A much-needed overview of the available information now accumulating to indicate that assisted reproductive technologies are generally safe for both babies and mothers. However, the literature abounds with reports of a higher risk of obstetric and perinatal complications; regarding the long term outcomes for both women and children, the data are still scarce. The chapters summarized in this book review the current knowledge on long term safety of assisted reproduction and indicate the need for continued research to cover the lack of data in some specific patient groups and for recently developed treatments that only have a short period of follow-up.

In this third volume, the Biennial Review of Infertility brings together the most up-to-date research and clinical information on male and female infertility, emerging assisted reproductive techniques, and controversial issues in reproductive medicine. An impressive panel of contributors presents cutting-edge information in a clear and well-balanced manner. This volume includes hot topics in reproductive medicine including age and its impact on fertility, lifestyle factors and reproductive health, fertility preservation for cancer patients, reproductive tourism and a discussion of clinical research design. The expanded section on controversies allows for point/counterpoint discussion between experts with differing opinions on topics like safety of the ICSI procedure and the role of IUI in modern reproductive medicine. Created to provide an ongoing appraisal of current knowledge, the Biennial Review of Infertility stimulates communication amongst all those working to help couples resolve their infertility.

Fertility, Pregnancy, and Wellness is designed to bridge science and a more holistic approach to health and wellness, in particular, dealing with female-male fertility and the gestational process. Couples seeking to solve fertility issues for different reasons, whether failed assisted reproductive techniques or the emotional impact they entail, economic or moral reasons, are demanding more natural ways of improving fertility. This book explores the shift in paradigm from just using medications which, in the reproductive field, can be very expensive and not accessible to the entire population, to using lifestyle modifications and emotional support as adjunctive medicine therapies. This must-have reference brings together the current knowledge - highlighting the gaps - and delivers an important resource for various specialists and practitioners.

A potential crisis in human fertility is brewing. As societies become more affluent, they experience changes that have a dramatic impact on reproduction. As average family sizes fall, the selection pressure for high-fertility genes decreases; exacerbated by the IVF industry which allows infertility-linked genes to pass into the next generation. Male fertility rates are low, for many reasons including genetics and exposure to environmental toxins. So, a perfect storm of factors is contriving to drive fertility rates down at unprecedented rates. If we do not recognize the reality of our situation and react accordingly, an uncontrollable decline in population numbers is likely, which we'll be unable to reverse. This book will address, in a unique and multi-faceted way, how the consequences of modern life affects fertility, so that we can consider behavioural, social, medical and environmental changes which could reduce the severity of what is about to come.

This book delves deeply into modern surrogacy arrangements, responding to both practical and ethical critiques by offering a radically new model for surrogate motherhood. Current practice distinguishes between two models of surrogacy - the altruistic (unpaid) model and the commercial (paid) model, both of which present social, ethical, and conceptual challenges. This book proposes a novel arrangement for surrogate motherhood - the professional model. Inspired by professions, such as nursing, teaching, and social work, the professional model acknowledges the caring motives that surrogate mothers have while at the same time compensating them for their work. Walker and Van Zyl adopt an evidence-based approach to explain that the professional model enables trust between intended parents and surrogates, provides professional support at every stage of the relationship, affords legal protections against exploitation and commodification, and recognizes the rights and interests of all parties, including the intended baby. The model applies to both transnational and domestic surrogacy and will be of great interest to policy makers, social researchers, bioethicists, legal scholars, fertility professionals, clinicians, and graduate students in psychology, philosophy, medicine and ethics.

