Cosa si prova a non poter avere un figlio? Quanto e difficile comunicare alla coppia una diagnosi di sterilita? Come affrontare il 70% dei fallimenti delle tecniche di PMA? Come una legge puo' incidere sul futuro di un embrione? Il testo, nato dalla fusione multidisciplinare medica, psicologica e sociologica, vuole riflettere su queste domande e accompagnare il lettore in una nuova forma mentis sulle criticita nella fecondazione assistita. La trama scientifica si accompagna a un linguaggio diretto dove hanno un posto rilevante le emozioni, cosi' centrali in campi quali la ginecologia, la riproduzione e la psicologia dell'infertilita, che vanno al cuore del bisogno psico-sessuale piu forte e arcaico: quello riproduttivo. Al centro del volume e la relazione medico-paziente che, nel campo dell'infertilita, e caratterizzata dall'attivazione di forti echi emotivi da parte di entrambi. Il volume, a tale riguardo, propone il protocollo SAHARAI che comprende due metodi inediti (il questionario e il nurse-ring) capaci di intervenire, rispettivamente, nella fase diagnostica e in quella terapeutica della fecondazione. I metodi e le riflessioni proposti sono volti alla riduzione dei disagi psicologici delle coppie e al riequilibrio del rapporto medico-paziente. Dal testo emerge forte una nuova idea di formazione per gli operatori dei centri di fecondazione assistita e un percorso di qualificazione per le nuove figure professionali (gli psicologi addetti alla PMA) in accordo con le nuove direttive della legge."

Reproductive technology is typically discussed in the future tense. Yet doctors have always treated involuntary childlessness. This book looks at the recent history of infertility and the different ways medicine has treated it. It traces the reluctance to allow infertility a past to a new tension that has emerged between utopian and anti-utopian fears about the growth rate and composition of population.

"The Stork and the Syringe" argues that although doctors' approach to infertility is formed in response to the exigencies of the political economy of medical practice, it also accommodates a persistent gender bias: the tendency to regard women's bodies as inviting intervention and men's as demanding caution. This bias is manifest in relation to gametes (eggs and sperm), sex hormones, in the form of medical investigations and treatment, and the frequency and enthusiasm with which the latter are carried out. Departures from this theme are rare and controversial, as the history of artificial insemination using donor semen demonstrates.

This book is a major contribution to the history and sociology of reproduction, fertility, population and medicine.

In addition to covering clinical topics and surgical procedures, this essential textbook provides detailed commentary on the contemporary social, psychological and economic issues that affect women's health. Acknowledged authorities in respective research fields have contributed specific sections to address the topics of women's mental health, genetics, prescribing for women, health promotion, hormones throughout the life cycle, psychological and behavioral issues.

Die moderne Reproduktionsmedizin wird oftmals als letzte Chance von Partnern ausgewahlt, um ihren starken, bisher unerfullten Wunsch nach einem eigenen Kind einzuloesen - ungeachtet dessen, dass sie oeffentlich sehr kontrovers diskutiert werden und haufig auf grosse Ablehnung stossen. Die Teilnahme an einer Reproduktionsbehandlung ist kostenintensiv: Zusatzlich zu den finanziellen Kosten der medizinischen Behandlung kommen noch weitere subjektive Kosten hinzu, so z.B. ein erheblicher Zeitaufwand wahrend der Fertilisierungstherapien oder aber auch das Ertragen koerperlicher und psychischer Belastungen. Die vorliegende Arbeit erforscht die Einstellung der Betroffenen zur Reproduktionsmedizin und was sie mit einem Kind verbinden. Daruber hinaus wird erforscht, wie die ungewollt kinderlosen Partner die koerperlichen, psychischen und finanziellen Belastungen erleben und bewerten.

