penetration meaning in biology

As I listened to [intersexuals’] stories, certain leit motifs began to emerge from the bits of their histories. They or their parents had little, if any, counseling. They thought they were the only ones who felt as they did. Many had asked to meet other patients whose medical histories were similar to their own, but they were stonewalled. They recognized themselves in published case histories, but when they sought medical records, were told they could not be located…. The patients I was encountering were not those whose surgeries resulted from life-threatening or seriously debilitating medical conditions. Rather, they had such diagnoses as “micropenis” or “clitoral hypertrophy.” These were patients who were told-when they were told anything-that they had vaginoplasties or clitorectomies because of the serious psychological consequences they would have suffered if surgery had not been done. But the surgeries had been performed-and they were reporting longstanding psychological distress. They were certain that they would rather have had the “abnormal” genitals they [had] had than the “mutilated” genitals they were given. They were hostile and often vengeful towards the professionals who had been responsible for their care and sometimes, by transference, towards me. They were furious that they had been lied to. 29

Given the lack of long-term follow-up studies it is unclear whether a majority of intersexuals wind up feeling this way, but even if only a small number do we must ask whether the practice of deception and “stonewalling” is essentially unethical.

Why would a physician ever withhold medical and personal historical information from an intersexed patient? Because she or he believes that the truth is too horrible or too complicated for the patient to handle. In a 1988 commentary in the Hastings Center Report, Brendan Minogue and Robert Tarszewski argued, for example, that a physician could justifiably withhold information from a sixteen-year-old AIS patient and/or her parents if he believed that the patient and/or family was likely to be incapable of handling the fact that she has testes and an XY chromosomal complement. 30 Indeed, this reasoning appears typical among clinicians treating intersexuality; many continue to believe that talking truthfully with intersexuals and their families will undo all the “positive” effects of the technological efforts aimed at covering up doubts. Thus despite intersexuals’ and ethicists’ published, repeated objections to deception, in 1995 a medical student was given a cash prize in medical ethics by the Canadian Medical Association for an article specifically advocating deceiving AIS patients (including adults) about the biological facts of their conditions. The prize-winner argued that “physicians who withhold information from AIS patients are not actually lying; they are only deceiving” because they selectively withhold facts about patients’ bodies. 31

But what this reasoning fails to appreciate is that hiding the facts of the condition will not necessarily prevent a patient and family from thinking about it. Indeed, the failure on the part of the doctor and family to talk honestly about the condition is likely only to add to feelings of shame and confusion. One woman with AIS in Britain writes, “Mine was a dark secret kept from all outside the medical profession (family included), but this [should] not [be] an option because it both increases the feelings of freakishness and reinforces the isolation.” 32 Similarly, Martha Coventry, a woman who had her “enlarged” clitoris removed by surgeons when she was six, insists that “to be lied to as a child about your own body, to have your life as a sexual being so ignored that you are not even given the decency of an answer to your questions, is to have your heart and soul relentlessly undermined.” 33

Lying to a patient about his or her biological condition can also lead to a patient unintentionally taking unnecessary risks. As a young woman, Sherri Groveman, who has AIS , was told by her doctor that she had “twisted ovaries” and that they had to be removed; in fact, her testes were removed. At the age of twenty, “alone and scared in the stacks of a [medical] library,” she discovered the truth of her condition. Then “the pieces finally fit together. But what fell apart was my relationship with both my family and physicians. It was not learning about chromosomes or testes that caused enduring trauma, it was discovering that I had been told lies. I avoided all medical care for the next 18 years. I have severe osteoporosis as a result of a lack of medical attention. This is what lies produce.” 34

Clearly, the notion that deception or selective truthtelling will protect the child, the family, or even the adult intersexual is extraordinarily paternalistic and naive, and, while perhaps well-intentioned, it goes against the dominant trend in medical ethics as those ethics guidelines are applied to other, similar situations. In what other realms are patients regularly not told the medical names for their conditions, even when they ask? As for the idea that physicians should not tell patients what they probably “can’t handle,” would a physician be justified in using this reasoning to avoid telling a patient she has cancer or AIDS ?

