Originally published in 1982 Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stuart England traces the development of obstetrics and gynaecology over the past two centuries. Between the 16th and 18th century midwifery passed from a female mystery, employing traditional medicines and superstitions, to a scientifically-based clinical skill, with both gains and losses to the patient. The case-mortality was high enough to make the increasing involvement of male surgeons socially acceptable, despite sexual taboos. Thus, as scientific knowledge of anatomy and physiology developed and was applied in the form of new techniques, so the midwives, who had less opportunity and inclination to acquire the new knowledge and skills, lost esteem and by the mid-eighteenth century were increasingly relegated to the service of the poor. The book also examines ideas about sexuality, menstruation, conception, pregnancy and lactation and shows how the views of society about femaleness, marital relations and the management of pregnancy and childbearing were influenced by these notions.

During the early 1990s, global health experts developed a new model of emergency obstetric care: post-abortion care or PAC. In developing countries with restrictive abortion laws and where NGOs relied on US family planning aid, PAC offered an apolitical approach to addressing the consequences of unsafe abortion. In Dying to Count, Siri Suh traces how national and global population politics collide in Senegal as health workers, health officials, and NGO workers strive to demonstrate PAC’s effectiveness in the absence of rigorous statistical evidence that the intervention reduces maternal mortality. Suh argues that pragmatically assembled PAC data convey commitments to maternal mortality reduction goals while obscuring the frequency of unsafe abortion and the inadequate care women with complications are likely to receive if they manage to reach a hospital. At a moment when African women face the highest risk worldwide of death from complications related to pregnancy, birth, or abortion, Suh’s ethnography of PAC in Senegal makes a critical contribution to studies of global health, population and development, African studies, and reproductive justice.  

Rayna Rapp, one of the leading feminist anthropologists in the United States, explores the complex and contradictory nature of prenatal diagnosis and its social impact and cultural meaning through the narratives of the people who have experienced it. Rich with the voices and stories of participants, these touching firsthand accounts examine how women of diverse racial, ethnic, class and religious backgrounds perceive prenatal testing. These moral issues have prompted complex questions such as:
* What do women want and not want from technology in pregnancy?
* What conditions are 'worth' an abortion?
* How do women receiving a 'bad' diagnosis cope with their ultimate decisions?

This book is a simple guide to the diagnosis, investigation, and treatment of all gynaecological cancers. It discusses the management of patients with gynaecological malignancies; considers the principles of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery; explains when and why each modality is used in treatment; covers the pathology of gynaecological cancer; discusses treatment of the advanced disease; and includes a chapter on the role of palliative care. The multidisciplinary approach reflects the cooperative practice in combined clinics.

A bracing account that challenges current medical thinking. This book makes urgently clear that winning the war on cancer will not be accomplished by physicians, scientists, pharmaceutical corporations, epidemiologists and geneticists, nor by the thousands employed in governmental agencies and universities at home and abroad. It will be won by people who understand the connection between the loss of personal health and the unchecked boundaries of worldwide pollution.

New mothers' feelings of isolation and anxiety that can often accompany the birth of a baby can trigger postnatal depression. If health and social care professionals, counsellors and therapists can find the right ways through groupwork to support women at this time, they can help them overcome these feelings. This book describes setting up and managing a discussion group for new mothers to provide support and introduce women to others at the same life stage in a safe environment. It shows how facilitating this structured activity can be positive and empowering for all concerned. It is practical and stimulating reading for everyone involved professionally with postnatal women. Contents Background and preparations for a postnatal group The world of motherhood Maternal health Planning the group Managing the group Expectations and reality Roles of motherhood Changes in relationships Parenting style Focus on feelings Building self-esteem

Pregnancy complicated by neurological disorders is a challenging area for both obstetricians and neurologists. Treatment of the maternal condition often needs to be adjusted because of concerns for the fetus, and some conditions have a major impact on the method, mode, and timing of delivery. Many of the clinical problems that arise in pregnant women with a neurological disease have not been the subject of clinical trials, so management must often be based on what published evidence is available and a good understanding of the likely interactions between the condition and pregnancy and vice versa. The editors and contributors represent a team with considerable experience in this area. They offer their "best practice" advice as how to treat the mother effectively, ensuring fetal safety, as well as embracing a philosophy that the pregnancy of a woman with a neurological disease should be made as enjoyable and rewarding for her as is possible.