'It is very hard to produce a timely book about a subject that changes as quickly as technologically assisted reproduction, but John Harris and Soren Holm have managed to do exactly that. The fourteen essays in this small volume provide an extremely useful and highly readable overview of the key moral, legal, and social themes raised by new ways of making babies. . . . The book is unique in that it offers perspectives on all these topics from a variety of disciplines and professions as well as from a broad range of national and cultural perspectives.' Arthur Caplan, British Medical Journal

The Fourth Edition of Knobil & Neill will continue to serve as a reference aid for research, to provide the historical context to current research, and most importantly as an aid for graduate teaching on a broad range of topics in human and comparative reproduction. In the decade since the publication of the last edition, the study of reproductive physiology has undergone monumental changes. Chief among these advances are in the areas of stem cell development, signaling pathways, the role of inflammation in the regulatory processes in the various tissues, and the integration of new animal models which have led to a greater understanding of human disease. This new edition will seek to synthesize all of this new information at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of organization and present modern physiology a more understandable and comparative context.
*The leading comprehensive work on the physiology of reproduction
*Edited and authored by the world's leading scientists in the field
*Is a synthesis of the molecular, cellular, and organismic levels of organization
*Bibliogrpahics of chapters are extensive and cover all the relevant literature

This introductory textbook examines the issues of human reproduction common to a variety of advanced school and beginning university courses. It covers in detail the physiology of the human reproductive system, the production of gametes, fertilisation, pregnancy, birth, lactation and contraception. Sensitive issues such as infertility, abortion and embryo research are discussed with careful consideration of the moral and ethical issues involved.

This important new volume in the series Cambridge Reviews in Human Reproduction provides a wide-ranging and authoritative account of the uterus and its physiological role in fertility, normal pregnancy and delivery. Acknowledged authorities from around the world provide a detailed and timely account of uterine physiology. The volume encompasses a wealth of material including cell and developmental biology, structure, function, anatomy and endocrinology, and then goes on to cover clinically important issues such as the cervix during pregnancy, measurement of uterine contractions and initiation of labour. It will prove of particular value to those involved in the management of women with pre-term labour, as well as those concerned with the development of new procedures for the prevention or amelioration of this condition.

Die medizinische Behandlung der ungewollten Kinderlosigkeit wird hierzulande nach wie vor mit einer Mischung aus Interesse am medizinisch-technischen Fortschritt und Sorge uber die mogli- cherweise nicht mehr kalkulierbaren Risiken dieses Fortschrittes betrachtet. Die Reaktionen reichen dabei von der implizi ten Gleichsetzung konkreter Formen der Reproduktionsmedizin mit den fiktiven Verhaltnissen in der 'Schonen Neuen welt'1, bis hin zu Einschatzungen, wonach sich die Reproduktionsmedizin in naher Zukunft als ein unverzichtbares Instrument bei der Bekampfung eines langandauernden Bevolkerungsruckganges in der BRD erweisen 2 werde. Auch wenn sich in den letzten 5-10 Jahren das Interesse der Offentlichkeit verstarkt den verschiedenen Formen der medizini- 3 schen Behandlung ungewollter Kinderlosigkeit zugewandt hat, so scheint mit diesem verstarkten Interesse kein Anstieg der Anzahl Der Vergleich des heutigen Potentials der Reproduk- tionsmedizin mit den Schilderungen der industriellen Erzeugung von Menschen in A. Huxleys Roman "Schone Neue Welt" gehort zu den Standardbildern in weiten Teilen der Literatur uber die medizinische Behandlung der ungewollten Kinderlosigkeit. So z.B. auch bei: Hirsch, G. und Eberbach W. (1987): Auf dem Weg zum kunstlichen Leben - Retortenkinder, Leihmutter, pro- grammierte Gene Basel, Boston, Stuttgart. S.31ff. 2 So ein Reproduktionsmediziner in der Fernsehsendung 'Explosiv' (RTL 22.5.'91). 3 Man denke z. B. nur an die Kontroversen im Zuge der Erarbeitung des Embryonenschutzgesetzes, an die Richt- linien zur Durchfuhrung der In-vitro-Fertilisation der Bundesarztekammer, an die Initiativen auf dem 56.

Fetal development in the mouse is routinely and increasingly utilized for advancing translational research and medical innovation for human obstetrical care. This is the first and only manual to provide necessary content on how this should be handled for accurate and effective data collection. Detailed descriptions and examples demonstrate how researchers and clinicians can use murine fetal and obstetrical data to improve future human applications in diseases such as infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, intrauterine fetal growth restriction, placental insufficiency, and intrauterine fetal demise, as well as organ-specific developmental disease.