In their commentary in the Hastings Center Report Sherman Elias and George Annas pointed out that a physician who starts playing with the facts of a patient’s condition may well find himself forced to lie or admit prior deception. “Practically,” Elias and Annas wrote, “it is unrealistic to believe that [the AIS patient] will not ultimately learn the details of her having testicular syndrome. From the onset it will be difficult to maintain the charade.” 36 They also note that without being told the name and details of her condition any consent the AIS patient gives will not truly be “informed.” As an attorney Groveman too argues “that informed consent laws mandate that the patient know the truth before physicians remove her testes or reconstruct her vagina. 37

Informed Consent and Risk Assumption

It is not at all clear if all or even most of the intersex surgeries done today involve what would legally and ethically constitute informed consent. It appears that few intersexuals or their parents are educated, before they give consent, about the anatomically strict psychosocial model employed. The model probably ought to be described to parents as essentially unproven insofar as the theory remains unconfirmed by broad-based, longterm follow-up studies, and is directly challenged by cases like the John/Joan case as well as by evermounting “anecdotal” reports from former patients who, disenfranchised and labeled “lost to follow-up” by clinicians, have turned to the popular press and to public protest in order to be heard. Of course, as long as intersex patients are not consistently told the truth of their conditions, there is some question about whether satisfaction can be assessed with integrity in long-term studies.

At a finer level, many of the latest particular cosmetic surgeries being used on intersexed babies and children today remain basically unproven as well, and need to be described as such in consent agreements. For example, a team of surgeons from the Children’s Medical Center and George Washington University Medical School has reported that in their preferred form of clitoral “recession” (done to make “big” clitorises look “right”), “the cosmetic effect is excellent” but “late studies with assessment of sexual gratification, orgasm, and general psychological adjustment are unavailable . . . and remain in question.” 38 In fact the procedure may result in problems like stenosis, increased risk of infections, loss of feeling, and psychological trauma. (These risks characterize all genital surgeries.)

This lack of long-term follow-up is the case not only for clitoral surgeries; David Thomas, a pediatric urologist who practices at St. James’s University Hospital and Infirmary in Leeds, England, recently noted the same problem with regard to early vaginal reconstructions: “So many of these patients are lost to follow-up. If we do this surgery in infancy and childhood, we have an obligation to follow these children up, to assess what we’re doing.” 39 There is a serious ethical problem here: risky surgeries are being performed as standard care and are not being adequately followed-up. 40

The growing community of open adult intersexuals understandably question whether anyone should have either her ability to enjoy sex or her physical health risked without personal consent just because she has a clitoris, penis, or vagina that falls outside the standard deviation. Even if we did have statistics that showed that particular procedures “worked” a majority of the time we would have to face the fact that part of the time they would not work, and we need to ask whether that risk ought to be assumed on behalf of another person.

Beyond “Monster Ethics”

In a 1987 article on the ethics of killing one conjoined twin to save the other, George Annas suggested (but did not advocate) that one way to justify such a procedure would be to take “the monster approach.” This approach would hold that conjoined twins are so grotesque, so pathetic, any medical procedure aimed at normalizing them would be morally justified. 41 Unfortunately, the present treatment of intersexuality in the U.S. seems to be deeply informed by the monster approach; ethical guidelines that would be applied in nearly any other medical situation are, in cases of intersexuality, ignored. Patients are lied to; risky procedures are performed without follow-up; consent is not fully informed; autonomy and health are risked because of unproven (and even disproven) fears that atypical anatomy will lead to psychological disaster. Why? Perhaps because sexual anatomy is not treated like the rest of human anatomy, or perhaps because we simply assume that any procedure which “normalizes” an “abnormal” child is merciful. Whatever the reason, the medical treatment of intersexuality and other metabolically benign, cosmetically unusual anatomies needs deep and immediate attention.

