When a woman goes to the OB-GYN for her first appointment the doctor does not ask when you had sex with your husband. They ask you when was the last time you had a menstrual cycle. This episode was obviously written by a man who has no idea what goes on with a woman goes to the OB-GYN.

Very true.. but Juliet is not a practicing doctor she is a researcher

You are correct, because the day of sex <> the day of conception is typically a few days after intercourse. She could have had sex a couple of days before the flight, and still conceived on the island.

Date of conception is much more accurate at telling fetus age since not all women have regular 28 day periods. Doctors use date of last period though because most women remember that and can tell you that date easily. However, using LMP is not as accurate; it's just what's been done for eons. Ovulation date aired with intercourse date is most accurate.

OK, but what is more intriguing from a storytelling point of view. Finding out when she had sex or when she last had her period?

You have to blend realism with storytelling.

meh, Juliette's just a perverted gossip.

Plus, being that the Others and Juliet (for her own survival reasons) are specifically interested in the date of conception. If there's a more accurate, though not professionally sensitive, method to determining the date then I think that's what Juliet would use.

I smelled a rat with Juliet's questioning. Notice at one point Juliet said "fetus". If Sun is only 53 days pregnant, that's less than 8 weeks - meaning it's an EMBRYO. The baby becomes a fetus once it reaches 8 weeks.

Three days short of a fetus? What were they thinking? :biggrin:

The issue I am having with all of this that hit me at work this morning and I haven't been able to stop pondering it is this:

LMP is used to approximate gestational age. Juliet should have asked when her LMP was, or at least if she has menstrated on the island. The fact that Sun is worried at all about who the father is, makes be think that she has not menstrated since the crash. If she is only 53 days pregant, that leaves her with having about 1.5 cycles since she had sex with Jae. If she has not menstrated since being on the island, that would put the DOC much earlier, and the baby would be much older.

And since Sun was about 53 days into her pregnancy........should there be a heart beat yet? I am trying to remember from my anatomy and physiology class.......I thought the liver develops first then the heart. I could be completely wrong here. But since Sun was only 53 days in I didn't think you can hear a heart beat yet.

I know from personal experience (4 kids), when an ultrasound is done early like this one, the heartbeat usually cannot be heard (as we did). That is generally after the 10th week or later depending on the size of the mother. It can been seen by the u/s technician but certainly not heard.

I know from personal experience (4 kids), when an ultrasound is done early like this one, the heartbeat usually cannot be heard (as we did). That is generally after the 10th week or later depending on the size of the mother. It can been seen by the u/s technician but certainly not heard.

I had an ultrasound at seven weeks and absolutely saw my son's heart beating. I do not remember if we heard the heartbeat, but I definitely remember seeing it.

I know from personal experience (4 kids), when an ultrasound is done early like this one, the heartbeat usually cannot be heard (as we did). That is generally after the 10th week or later depending on the size of the mother. It can been seen by the u/s technician but certainly not heard.

That is what I thought. Thanks!! Yeah, I don't have kids so I wasn't completely sure.

Yes, my husband and I both laughed at Juliet's question!
"When did you last have sex with your husband?"
"Last night."
And this will ttell someone exactly WHAT about your pregnancy? Ridiculous!

The poster who brought up Sun's LMP makes an excellent point. I guess we are to assume that Sun has irregular periods, and thus perhaps couldn't use a missed period as a clue.

The poster who brought up Sun's LMP makes an excellent point. I guess we are to assume that Sun has irregular periods, and thus perhaps couldn't use a missed period as a clue.

Yes, but Juliet does not know that Sun has irregular periods. It is odd that she would think that the baby is someone elses if she has had a period while on the island.

On another note, I had an ultrasound at 5 weeks and we heard something that the technitian said was a heartbeat. We then also heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks (which is actually 8 weeks from conception), so I would say that hearing the heartbeat at 8 weeks is not such a crazy idea.

I know from personal experience (4 kids), when an ultrasound is done early like this one, the heartbeat usually cannot be heard (as we did). That is generally after the 10th week or later depending on the size of the mother. It can been seen by the u/s technician but certainly not heard.

yes but were your children concieved on the island? No and who is to say that since the island can heal that it can't make the baby strong at first? There is alot going on with this island that is not yet explained.

to be completely honest i really think this whole thread is not really important. It might just have been an error on the writers part, is it really that big of a deal? I think not, i think it was just trying to move the story along.

Yes, my husband and I both laughed at Juliet's question!
"When did you last have sex with your husband?"
"Last night."
And this will ttell someone exactly WHAT about your pregnancy? Ridiculous!

The poster who brought up Sun's LMP makes an excellent point. I guess we are to assume that Sun has irregular periods, and thus perhaps couldn't use a missed period as a clue.

Hahaha! I thought the same thing - "What the heck does that have to do with when she conceived?"

I feel like these issues aren't necessarily relevant - 53 days, 8 weeks, irregular periods, Juliet's OB-GYN bedside manner, etc. Maybe EVERYTHING on the show isn't important and plot-related.

I know from personal experience (4 kids), when an ultrasound is done early like this one, the heartbeat usually cannot be heard (as we did). That is generally after the 10th week or later depending on the size of the mother. It can been seen by the u/s technician but certainly not heard.


Maybe island supersperm also makes for superfetuses

I don't know if this is relavnet or not but...

