Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, the post hoc fallacy:
Shortly after moving to Canada’s Okanagan Valley, Patricia Lee started experiencing severe irregularities in her menstrual cycle. She had one painful period that lasted two and a half months. The bleeding was so intense that doctors recommended a blood transfusion. Her diagnosis: a benign tumor the size of a ping-pong ball in her uterus, and two cysts in her ovaries. At the time, Lee lived in a long, slender valley in British Columbia, where agriculture is intensive, as is pesticide use. Lee will never know what role, if any, her environment played in causing her uterine fibroids. But scientists have long suspected a link between estrogen-mimicking pollutants and gynecological diseases. Now new research is adding to the evidence that some pesticides and industrial chemicals may increase women’s risk of uterine and ovarian diseases, such as endometriosis.
