shouldn't just
have to deal with this, right, this shouldn't be a thing.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It shouldn't be a thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
This shouldn't be a thing. We should look into this. Well,
we are glad that doctor Faso is looking into it,
and I'm sure we'll return and discuss that more in
depth because there is a lot to talk about there.
But in the meantime, listeners, if you have any thoughts
about this, any resources, if you have any suggestions on
who we should talk about next, you can let us know.
(11:57):
You can email us at stuff and the Amom Stuff
at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter
at Monster podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
One Never told you. We're also on YouTube. We have
a tea public store, and we have a book you
can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super produced Christine, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Stuff I Never Told You is prediction of my Heart Radio.
(12:18):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows,
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Steffan
never told your prediction of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another feminist around the world. And today
we are jumping into the world of medical sciences and
we want to talk about scientists, geneticist and professor doctor
Malena Faso. So now, doctor Faso has been making headlines
in the last couple of years for her discovery after
years of research, and just this year she was selected
(00:39):
as one of the Time Women of the Year. So
it is twenty twenty four August of twenty twenty four
to be specific, So just for that timestamp, because who knows,
you may be listening three years on the road, huh. Anyway,
So what did doctor Faso work so hard to discover? Well,
she discovered the cost of morning sickness that so often
plague pregnant people. Her discovery, which hardly anyone wanted to
(01:02):
help with in the beginning, is one that could actually
help those who oftentimes are so affected by it that
they become unable to do everyday tasks. If you've been pregnant,
I know, you know what I mean. There's some people
who are like no, I wasn't a big deal. And
there's some people who are like, nah, I'm bedridden, Like
I'm in so much pain, I couldn't imagine. So doctor
Faso herself had struggled through some intense intents, and I say,
(01:27):
I feel like, say, morning sickness is not enough pregnancy sickness,
but like that still feels like it undermines it. Just
the overall ailments I guess that would often disrupt her life.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
In an article written for the University of Southern California,
they talk about doctor Faso's work and recognitions. Here's a
quote about it. Quote. Up to eighty percent of pregnant
women experience morning sickness, more accurately known as pregnancy sickness
since it can occur at any time of day. Another
two percent are affected by a severe form called hyperemesis
(02:00):
gravidarum or HG, which can cause dehydration, weight loss, electrolyte imbalances,
and hospitalization. Doctor Faso's persistence in understanding HG and her
exceptional research has advanced her understanding of the biology of HG,
which is information that will be used to improve health
outcomes for both mothers at risk and their children, said
(02:22):
Christopher Hyman, director of the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at
the Kech School of Medicine of USC.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Right and in the Times article that featured doctor Fasos
as one of the Women of the Year, they detailed
doctor Faso's own experience that helped lead her to her discovery.
Quote geneticist Marlena Fasos had a difficult start to her
first pregnancy. She suffered from nausea and vomiting, as roughly
seventy percent of pregnant people do, but pushed through until
the symptoms lesson with time. Her second pregnancy in nineteen
(02:52):
ninety nine was another story. For weeks, all Phaso could
do was life flat on her back, since even rolling
on her side that triggered debilitating nausea, eating or drinking
was out of the question, forcing her to get a
home ivy for nourishment. Every second, she says, was torture. Faso,
who is now fifty six and a clinical assistant professor
at the University of Southern California's Tech School of Medicine,
(03:15):
had something more serious than typical morning sickness. She was
ultimately diagnosed with hybrid missus Grabaduram HG, a condition that
Lisa extreme nausea and vomiting in one percent to three
percent of pregnancies.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And, as the article continues, haunted by her doctor's dismissal
in the limits of his care, Faso tried to learn
whatever she could about HG. While she recovered that turned
out to be not much at all. The condition was
barely studied at the time. There was so little known,
Faso says, but she had a hunch there was something
biological going on. She vowed to be the one to
(03:51):
find out what it was, both for her own sake
and that of her future children twin daughters who were
later born via surrogate. I didn't want my daughters to
have to go through that, she says, or anybody else.
And she knew that this was something that hasn't been
thoroughly liked that. In fact, according to a New York
Times article she was featured in, she talked about how
(04:12):
little information there was quote nothing was known, she said,
there was so little research. Hyperimesis has long been under
researched and insufficiently recognized, in part because about seventy percent
of pregnancies come with some degree of nausea and vomiting,
which is usually not dangerous. Doctor Toovic said healthcare providers
can be slow to differentiate between the more common mourning
(04:35):
sickness and the rareer but more severe hypoemesis, and to
offer treatment, including medications and nutrition. She said, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Disturbingly, with the little information about hyperomesis, doctors would blame
women for the cause. And here's more from the Times article.
Over the last century, physicians have claimed, without evidence, that
hyper emissis is a subconscious attempt at oral a bot
as if trying to throw up a pregnancy, a rejection
of femininity, a product of sexual rigidity, a strategy of
(05:07):
taking a time out from stressful household responsibilities, or a
bid for attention, as doctor Fazus's doctor had told her,
which as a result, women have often been blamed and
punished for their own illnesses. In the nineteen thirties, hospitalized
hyperardymussis patients were denied the solace of the vomitabowl and
(05:27):
forced to lie in their own vomit. So to this day,
patients hospitalized with the condition are sometimes isolated in a
dark room and prohibited from having visitors or access to
their cell phones. This treatment has been based in part
on the theory that hypardy missus is caused by a
woman's subconscious rejection of pregnancy, and the isolation would make
(05:47):
her accepted, said doctor Philip be Darewell, a professor of
obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Strausburg.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Via email and being an expert already working in women's health,
which included her doing research and breast cancer and in fibroids,
she started focusing on the root cause of her own experiences.