When I was 8 weeks pregnant, earlier this year, the doc did an utrasound of a more "internal" nature. He could not use the belly ultrasound until I was around 14 weeks or so. I heard and saw the heartbeat but the visual was not nearly as clear (tv land ultasound) Like I said, maybe they have special machines but my hubby and I pointed that scene out to each other immediatly.

I don't think it was an error. I think using "sex" instead of "menstruation" has more to do with North American prime time television broadcasters being more comfortable with discussing sex, then spending anytime discussing mentruation or periods.

I tend to agree that this isn't all that significant, but I need to mention that it is possible for a woman to get her period after conception in the case of ectopic pregnancies.

Women can miss periods if they don't have enough body fat... and Sun does not have much padding! Plus, a big change in diet could also affect a menstrual cycle. I'm just sayin.....

I don't think it was an error. I think using "sex" instead of "menstruation" has more to do with North American prime time television broadcasters being more comfortable with discussing sex, then spending anytime discussing mentruation or periods.

I guess that accounts for why we never see any "feminine products" advertised on television, huh? :biggrin:

I don't know if this is relavnet or not but...

When I was 8 weeks pregnant, earlier this year, the doc did an utrasound of a more "internal" nature. He could not use the belly ultrasound until I was around 14 weeks or so. I heard and saw the heartbeat but the visual was not nearly as clear (tv land ultasound) Like I said, maybe they have special machines but my hubby and I pointed that scene out to each other immediatly.

You know, you're right. My wife had a similar ultrasound done early in her pregnancy last year. I had totally forgotten about that. Hmmmmmm.

..............
"When did you last have sex with your husband?"
"Last night."
You and your husband should be writing for the show. That answer would have had me laughing so hard I would have missed the rest of the show.:biggrin:

Dumb question but everything else was right....

Sure I could have had sex last night with my husband but that has nothing to do with when I conceived ;)

Using u/s to determine conception is very common. So is hearing the heartbeat at 8 weeks. Sure it's usually easier using the ummm....'cooter cam' as some call it but it can be done with external u/s. Dating by u/s is very accurate when done early. They can usually narrow it down to a day or two. This way no matter how varied or off your body is they can still figure out when you conceived. I buy everything else that happened but definitely LOL at Juliet's question! She definitely should have asked when she last menstruated.

I guess that accounts for why we never see any "feminine products" advertised on television, huh? :biggrin:

Touche! Not to mention ads for birth control pills, and don't get me started on the cable channel ads. (If I hear another ED remedy touted, I'm going to scream.) I don't think US TV audiences are that skittish.

I don't think the question was a writing mistake....I think Juliet asked that question because it has a bearing on something.

Juliet had to have expected that Sun and Jin have had sex since she conceived, so the answer to that question could not have even remotely helped determine the date of conception. If Sun had answered "two nights ago" what possible help could that have been...and Juliet had to know that that would be a possible response. At that point she knew she was going to be doing an ultrasound, so I don't think she'd ask a pointless and embarrassing question unless there were some significance to it.

Maybe post-conception sex has some effect on pregnancy, or general health, or something else. Maybe she wanted to know the answer for reasons completely unrelated to the pregnancy. Since pregnancy is so screwed up on the island, maybe sex on the island causes something weird to happen to people that doesn't happen off island.

Just a thought....

I agree that this was a very odd question. I think there must be some significance, when you last has sex obviously has no bearing on when you conceived. I don't agree that American audiences can't handle hearing the question, "when was the date of your last menstrual cycle." My stars, the show is on at 10:00--and this question is neither rude or indecent!:drowsy:

I wonder if due to the islands super powers in the sperm producing business it also can affect the release of eggs from the woman--even to the point of shooting them out when a woman is pregnant. I know that this is not a possibility when a woman is pregnant in the real world, but maybe it is on the show.

lost_horizon is correct in that the episode was written by men (Edward & Adam). My wife is 7 weeks pregnant and they are still doing the internal ultrasounds.

I was unaware that there even was an internal ultrasound until we were meeting with a reproductive endocrinologist. It was probably a mistake. No harm done, it's all in the details!

LS.

Why didn't Sun ANSWER the question about when she last had sex? Didn't she just give Juliet a dirty look and refuse to answer? What was with that?

Why should we believe that Juliet gave Sun the correct answer about the age of her baby? Now that Sun thinks she is going to die, Juliet has complete, total power over her. She can easily persuade Sun to go along with any procedure she wants to do on her.

My other question is this. They recruited Juliet because of her work in getting peeps pregnant. What does infertility have to do with the problem of women dying once they are pregnant on the island? It seems to me they needed a specialist that has studied POST CONCEPTION situations whereas all of Juliet's research was on causing conception.

I think Juliet already knew about Jin being sterile. After all, didn't he go to a Dr. in Korea? One who lied to him and told him Sun was infertile.

The Others have a lot of technology at their dispense - they have info. on all of the passengers. They probably knew that Sun was going to leave her husband - may have been a part of helping her plan her escape.

Also, my feeling is that they knew about the affair with Jae as well. Perhaps he had a part to play.

Maybe they knew that Sun and Jin were having problems and were not feeling "romantically inclined" towards one another since being on the Island. Plus at first when their lives were in peril they may not have thought about it all!! Their relationship did not begin to heal until Jin/Sawyer/Michael came back with AL and her crew.

Juliet may have been wondering if they had had sex at all since they came to the Island. It could have been a way for Juliet to get Sun to confess about Jae so she could add him into the equation.