Pregnancy. For many women it is an exhilarating period of their lives. Having already made the decision to conceive, now women are confronted with a more encumbering choice, one riddled with emotional and moral implications: the option to test the health of their fetus prior to birth.
Rayna Rapp, one of the leading feminist anthropologists in the United States, explores the complex and contradictory nature of prenatal diagnosis and its social impact and cultural meaning through the narratives of the people who have experienced it. Rich with the voices and stories of participants, these touching, firsthand accounts examine how women of diverse racial, ethnic, class and religious backgrounds perceive prenatal testing, the most prevalent and routinized of the new reproducing technologies. This Pandora's box of moral issues has prompted complex questions, such as: What do women want and not want from technology in pregnancy? What conditions are "worth" an abortion? How do women receiving a "bad" diagnosis cope with their ultimate decisions?
Based on the author's decade of research and her own personal experiences with amniocentesis, "Testing Women, Testing the Fetus" explores the "geneticization" of family life in all its complexity and diversity.

Grieving Reproductive Loss: The Healing Process acknowledges the devastating impact these losses can have. Written in ""plain language"", the book attempts to bring about a greater understanding of the grief associated with reproductive loss and, through the Healing Process Model[copyright], offers a holistic approach for constructive healthy grieving and healing of body, mind, and spirit.

First published in 1998, this book covers a variety of health issues in the contemporary Middle east. Its thirteen chapters, contributed by a total of 23 authors and co-authors, reflect several different disciplines relevant for health studies, including epidemiology, economics and anthropology. In the field of reproductive health, there are chapters on maternal health indicators, fertility, infertility and the utilization of family planning services. In the field of infectious disease there are chapters on schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and Rift Valley Fever. Several different parts of the Middle East and North Africa are covered, including Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Problems of reproductive health and infectious disease in the region are seen to be more serious than generally recognised. There are significant cultural and political obstacles in both areas. A particular need is for greater empowerment of women as both clients and providers within the health care systems.

In ancient Greece, gynaecology originated in the myth of the first woman Pandora, whose beautiful appearance was seen to cover her dangerous "insides". This book demonstrates how ancient Greek healers read the signs offered by their patients' bodies, arguing that medicine was based on ideas about women and their bodies found in myth and ritual. Helen King deploys a wide range of comparative material from the social sciences to discuss religious healing, chronic pain and the creation of a powerful self-image by aspiring healers. She outlines how nursing and midwifery have tried to create their own versions of the ancient Greek past to give themselves great status, and presents a detailed account of how doctors twisted ancient Greek texts into ways of controlling women's behaviour. Finally she analyzes how later medicine, by diagnosing "hysteria" and by recommending practices such as clitoridectomy, gave its decisions authority by claiming ancient Greek origins which never existed. The text provides an insight into the origins of gynaecology and the influence of the early study and medical texts on later medical practices and theories up to the Victorian era.

Hippocrates' Woman demonstrates the role of Hippocratic ideas about the female body in the subsequent history of western gynaecology. It examines these ideas not only in the social and cultural context in which they were first produced, but also the ways in which writers up to the Victorian period have appealed to the material in support of their own theories.
Among the conflicting tange of images of women given in the Hippocratic corpus existed one tradition of the female body which says it is radically unlike the male body, behaving in different ways and requiring a different set of therapies. This book sets this model within the context of Greek mythology, especially the myth of Pandora and her difference from men, to explore the image of the body as something to be read.
Hippocrates' Woman presents an arresting study of the origins of gynaecology, an exploration of how the interior workings of the female body were understood and the influence of Hippocrates' theories on the gynaecology of subsequent ages.

Female Puberty: A Comprehensive Guide for Clinicians is a practical reference, covering the full range of issues related to pubertal development. Developed to answer pointed clinical questions and to provide a thorough review of the literature, the book covers both the basics and the complexities of puberty, encompassing psychosocial development to pubertal nuances in highly specialized populations. Comprehensive in scope, this title offers concepts that are concisely conveyed and chapters that complement each other well. Complex subjects such as details of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis are covered in a readily understandable manner and bullet points throughout the text serve as helpful reminders to the reader. An invaluable contribution to the literature, Female Puberty: A Comprehensive Guide for Clinicians will be of great interest to all health providers concerned with female reproductive health - including obstetrician gynecologists, reproductive endocrine specialists, pediatricians, pediatric specialists, family practitioners and allied health professionals.