We can readily use the tools of narrative ethics to gain insight into practices surrounding intersexuality. There are now available many autobiographies of adult intersexuals. 42 Like that of John/Joan, whether or not they are characteristic of long-term outcomes these autobiographies raise serious questions about the dominant treatment protocols.

Narrative ethics also suggests that we use our imaginations to think through the story of the intersexual, to ask ourselves, if we were born intersexed, what treatment we would wish to have received. Curious about what adult nonintersexuals would have chosen for themselves, Suzanne Kessler polled a group of college students regarding their feelings on the matter. The women were asked, “Suppose you had been born with a larger than normal clitoris and it would remain larger than normal as you grew to adulthood. Assuming that the physicians recommended surgically reducing your clitoris, under what circumstances would you have wanted your parents to give them permission to do it?” In response,

.bq About a fourth of the women indicated they would not have wanted a clitoral reduction under any circumstance. About half would have wanted their clitoris reduced only if the larger than normal clitoris caused health problems. Size, for them, was not a factor. The remaining forth of the sample could imagine wanting their clitoris reduced if it were larger than normal, but only if having the surgery would not have resulted in a reduction in pleasurable sensitivity. 43

Meanwhile, in this study, “the men were asked to imagine being born with a smaller than normal penis and told that physicians recommended phallic reduction and a female gender assignment.” In response All but one man indicated they would not have wanted surgery under any circumstance. The remaining man indicated that if his penis were 1 cm. or less and he were going to be sterile, he would have wanted his parents to give the doctors permission to operate and make him a female. (p. 36)

Kessler is cautious to note that we need more information to assess this data fully, but it does begin to suggest that given the choice most people would reject genital cosmetic surgery for themselves.

As an historian, I also think we need to consider the historical and cultural bases for genital conformity practices, and realize that most people in the U.S. demonstrate little tolerance for practices in other cultures that might well be considered similar. I am, of course, talking about the recent passage of federal legislation prohibiting physicians from performing “circumcision” on the genitalia of girls under the age of eighteen, whether or not the girls consent or personally request the procedure. African female genital “cutting” typically involves, in part, excision of the clitoral tissue so that most or all clitoral sensation will be lost. While proponents of this traditional female genital “cutting” have insisted this practice is an important cultural tradition-analogous to male circumcision culturallyadvocates of the U.S. law insist it is barbaric and violates human rights. Specifically, in the federal legislation passed in October 1996 Congress declared that: “Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever knowingly circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.” 44

Subsection “b” specifies that: “A surgical operation is not a violation of this section if the operation is (1) necessary to the health of the person on whom it is performed, and is performed by a person licensed in the place of its performance as a medical practitioner; or (2) performed on a person in labor or who has just given birth and is performed for medical purposes connected with that labor or birth.”

Surgeons treating intersexuality presumably would argue that the procedures they perform on the genitals of girls (which clearly include excision of parts of the clitoris) are indeed “necessary to the health of the person on whom it is performed.” While it is easy to condemn the African practice of female genital mutilation as a barbaric custom that violates human rights, we should recognize that in the United States medicine’s prevailing response to intersexuality is largely about genital conformity and the “proper” roles of the sexes. Just as we find it necessary to protect the rights and well-being of African girls, we must now consider the hard questions of the rights and well-being of children born intersexed in the United States.

As this paper was in process, the attention paid by the popular media and by physicians to the problems with the dominant clinical protocols increased dramatically, and many more physicians and ethicists have recently come forward to question those protocols. Diamond and Sigmundson have helpfully proposed tentative new “guidelines for dealing with persons with ambiguous genitalia.” 45