There is renewed interest in lifestyle medicine - the focus on food, physical activity, stress management, high-quality connections, restorative sleep, and avoidance of toxic substances - in the prevention, treatment, and sometimes reversal of chronic disease, but very little information exists on its application for improving specific women's health issues across the lifespan. Consequently, there is a growing need among health professionals who care for women for a textbook that addresses evidence-based lifestyle solutions to manage the health challenges they face every day in their offices. This book begins with a review of the fundamentals of Lifestyle Medicine through the lens of a woman's lifespan. It provides information about lifestyle interventions to improve gynecologic and sexual health and to manage and sometimes reverse gynecologic diseases. It clarifies the importance of lifestyle and behaviors before and during pregnancy to address infertility, reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes, and to lower non-communicable diseases in children along with emerging epigenetic evidence. The use of Lifestyle Medicine to prevent and manage breast and gynecologic cancers, enhance health as part of cancer survivorship, and decrease the risk or reduce many of the symptoms and diseases experienced during menopause including vasomotor symptoms and osteoporosis are also discussed. Additionally, the text covers cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, dementia and mental health from the perspective of gender specific differences. This book provides practical resources on implementing the components of lifestyle medicine. Some of the topics covered include models of care for women and families, reimbursement, health coaching and behavioral change, community engagement and health equity for under-resourced settings. The electronic version of the book presents supplemental material featuring in-depth reading, as well as online and digital resources for implementing Lifestyle Medicine. The book is an evidence-based source of information on women's health issues for health professionals already practicing lifestyle medicine, as well as an entry level textbook for those new to the field of lifestyle medicine. The collective expertise of each of the editors along with content provided by leaders within the American College of Lifestyle Medicine fills a much-needed void within the specialty of Lifestyle Medicine and is for providers of women's health globally. Features: Provides a basic overview of Lifestyle Medicine (nutrient-rich diet, exercise, stress resilience, sleep, and high-quality connections) in the care of women across the lifespan. Provides lifestyle-focused treatment recommendations for specific women health issues. Includes strategies for implementing Lifestyle Medicine with vulnerable populations and in communities. Summarizes key points at the close of each chapter and includes supplemental material with in-depth reading. Features additional resources for implementing lifestyle medicine into practice. "This women's health book is evidence based and comprehensive. There is nothing like it. Women need up to date information about physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress resilience, social connection and substance use. In addition, there is a desire to better understand the power of these pillars throughout a woman's life including pregnancy, menopause and the golden years. This book fills that need." Elizabeth Pegg Frates, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, President Elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine "Healthy aging begins at pre-conception. Evidence overwhelmingly shows that it's we women who-through our lifestyle behavior choices-can take far greater control of our own health destinies, as well as the health destinies of our children and generations to come. We cannot underestimate the power of what we eat, how we move, and what we think in regard to our optimal health or lack thereof. This book is a must-read for all medical professionals!" Susan Benigas, Executive Director of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Lifestyle Medicine is the science of taking core principles and customizing how they're applied to each individual and each situation to achieve positive health behavior change. This book sets the evidence based foundation for how that process happens, and why it needs to happen, with the most important segment of health consumers - women. It is the next for all who are passionate about changing how health care is delivered." Wayne S. Dysinger, MD, MPH, Physician, Founder and Chair, Lifestyle Medical "Lifestyle factors have a powerful role in chronic disease prevention, underscoring the profound control we have over our health. Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan applies lifestyle medicine to women's health, empowering women and their clinicians with the tools to transform their lives, and fostering a legacy of health for future generations." JoAnn E. Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH, Professor of Medicine and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women's Health, Harvard Medical School Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor, Harvard Chan School of Public Health

The numbers of women undergoing Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) treatments have risen steadily, yet they remain largely outside the scope of equality and employment law protection while undergoing treatment. Assisted Reproduction, Discrimination, and the Law examines this gap in UK law, with reference to EU law as appropriate, and argues that new conceptions of equality are necessary. Drawing from the literature on multidimensional and intersectional discrimination, it is argued that an intersectionality approach offers a more useful analytical framework to extend protection to those engaged in ART treatments. Drawing from Schiek's intersectional nodes model, the book critically examines two alternative interpretations of existing protected characteristics, namely infertility as a disability, with reference to the social model of disability and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, and redefining the boundaries of pregnancy and/or sex discrimination, with reference to attempts to extend associative discrimination to pregnancy. Comparisons are drawn with the US, where infertility has been recognised as a disability under the American's with Disabilities Act 1990 and as a pregnancy-related condition under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978. A specific right to paid time off work to undergo treatment is also proposed, drawing comparisons with the US Family and Medical Leave Act 1993 and the existing UK work-family rights framework. It is argued that the reinterpretations of equality law and the rights proposed here are not only conceptually possible, but could practically be achieved with minor, but significant, amendments to existing legislation.