This well-illustrated manual provides a step-by-step guide to most of the common gynaecological surgical procedures, and will be extremely useful to medical students, newly qualified doctors and registrars, and invaluable for GPs working in rural hospitals and health care centres. Topics covered include suture materials, wound healing and small procedures to vaginal, abdominal, stress incontinence and laparoscopic procedures. It also deals with obstetrical procedures such as Caesarean section, episiotomy and cervical cerclage.

This timely resource offers extensive discussions on the pharmacological, environmental, endocrinological, and natural factors that alter reproductive or developmental processes-elucidating the effects of toxicants on mechanisms of reproduction. Describing biological actions common to both genders as well as gender-specific processes, Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology -provides an overview of the basic biology and physiology of organ systems affected by toxicants -furnishes detailed examples of developmental toxicology -analyzes germ cell toxicity and infertility -covers the developmental effects of neurotoxicity -considers periods of exposure and long-term toxicological consequences -explains how gonadal processes may be susceptible to toxicants in other reproductive organ systems -and more! With over 3700 bibliographic citations and more than 100 photographs, drawings, and tables, Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology is a useful reference for toxicologists; reproductive, developmental, cell, and molecular biologists; endocrinologists; biochemists; obstetricians/gynecologists; pediatricians; pharmacists and pharmacologists; physiologists; geneticists; poison control specialists; and upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students in these disciplines.

This revised edition of Managing Hot Flushes and Night Sweats offers up-to-date and evidence-based information about the menopause and about hot flushes and night sweats, which are the main reason that women seek medical help. The four-week self-help guide uses cognitive behavioral therapy, providing information and strategies for managing hot flushes and night sweats, as well as stress and sleep. The guide is interactive with exercises and homework tailored to women's individual circumstances and lifestyles. It challenges myths about menopause and aging and provides better understanding of flushes which in turn reduces stress and improves post-menopausal well-being. The various chapters discuss processes of identification and modification of triggers of hot flushes and offers tips to women on dealing with hot flushes in social and work situations. The guide can be as effective as eight hours of group CBT and will help women who want to try a non-medical treatment that is brief and effective without side effects, or just want to be better informed.

The entire span of a woman's reproductive years and beyond is the scope of this volume, which presents research covering events from first menstruation through the post-menopausal years. Special care has been taken to balance basic research and clinical information.

The volume comprises chapters on first menstruation, hypothalamic amenorrhea, implantation and recurrent abortion, XX metabolic syndrome, endometriosis, menopause, osteoporosis, minimally invasive surgery, assisted reproduction, ultrasound imaging in obstetrics, estrogen receptor modulators, and urogynecology. Papers on fertility drugs and gynecologic cancer, contraception today, prenatal genetic diagnosis, cloning and stem cells, transdermal hormone therapy, and estrogen and brain function will also be included.

Authors from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics will address issues such as, Is there an optimal rate for cesarean section? and fistulas in Africa, as well as perinatal mortality in Europe.

This volume is the latest proceedings of a series of meetings that has been held in Athens for over a decade, and the participants are internationally known authorities in their fields.

"NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. "

"ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit www.nyas.org/membership/main.asp for more information about becoming a member."

In recent years, there has been extensive analysis of the health effects of menopause and the safety and efficacy of the various "treatments". There has also been rising concern about the appropriation and pathologization of menopause by medicine and its effects on women. At the same time, however, there has been relatively little reflection on the social, cultural, philosophical and ethical issues raised by both menopause itself and the way it has been handled by medicine. This text brings together a number of reflections from a broad range of areas including feminism, cultural studies, clinical medicine, sociology, philosophy and political science and includes the voices and experiences of menopausal women themselves. In an innovative series of essays, current thinking about medicine, society and the body is examined critically. Particular attention is given to the medical representations of menopause, biology and ageing, the history of medical approaches to women and the tensions between bio-medical models and other explanations of menopause. The issue of hormonal therapies is explored in the context of the connections between women, medicine, representation and cultural politic

In recent years, there has been extensive analysis of the health effects of menopause and the safety and efficacy of the various "treatments". There has also been rising concern about the appropriation and pathologization of menopause by medicine and its effects on women. At the same time, however, there has been relatively little reflection on the social, cultural, philosophical and ethical issues raised by both menopause itself and the way it has been handled by medicine. This text brings together a number of reflections from a broad range of areas including feminism, cultural studies, clinical medicine, sociology, philosophy and political science and includes the voices and experiences of menopausal women themselves. In an innovative series of essays, current thinking about medicine, society and the body is examined critically. Particular attention is given to the medical representations of menopause, biology and ageing, the history of medical approaches to women and the tensions between bio-medical models and other explanations of menopause. The issue of hormonal therapies is explored in the context of the connections between women, medicine, representation and cultural politic