As new guidelines are further developed, it will be critical to take seriously two tasks. First, as I have argued above, intersexuals must not be subjected to different ethical standards from other people simply because they are intersexed. Second, the experiences and advice of adult intersexuals must be solicited and taken into consideration. It is incorrect to claim, as I have heard several clinicians do, that the complaints of adult intersexuals are irrelevant because they were subjected to “old, unperfected” surgeries. Clinicians have too often retreated to the mistaken belief that improved treatment technologies (for example, better surgical techniques) will eliminate ethical dilemmas surrounding intersex treatment. There is far more at issue than scar tissue and loss of sensation from unperfected surgeries.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Aron Sousa, Cheryl Chase, Michael Fisher, Elizabeth Gretz, Daniel Federman, the members of the Enhancement Technologies and Human Identity Working Group, and Howard Brody, Libby Bogdan-Lovis, and other associates of the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University for their comments on this work.

This article is adapted from Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex, by Alice Domurat Dreger, to be published this month by Harvard University Press. Copyright 1998 by Alice Domurat Dreger. All rights reserved.

Alice Domurat Dreger, “\`Ambiguous Sex’-or Ambivalent Medicine? Ethical Issues in the Treatment of Intersexuality,” Hastings Center Report 28, no. 3 (1998): 24-36.

1 Milton Diamond and H. Keith Sigmundson, Sex Reassignment at Birth: Long-Term Review and Clinical Implications, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 15 (1997): 298-304.

2 For a more in-depth biography, see John Colapinto, The True Story of John/Joan , Rolling Stone, 11 December 1997, pp. 55ff.

3 Diamond and Sigmundson, “Sex Reassignment,” p. 303.

4 I discuss this at length in Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); see especially prologue and chap. 1.

5 See Ethel Sloane, Biology of Women, 3d ed. (Albany: Delmar Publishers, 1993), p. 168. According to Denis Grady, a study of over 6,500 women athletes competing in seven different international sports competitions showed an incidence of intersexuality of one in 500 women, but unfortunately Grady does not provide a reference to the published data from that study (Denise Grady, “Sex Test,” Discover, June 1992, pp. 78-82). That sampled population should not simply be taken as representative of the whole population, but this number is certainly higher than most people would expect.

6 Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: How Biologists Construct Sexuality (New York: Basic Books, forthcoming 1999), chap. 2; Fausto-Sterling, “How Dimorphic Are We?” American Journal of Human Genetics (forthcoming); and personal communication. The highest modern-day estimate for frequency of sexually ambiguous births comes from John Money, who has posited that as many as 4 percent of live births today are of “intersexed” individuals (cited in Anne Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes,” The Sciences 33 [1993]: 20-25). Money’s categories tend to be exceptionally broad and poorly defined, and not representative of what most medical professionals today would consider to be “intersexuality.”

7 Dreger, Hermaphrodites, chaps. 1-5; for a summary of the scene in Britain in the late-nineteenth century, see Dreger, “Doubtful Sex: The Fate of the Hermaphrodite in Victorian Medicine,” Victorian Studies 38 (1995): 335-69.

8 Stuart R. Kupfer, Charmain A. Quigley, and Frank S. French, “Male Pseudohermaphroditism,” Seminars in Perinatology 16 (1992): 319-31, at 325.

9 For summaries and critiques of Money’s work on intersexuality, see especially: Cheryl Chase, “Affronting Reason,” in Looking Queer: Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual Gay and Transgendered Communities, ed. D. Atkins (Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth, 1998); “Hermaphrodities with Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism,” GLQ 4, no. 2 (1998): 189-211; Anne Fausto-Sterling, “How to Build a Man,” in Science and Homosexualities, ed. Vernon A. Rosario (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 219-25; and Ellen Hyun-Ju Lee, “Producing Sex: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Sex Assignment Decisions for Intersexuals” (Senior Thesis, Brown University, 1994).

10 American Academy of Pediatrics (Section on Urology), Timing of Elective Surgery on the Genitalia of Male Children with Particular Reference to the Risks, Benefits, and Psychological Effects of Surgery and Anesthesia , Pediatrics 97, no. 4 (1996): 590-94.