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) includes recurrent first- and second-trimester abortions and recurrent preterm delivery, second- or third-trimester intrauterine fetal death, intrapartum stillbirth, and early neonatal death. This book includes protocols for case scenarios of early and late pregnancy loss as well as instances of poor obstetric history. Key Features Explores the management of different clinical presentations of RPL Includes preeclampsia, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, and hypertension-related disorders in pregnancy Includes clinical protocols with flowcharts Features tip boxes with learning points for easy reference

Male Infertility: Problems and Solutions provides a summary of state of the art developments in male infertility for both new and experienced practitioners. Written in a clear, concise and readable style, this volume allows the reader to obtain rapid answers to this challenging medical issue. Special emphasis is placed on diagnostic and treatment algorithms. Topics covered include interpretation of semen analysis and advanced testing, endocrine and genetic evaluation, diagnosis of azoospermia as well as an up-to-date interpretation and analysis of the many new therapies available for the treatment of male factor infertility. Male Infertility: Problems and Solutions provides rapid acquisition of pertinent background and development of management plans through the use of concise discussion and treatment algorithms and thus will be of great value to general urologists, gynecologists, primary care providers and allied health providers who manage infertility in both men as well as women.

There is renewed interest in lifestyle medicine - the focus on food, physical activity, stress management, high-quality connections, restorative sleep, and avoidance of toxic substances - in the prevention, treatment, and sometimes reversal of chronic disease, but very little information exists on its application for improving specific women's health issues across the lifespan. Consequently, there is a growing need among health professionals who care for women for a textbook that addresses evidence-based lifestyle solutions to manage the health challenges they face every day in their offices. This book begins with a review of the fundamentals of Lifestyle Medicine through the lens of a woman's lifespan. It provides information about lifestyle interventions to improve gynecologic and sexual health and to manage and sometimes reverse gynecologic diseases. It clarifies the importance of lifestyle and behaviors before and during pregnancy to address infertility, reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes, and to lower non-communicable diseases in children along with emerging epigenetic evidence. The use of Lifestyle Medicine to prevent and manage breast and gynecologic cancers, enhance health as part of cancer survivorship, and decrease the risk or reduce many of the symptoms and diseases experienced during menopause including vasomotor symptoms and osteoporosis are also discussed. Additionally, the text covers cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, dementia and mental health from the perspective of gender specific differences. This book provides practical resources on implementing the components of lifestyle medicine. Some of the topics covered include models of care for women and families, reimbursement, health coaching and behavioral change, community engagement and health equity for under-resourced settings. The electronic version of the book presents supplemental material featuring in-depth reading, as well as online and digital resources for implementing Lifestyle Medicine. The book is an evidence-based source of information on women's health issues for health professionals already practicing lifestyle medicine, as well as an entry level textbook for those new to the field of lifestyle medicine. The collective expertise of each of the editors along with content provided by leaders within the American College of Lifestyle Medicine fills a much-needed void within the specialty of Lifestyle Medicine and is for providers of women's health globally. Features: Provides a basic overview of Lifestyle Medicine (nutrient-rich diet, exercise, stress resilience, sleep, and high-quality connections) in the care of women across the lifespan. Provides lifestyle-focused treatment recommendations for specific women health issues. Includes strategies for implementing Lifestyle Medicine with vulnerable populations and in communities. Summarizes key points at the close of each chapter and includes supplemental material with in-depth reading. Features additional resources for implementing lifestyle medicine into practice. "This women's health book is evidence based and comprehensive. There is nothing like it. Women need up to date information about physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress resilience, social connection and substance use. In addition, there is a desire to better understand the power of these pillars throughout a woman's life including pregnancy, menopause and the golden years. This book fills that need." Elizabeth Pegg Frates, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, President Elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine "Healthy aging begins at pre-conception. Evidence overwhelmingly shows that it's we women who-through our lifestyle behavior choices-can take far greater control of our own health destinies, as well as the health destinies of our children and generations to come. We cannot underestimate the power of what we eat, how we move, and what we think in regard to our optimal health or lack thereof. This book is a must-read for all medical professionals!" Susan Benigas, Executive Director of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Lifestyle Medicine is the science of taking core principles and customizing how they're applied to each individual and each situation to achieve positive health behavior change. This book sets the evidence based foundation for how that process happens, and why it needs to happen, with the most important segment of health consumers - women. It is the next for all who are passionate about changing how health care is delivered." Wayne S. Dysinger, MD, MPH, Physician, Founder and Chair, Lifestyle Medical "Lifestyle factors have a powerful role in chronic disease prevention, underscoring the profound control we have over our health. Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan applies lifestyle medicine to women's health, empowering women and their clinicians with the tools to transform their lives, and fostering a legacy of health for future generations." JoAnn E. Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH, Professor of Medicine and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women's Health, Harvard Medical School Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor, Harvard Chan School of Public Health

Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference Hormonal and Genetic Basis of Sexual Differentiation Disorders and Hot Topics in Endocrinology. The meeting took place at The Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, 1/15/10 1/17-10. Endocrinology and more specifically, the area of sexual differentiation disorders is an evolving field of medicine. The diagnosis and treatment of Disorders of Sex Development (DSD) is multi-faceted.

Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, Third Edition is a comprehensive and authoritative resource, providing the latest literature on this complex subject by focusing on three core components - parent, placenta and fetus - and the continuous changes that occur in each. Enriched with relevant references describing every aspect of reproductive toxicology, this revised and updated resource addresses the totality of the subject, discussing a broad range of topics including nanoparticles and radiation, gases and solvents, smoking, alcohol and drugs of abuse, and metals, among others. In addition, it is the only resource to include reproductive and developmental toxicity in domestic animals, fish and wildlife With a special focus on placental toxicity, this book is the only available reference to connect the three key risk stages. Completely revised and updated to include the most recent developments in the field, this book is an essential resource for advanced students and researchers in toxicology, as well as biologists, pharmacologists and teratologists from academia, industry and regulatory agencies.

Israel is the only country in the world that offers free fertility treatments to nearly any woman who requires medical assistance. It also has the world's highest per capita usage of in-vitro fertilization. Examining state policies and the application of reproductive technologies among Jewish Israelis, this volume explores the role of tradition and politics in the construction of families within local Jewish populations. The contributors-anthropologists, bioethicists, jurists, physicians and biologists-highlight the complexities surrounding these treatments and show how biological relatedness is being construed as a technology of power; how genetics is woven into the production of identities; how reproductive technologies enhance the policing of boundaries. Donor insemination, IVF and surrogacy, as well as abortion, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and human embryonic stem cell research, are explored within local and global contexts to convey an informed perspective on the wider Jewish Israeli environment.

Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli is a medical sociologist at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her research concentrates on reproduction-related issues and the interface of health care and state politics. Birenbaum-Carmeli has published extensively in major professional journals and is the author of Tel Aviv North: The Making of a New Israeli Middle Class (Hebrew University Press) and the co-editor (with Marcia C. Inhorn) of Assisting Reproduction, Testing Genes: Global Encounters with New Biotechnologies (Berghahn Books).

Yoram S. Carmeli is an anthropologist at the University of Haifa, Israel, who has researched reproductive technologies in Israel. His other writings focus on popular culture with a particular interest in British circuses. He has also researched sport and consumption in Israel. Carmeli is the co-editor (with Kalman Applbaum) of Consumption and Market Society in Israel (Berg Publishers).

Infertility Comics and Graphic Medicine examines women's graphic memoirs on infertility, foregrounding the complex interrelationship between women's life writing, infertility studies, and graphic medicine. Through a scholarly examination of the artists' use of visual-verbal codes of the comics medium in narrating their physical ordeals and affective challenges occasioned by infertility, the book seeks to foreground the intricacies of gender identity, embodiment, subjectivity, and illness experience. Providing long-overdue scholarly attention on the perspectives of autobiographical and comics studies, the authors examine the gendered nature of the infertility experience and the notion of motherhood as an ideological force which interpolates socio-cultural discourses, accentuating the potential of graphic medicine as a creative space for the infertile women to voice their hitherto silenced perspectives on childlessness with force and urgency. This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to scholars and students in comics studies, the health humanities, literature, and women's and gender studies, and will also be suitable for readers in visual studies and narrative medicine.