The article continues about her research efforts quote. Unable to
find a mentor interested in hyperemesis, doctor Faso took a
job studying a varian cancer at the university, a position
(06:16):
she stayed in mostly part time for twenty years, but
she began piecing together research on hyperimesis during her evenings
and weekends and on Fridays when she wasn't working in
the lab. Her younger brother, Rick Schoenberg fifty one, a
statistician at UCLA, helped her create an online survey of
hyperomesis patients and the hyperomesis education and research. Her foundation
(06:39):
offered collaborators and small grants to fund her work. In
two thousand and five, doctor Faso also began partnering with
obstetrician gynecologists at the University of Southern California.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Right and although she was able to finally get samples
for her tests, she wasn't able to get the funding
she needed for the research. But she was able to
to do so when she took a twenty three and
me DNA test. Here's some more from her feature in
the Times article. Then in twenty ten, she took a
twenty three med DNA test that changed everything. When Faso
saw the survey twenty three meters since to its customers
(07:14):
to learn more about how their genes relate to their health,
it sparked an idea. She persuaded the company to include
questions about hg in a survey, and by twenty sixteen
she had access to genetic data and survey responses from
about fifty thousand people. By analyzing that trove of data,
Faso was able to zero in on two genes of interest,
One in particular seemed promising. It codes for the hormone
(07:37):
GDF fifteen, which is linked to appetite suppression and vomiting,
and which the body produces in earnest during a pregnancy.
In twenty eighteen, she published a paper in Nature Communications
suggesting that a variant of that gene could predispose people
to HG. She later bolstered that binding discovering a rare
genetic mutation that seemed to be even more strongly linked
(07:59):
to developing HG.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
She soon would go on to be able to publish
her findings, giving those who suffer these intense levels of
pain and distress an option for possible treatment and preventative measures.
Again from the Times article quote. Last year, more than
two decades after her hairing experience with HG, Bezo had
another breakthrough. In a paper published in Nature. She reported
(08:31):
that people with HG tend to have high blood levels
of GDF fifteen during pregnancy, yet produce lower than average
amounts of GDF fifteen prior to pregnancy. When GDF fifteen
levels naturally arise after conception, the shock to the system
results in HG's relentless nausea and vomiting. That finding opens
up promising avenues for treatment. Doctors could lower GDF fifteen
(08:55):
levels during pregnancy, or if they could gradually supplement levels
up the hormone and people who are not yet pregnant
but deemed high risk based on personal or family history
of HT, they could feasibly smooth the transition and avoid
debilitating symptoms. FASO is now applying for funding for a
clinical trial to test whether the drug met Foreman, which
(09:16):
is approved to treat type two diabetes but is used
off label for numerous purposes and has been shown to
raise GDF fifteen levels, works as a preventative therapy.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right, I think a big question will be whether or
not anyone will fund it, whether or not the government
will see that as a need, because as we already know,
when it comes to pregnant people in the US and
everywhere else, they are not really taken care of and
are expected just to suck it up. Like I'm just
even thinking about how and I guess we should probably
do this as a whole episode, But like how they
(09:49):
glamorize and romanticize morning sicknesses and they really don't tell
you what this is. And yeah, if I have talked
to people who talked about being so much pain in
different ways, they didn't realize was going to be a
part of the pain. And then things like this about
nausea and sicknesses. They just literally think, you know, eat
a saltine cracker. Yeah, that's the solution. And I could
(10:10):
not imagine. There's so many reasons why. This is also
why I don't want to be pregnant, because they don't
take care of you, and they don't care, and they
blame you anyway. She has just recently been recruited by
the Materna Biosciences as chief scientific advisor to help develop
a GDF fifteen based treatment for HG which is going
to be ongoing for a while and hopefully it won't
(10:31):
be kept anytime soon because definitely need that. And again,
her own experience and her own story talks about why
she's like, I'm not getting pregnant again, no way in hell.
And I think there's so many people who experience that,
as well as the fact that they talk about the
high suicide rate, high morbidity rate that happens within pregnancy
people in general. So this could be a conversation about
(10:53):
having pregnant people being comfortable and why that should be
a standard. Like this whole level of like is a
sind thing. This is that whole religious aspect and women
need to suffer in order to have being blessed with
a child. It seems like such a nonsense. But anyway,
with works like what doctor Faso has been doing and
(11:14):
continues to do, I think it's amazing and I hope
that we get more information like this.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes, absolutely, it's so needed, and it's so sad that
so many things like this we're like, Wow, only now
somebody taking like, finally, you know what. People shouldn't just
have to deal with this, right, this shouldn't be a thing.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It shouldn't be a thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
This shouldn't be a thing. We should look into this. Well,
we are glad that doctor Faso is looking into it,
and I'm sure we'll return and discuss that more in
depth because there is a lot to talk about there.
But in the meantime, listeners, if you have any thoughts
about this, any resources, if you have any suggestions on
who we should talk about next, you can let us know.
(11:57):
You can email us at stuff and the Amom Stuff
at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter
at Monster podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
One Never told you. We're also on YouTube. We have
a tea public store, and we have a book you
can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super produced Christine, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Stuff I Never Told You is prediction of my Heart Radio.
(12:18):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows,
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