11 For example, see Patricia K. Donahoe, “The Diagnosis and Treatment of Infants with Intersex Abnormalities,” Pediatric Clinics of North America 34 (1987): 1333-48.

12 Suzanne J. Kessler, “The Medical Construction of Gender: Case Management of Intersexed Infants,” Signs 16 (1990): 3-26; compare the advice given by Cynthia H. Meyers-Seifer and Nancy J. Charest, “Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Ambiguous Genitalia,” Seminars in Perinatology 16 (1992): 33239.

13 Lee, “Producing Sex,” p. 45.

14 Melissa Hendricks, “Is It a Boy or a Girl?” John Hopkins Magazine (November, 1993): 10-16, p. 10.

15 Barbara C. McGillivray, “The Newborn with Ambiguous Genitalia,” Seminars in Perinatology 16 (1991): 365-68, p. 366. 16. Kurt Newman, judson Randolph, and Kathryn Anderson, “The Surgical Management of Infants and Children with Ambiguous Genitalia,” Annals of Surgery 215 (1992): 644-53, pp. 651 and 647.

17 Meyers-Seifer and Charest, “Diagnosis and Management,” p. 337. See also Kupfer, Quigley, and French, “Male Pseudohermaphroditism,” p. 328; Rajkumar Shah, Morton M. Woolley, and Gertrude Costin, “Testicular Feminization: The Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome,” Journal of Pediatric Surgery 27 (1992): 757-60, p. 757.

18 Justine Schober, personal communication; for data on this, see Justine M. Reilly and C.R.J. Woodhouse, “Small Penis and the Male Sexual Role,” Journal of Urology 142 (1989): 569-71.

19 Robin J.O. Catlin, Appleton eF Lange Review for the USMILE Step 2 (East Norwalk, Connecticut: Appleton & Lange, 1993), p. 49.

20 See the comments of John P Gearhart in M. M. Bailez, John P Gearhart, Claude Migeon, and John Rock, “Vaginal Reconstruction After Initial Construction of the External Genitalia in Girls with Salt-Wasting Adrenal Hyperplasia,” Journal of Urology 148 (1992): 680-84, p. 684.

21 Kupfer, Quigley, and French, “Male Pseudohermaphroditism,” p. 328.

22 Lee, “Producing Sex,” p. 27.

23 See Donahoe, “The Diagnosis and Treatment of Infants with Intersex Abnormalities.”

24 Reilly and Woodhouse, “Small Penis,” p. 569.

25 Patricia K. Donahoe, David M. Powell, and Mary M. Lee, “Clinical Management of Intersex Abnormalities,” Current Problems in Surgery 28 (1991): 515-79, p. 540.

26 Diamond and Sigmundson, “Sex Reassignment,” pp. 300301.

27 Cheryl Chase, personal communication.

28 Quoted in Justine M. Schober, “Long-Term Outcomes, ed. Pierre of (Philadelphia: William B. Saunders, for Intersex,” Pediatric Surgery and Urology: Long Term Outcomes, ed. Pierre D. E. Mouriquand (Philadelphia: William B. Saunders, forthcoming).

29 H. M. Malin, personal communication of 1 January 1997 to Justine M. Schober, quoted in Schober, “Long-Term Outcome.”

30 Brendan P Minogue and Robert Taraszewski, “The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?” (Case Study), Hastings Center Report 18, no. 5 (1988): 34-35.

31 Anita Natarajan, Medical Ethics and Truth Telling in the Case of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome , Canadian Medical Association Journal 154 (1996): 568-70. (For responses to Natarajan’s recomendations by AIS women and a partner of an AIS woman , see Canadian Medical Association Journal 154 [1996]: 1829-33.)

32 Anonymous, Be Open and Honest with Sufferers, British Medical Journal 308 (1994): 1041-42.

33 Martha Coventry, Finding the Words, Chrysalis: The Journal of Transgressive Gender Identities 2 (1997): 27-30.

34 Sherri A. Groveman, Letter to the Editor, Canadian Medical Association Journal 154 (1996): 1829, 1832.

35 B. Diane Kemp, Letter to the Editor, Canadian Medical Association Journal 154 (1996): 1829.

36 Sherman Elias and George J. Annas, “The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?” (Case Study), Hastings Center Report 18, no. 5 (1988): 35-36, p. 35.