Brown Bodies, White Babies focuses on the practice of cross-racial gestational surrogacy, in which a woman - through in-vitro fertilization using the sperm and egg of intended parents or donors - carries a pregnancy for intended parents of a different race. Focusing on the racial differences between parents and surrogates, this book is interested in how reproductive technologies intersect with race, particularly when brown bodies produce white babies. While the potential of reproductive technologies is far from pre-determined, the ways in which these technologies are currently deployed often serve the interests of dominant groups, through the creation of white, middle-class, heteronormative families. Laura Harrison, providing an important understanding of the work of women of color as surrogates, connects this labor to the history of racialized reproduction in the United States. Cross-racial surrogacy is one end of a continuum in which dominant groups rely on the reproductive potential of nonwhite women, whose own reproductive desires have been historically thwarted and even demonized. Brown Bodies, White Babies provides am interdisciplinary analysis that includes legal cases of contested surrogacy, historical examples of surrogacy as a form of racialized reproductive labor, the role of genetics in the assisted reproduction industry, and the recent turn toward reproductive tourism. Joining the ongoing feminist debates surrounding reproduction, motherhood, race, and the body, Brown Bodies, White Babies ultimately critiques the new potentials for parenthood that put the very contours of kinship into question.

Long regarded as biological waste, the placenta is gaining momentum as a viable product for clinical use. Due to their unique properties, placental cells and derivatives show great promise in curing various diseases. Utilizing contributions from world-renowned experts, Placenta: The Tree of Life considers the therapeutic potential of these cells. It examines new stem cell-based strategies and highlights recent studies that advance the range of treatment for a number of illnesses. Emphasizing the potential research and therapeutic use of stem cells, the book discusses the development, structure, and functions of the human placenta. It introduces overall aspects of the immune system, explains some of the immune mechanisms during pregnancy, and shows the role of the placenta in these mechanisms. Current scientific research is presented that focuses on the mechanisms of action underlying the therapeutic benefit of cells isolated from different placental regions. An exhaustive examination, this pivotal work: Considers how perinatal cells may represent an important source for cell therapy approaches in the near future, in both human and veterinary medicine Describes the clinical potential of placenta-derived cells in regenerative medicine-specifically in neurological disorders, metabolic liver diseases, inflammatory diseases, and autoimmune diseases Explains how cells isolated from different placental tissues share basic properties Placenta: The Tree of Life summarizes the advantages of perinatal tissue as a source of cells with therapeutic potential and is designed for use in the study of genetics, stem cell science, placental function, reproductive biology, regenerative medicine, and related fields.

In the past, pregnancy after cancer was largely unheard of. Today, it is increasingly a possibility. Oncofertility has emerged as an interdisciplinary field bridging biomedical and social sciences, and examining issues regarding an individual 's fertility options, choice and goals in light of cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. Written by leaders in this evolving field, the volume covers various aspects: medical, ethical and social.

Inspired by Carlos Beyer's 50 years of pioneering research and influence on his students and colleagues, Behavioral Neuroendocrinology builds upon Beyer's fundamental discoveries and concepts as well as their widespread implications. It presents original research and reviews on mechanisms - genomic and non-genomic - of steroid and protein hormone action; the role of steroid metabolism, especially aromatization, protein phosphorylation, and neurotransmitter action in mediating reproductive behavior and sexual differentiation; and brain and spinal cord mechanisms in sexual behavior and analgesia. This book presents a rich diversity of topics - lactation, maternal behavior, pheromone action, chronobiology, allodynia, angiogenesis, prostate physiology, sexual motivation, and specific brain systems, including vomeronasal system, cerebellum, preoptic area, hypothalamus, and spinal cord. This book brings together, in one source, an international "family" of researchers whose work has evolved in diverse but related ways from a seminal set of discoveries and concepts in behavioral neuroendocrinology.

The examination for Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) remains one of the most internationally recognised postgraduate examinations in the specialty. Over the years, the examination has evolved in keeping with changes in medical education; the Part 3 examination now consists of 14 tasks, each covering one of the 14 core modules in the curriculum and assessing specific skills which may include all or some of Information Gathering, Communication with Patients and Families, Communication with Colleagues, Patient Safety, and Applied Clinical Knowledge. This invaluable resource consists of analyses of different aspects of what is being tested, with general advice on how to prepare for the examination and discussion of the reasons why trainees fail the examination. There follow four sample 'papers' of tasks; in each of them, attempts have been made to cover all 14 modules in the core curriculum. There is also an additional paper with random tasks to help with preparation.