This unique textbook is designed to provide a summary of state of the art developments in both male and female fertility and its association with cancer for both new and experienced practitioners. Clear, concise and readable, the text allows the reader to obtain rapid answers to this challenging medical issue. Special emphasis is placed on diagnostic and treatment algorithms. Topics covered include demographics of cancer in the reproductive age male, fertility conditions which predispose to cancer development, the role of assisted reproduction for fertility management, as well as fertility preservation strategies for the male and female cancer patients. Cancer and Fertility will be of great value to general urologists, uro-oncologists, gynecologists, medical oncologists, obstetricians, primary care providers, allied health providers.

This book outlines the current understanding of how obesity affects female reproductive function across the lifespan. Topics include physiology of the menstrual cycle and early pregnancy, best practices in the delivery of contraceptive and prenatal care and healthcare policy that weighs the evidence in appropriate balance with principles that respect women's rights. Special attention is devoted to the idea that obesity's adverse effects are likely trans-generational; that is, children born to obese mothers are at increased risk for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. Patients and their physicians need to be aware of the additional risks obesity confers in pregnancy and outline a plan of care that includes counseling preconceptionally, antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum in order to decrease morbidity. Obesity and Fertility provides advice for reproductive medicine physicians and gynecologists to help guide obese patients toward improved reproductive health and outcomes.

This volume examines one health issue -- breast implants -- across a series of contexts often thought to be separate -- media coverage, doctor-patient interaction, doctor-doctor professional communication, support group dialogues, public relations campaigns, and more. In so doing, it provides a narrative of how communication shapes the individual perceptions of health, government, and social policy concerning health care.
At the core of the silicone breast implant controversy is the need for people to act amid uncertainty about the health risks involved. This need to weigh action in the midst of uncertain risk characterizes a large number of health issues. The attempts of patients, physicians, drug manufacturers, and others to seek and provide both information and influence makes communication central to these issues. Consequently, the questions explored in this volume will interest a diverse group of readers. This audience includes plastic surgeons in particular, physicians in general, and anyone involved with women's health issues. As the medical profession struggles with its identity amid changes in public attitudes, government regulations, and medical practices, this volume's findings concerning media portrayals of doctors and medical devices become even more important.
Finally, this study reveals how interrelated public information and private decisions are, and how closely media and interpersonal relationships fit. Tracing one medical issue across interpersonal, organizational, public relations, and mediated forums has clearly demonstrated the multiple ways those communication channels overlap and inform one another.

The book examines the major issues in perinatal clinical psychology with the presence of theoretical information and operational indications, through a biopsychosocial approach. The multiplicity of scientific information reported makes this book both a comprehensive overview on the major perinatal mental health disorders and illnesses, and a clinical guide. It covers perinatal clinical psychology through a journey of 15 chapters, putting the arguments on a solid theoretical basis and reporting multiple operational indications of great utility for daily clinical practice. It has well documented new evidence bases in the field of clinical psychology that have underpinned the conspicuous current global and national developments in perinatal mental health. As such, it is an excellent resource for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners - in fact, anyone and everyone who wishes to understand and rediscover, in a single opera, the current scientific and application scenario related to psychological health during pregnancy and after childbirth.

An authoritative account of the causes of infertility that fully explores the clinical assessment of patients and covers the decision-making behind treatment options. The content follows the MRCOG syllabus as well as delving deeper into subjects covered by the RCOG Advanced Training Skills Modules (ATSMs), leaving readers well prepared for their examinations. Written by nationally recognised leaders in the field, this volume concisely reviews contemporary clinical practice. Using an aetiology-based approach, chapters discuss ovulatory dysfunction, endometriosis, male infertility, uterine/tubal factors and unexplained infertility. The increasing use of third-party reproduction and surrogacy is explored, along with the psychosocial aspects of this type of treatment. Ethical dilemmas surrounding reproductive medicine and their management are covered in depth. With an emphasis on practical approaches to the delivery and organisation of clinical and laboratory services, readers learn how to ensure the support and care they offer is of the highest quality.