37 Groveman, “Letter to the Editor,” p. 1829.

38 Newman, Randolph, and Anderson, “Surgical Management,” p. 651.

39 “Is Early Vaginal Reconstruction Wrong for Some Intersex Girls?” Urology Times (February 1997): 10-12.

40 Intersexuals are understandably tired of hearing that “long-term follow-up data is needed” while the surgeries continued to occur. On this, see especially the guest commentary by David Sandberg, “A Call for Clinical Research,” Hermaphrodites with Attitude (Fall/Winter 1995-1996): 8-9, and the many responses of intersexuals in the same issue.

41 George J. Annas, “Siamese Twins: Killing One to Save the Other” (At Law), Hastings Center Report 17, no. 2 (1987): 2729.

42 See, for example, M. Morgan Holmes, “Medical Politics and Cultural Imperatives: Intersex Identities beyond Pathology and Erasure” (M.A. Thesis, York University, 1994); Chase, “Hermaphrodites with Attitude”; Geoffrey Cowley, “Gender Limbo,” Newsweek, 19 May 1997, pp. 64-66; Natalie Angier, “New Debate Over Surgery on Genitals,” New York Times, 13 May 1997; “Special Issue: Intersexuality,” Chrysalis: The Journal of Transgressive Gender Identities 2 (1997). Intersexual autobiographies are also from peer support groups, including the Intersex Society of North America. For information about support groups see the special issue of Chrysalis , vol. 2, 1997.

43 Suzanne J. Kessler, Meanings of Genital Variability Chrysalis: The Journal of Transgressive Gender Identities 2 (1997): 33-37.

44 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill, H.R. 3610, PL. 104-208.

45 Milton Diamond and Keith Sigmundson, Management of Intersexuality: Guidelines for Dealing with Persons with Ambiguous Genitalia , Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 151 (1997): 1046-50.

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Schematic representation of the penetration theory.
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(a) Schematic illustration of the penetration depth of different
Routes of penetration. A: Intercellular penetration pathway, B

