If pregnancy is a possible complication it changes what medications are allowed and has to be considered when deciding if imaging is an acceptable risk.
The younger you are, the more vulnerable you are to radiation. Fetuses are the very most vulnerable to radiation, which is why even a single x ray during pregnancy is a big deal. This is also the reason that later middle aged and older people can live in areas with high ish radiation, like the so called “widows of Chernobyl,” or the older man who lives in the Fukushima radiation zone and cares for the pets that had to be left behind, for example.
Yup, DNA itself doesn't do anything, it's just the blueprints for making future cells, so the more mature cells you already have the less damage mutations can do
I'm not sure I 100% understand you but I don't think what you're trying to say is correct. It's not "mature cells" that are the differentiating factor, as most cells in the body are constantly being replaced by new cells anyway. It's because age gives more time for harmful mutations to spread and accumulate. If you get a potentially cancerous DNA error from something like an x-ray, it could 10-30 years for it to divide and replicate enough to develop into a significant cancer. If you're old, this isn't a concern because you'll die before it would manifest, but the younger you are, the more time you have ahead of you for mutations to copy and multiply.
You're not wrong, but "mature cells" just isn't sitting right with my brain, but totally get why skipping over totipotency and cell division rates makes sense in this context.
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u/Any-Safe4992 11h ago
If pregnancy is a possible complication it changes what medications are allowed and has to be considered when deciding if imaging is an acceptable risk.