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COMMENTS

Penetrance
Penetrance in genetics is the proportion of individuals carrying a particular variant (or allele) of a gene (the genotype) that also expresses an associated trait (the phenotype ).
Penetration Definition & Meaning
penetration noun pen· e· tra· tion ˌpe-nə-ˈtrā-shən Synonyms of penetration 1 a : the power to penetrate especially : the ability to discern deeply and acutely b : the depth to which something penetrates c : the extent to which a commercial product or agency is familiar or sells in a market 2 : the act or process of penetrating: such as a
14.12: Penetrance and Expressivity
Penetrance refers to the probability of a gene or trait being expressed. In some cases, despite the presence of a dominant allele, a phenotype may not be present. One example of this is polydactyly in humans (extra fingers and/or toes). A dominant allele produces polydactyly in humans but not all humans with the allele display the extra digits.
Penetration path Definition & Meaning
The meaning of PENETRATION PATH is the course taken by the sperm in entering the egg. the course taken by the sperm in entering the egg… See the full definition
21.2A: Steps of Virus Infections
Viral replication involves six steps: attachment, penetration, uncoating, replication, assembly, and release. During attachment and penetration, the virus attaches itself to a host cell and injects its genetic material into it. During uncoating, replication, and assembly, the viral DNA or RNA incorporates itself into the host cell's genetic ...
Penetrance and Expressivity
Penetrance refers to the probability of a gene or trait being expressed. In some cases, despite the presence of a dominant allele, a phenotype may not be present. One example of this is polydactyly in humans (extra fingers and/or toes). A dominant allele produces polydactyly in humans but not all humans with the allele display the extra digits.
Sexual intercourse
sexual intercourse, also called coitus or copulation, reproductive act in which the male reproductive organ (in humans and other higher animals) enters the female reproductive tract. If the reproductive act is complete, sperm cells are passed from the male body into the female, in the process fertilizing the female's egg and forming a new organism.
Penetration Definition & Meaning
noun the act or power of penetrating. mental acuteness, discernment, or insight: a scholar of rare penetration. the obtaining of a share of a market for some commodity or service. the extension, usually peaceful, of the influence of one nation or culture into the affairs of another. a military attack that penetrates into enemy territory.
What Does Penetrate Mean In Science
Definition of penetrate transitive verb. 1a : to pass into or through this route … penetrates the leading resort and lake areas — American Guide Series: Minnesota Only a dirt road penetrates the rough, wooded terrain. b : to enter by overcoming resistance : pierce This bullet can penetrate armor.
meaning of penetration in biology?
1. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to effect an entrance into; to pierce; as, light penetrates darkness. 2. To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to touch with feeling; to make sensible; to move deeply; as, to penetrate one's heart with pity.
Penetration
1. A piercing or entering. 2. Mental acumen. 3. Synonym (s): focal depth [L. penetratio, fr. penetro, pp. -atus, to enter] Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012 penetration noun Entry by force; infiltration; insertion. Forensics noun The entry of a sharp object or projectile into the body. Sexology
PENETRATION
a movement into or through something or someone: Sunscreens can help reduce the penetration of ultraviolet rays into the skin. The company is trying to increase its penetration of the market. the act of putting your penis or another object into someone else's body as a sexual act SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Biology of percutaneous penetration
Biology of percutaneous penetration Percutaneous penetration is a highly complicated and dynamic process influenced by numerous skin and environmental factors. Although research over the last few decades has provided plenty of new insights to improve our understanding of percutaneous penetration, many areas lack clarity due to conflic …
What are reduced penetrance and variable expressivity?
What are reduced penetrance and variable expressivity? Reduced penetrance and variable expressivity are factors that influence the effects of particular genetic changes. These factors usually affect disorders that have an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, although they are occasionally seen in disorders with an autosomal recessive ...
PENETRATION (noun) definition and synonyms
2. the act of getting into a place or group. This was in the days before the organization 's penetration into African markets. Synonyms and related words. 3. the act of getting inside something, especially past objects or substances that are intended to stop things getting inside. The fabric could be damaged by water penetration.
Fertilization
Fusion in advanced animals is usually followed by penetration of the egg by a single spermatozoon. The result of fertilization is a cell ( zygote) capable of undergoing cell division to form a new individual. journey of a fertilized egg. The fusion of two gametes initiates several reactions in the egg. One of these causes a change in the egg ...
3 Phases of Penetration of Pathogenesis in Plants
These three phases of penetration are briefly discussed below. (I) Pre-penetration Changes: The pre-penetration phase includes the growth of the pathogen before actual entry or penetration into the host. Spores of various pathogenic fungi germinate on the surface of the host. During germination, metabolic activities of spores increase considerably.
Penetration
Penetration is an element of sexual pleasure and reproduction as well as a symbolic action defining virginity, marriage, and sodomy. Penile penetration of the vagina is the key element in the definition of sexual intercourse, which only occurs when a male penis penetrates a female vagina.
# Ambiguous Sex--or Ambivalent Medicine?
The "true sex" of most individuals thus by definition settled nicely into one of the two great and preferred camps, no matter how confusing the rest of their sexual anatomies. ... "Adequate intercourse was defined as successful vaginal penetration. ... Biology of Women, 3d ed. (Albany: Delmar Publishers, 1993), p. 168. According to Denis ...
Penetration Definition & Meaning
noun The act, power, or an instance of penetrating. Webster's New World Similar definitions The power or ability to penetrate. American Heritage The depth reached by a projectile after hitting its target. American Heritage The depth to which something penetrates, as a military force into enemy territory. Webster's New World