The examination for Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) remains one of the most internationally recognised postgraduate examinations in the specialty. Over the years, the examination has evolved in keeping with changes in medical education; the Part 3 examination now consists of 14 tasks, each covering one of the 14 core modules in the curriculum and assessing specific skills which may include all or some of Information Gathering, Communication with Patients and Families, Communication with Colleagues, Patient Safety, and Applied Clinical Knowledge. This invaluable resource consists of analyses of different aspects of what is being tested, with general advice on how to prepare for the examination and discussion of the reasons why trainees fail the examination. There follow four sample 'papers' of tasks; in each of them, attempts have been made to cover all 14 modules in the core curriculum. There is also an additional paper with random tasks to help with preparation.

Regulatory agencies worldwide have issued directives or such requirements for air quality standards in embryology laboratories. This practical guide reviews the application of clean room technology or controlled environments specifically suited for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Units. Its comprehensive coverage includes material on airborne particles and volatile organic compounds, including basic concepts, regulation, construction, materials, certification, clinical results in humans, and more.

The use of IVM in assisted reproductive technology continues to increase around the world. The major benefit of IVM is that significant numbers of oocytes can be collected from ovaries without recourse to ovarian stimulation. This reduces the costs, time, and risks associated with conventional IVF. Although initially limited to women with polycystic ovary syndrome who were at higher risk of problems following ovarian stimulation, IVM is increasingly used in women with normal ovulatory menstrual cycles. This authoritative text covers the current scientific knowledge of oocyte development and the understanding behind the techniques involved in the clinical application of IVM in assisted reproductive technologies. Short Contents

Published in 1998, this book is a collected volume of papers from the first conference of the European Network for Biomedical ethics. The main subject of this conference is the ethical assessment of IVF in view of its concrete application as an infertility treatment and the consideration of possible alternatives for use. Twenty years after the introduction and the establishment of this therapy a more concrete evaluation of its medical indications, social conditions and consequences, the psychological consequences for the women involved and the parent-child relationship becomes possible. The legal and ethical evaluation of the reproduction technology as regards for example the legal and moral status of supernumery embyos in cryo-conservation has also to be considered in a European perspective. The ethical evaluation concentrates today on the new evolution that IVF technology takes in relation to the extension of diagnostics possibilities due to genetic research. Little work has been done on the connection between IVF and genetic diagnostics and therapy, so the medical and ethical evaluation of the connecting lines are also included in the book.

The sites, spaces and subjects of reproduction are distinctly geographical. Reproductive geographies span different scales - body, home, local, national, global - and movements across space. This book expands our understanding of the socio-cultural and spatial aspects of fertility, pregnancy and birth. The chapters directly address global perspectives, the future of reproductive politics and state-focused approaches to the politicisation of fertility, pregnancy and birth. The book provides up-to-date explorations on the changing landscapes of reproduction, including the expansion of reproductive technologies, such as surrogacy and intrauterine insemination. Contributions in this book focus on phenomenologically-inspired accounts of women's lived experience of pregnancy and birth, the biopolitics of birth and citizenship, the material histories of reproductive tissues as "scientific objects" and engagements with public health and development policy. This is an essential resource for upper-level undergraduates and graduates studying topics such as Sociology, Geographies of Gender, Women's Studies and Anthropology of Health and Medicine.

Lizzie Stark takes readers on a witty, revealing and delightful journey through the natural and cultural history of the egg, exploring its deep symbolism, innumerable uses and metabolic importance in twelve dazzling specimens. From Mali to Finland, Stark looks at cultures that find the world's origins in an egg. Decorated by Ukrainians, an oracle for Greeks, the impetus behind gang wars and flown into space, the egg-whether of chickens, murres or ostriches-has taken on mythic proportions, all the while serving as a humble ingredient in fancy dishes. Stark even writes Jacques Pepin's biography through the lens of the egg dishes he served. Egg is also about Stark's fascination with this delicate ovoid-both her myriad attempts to create a perfect omelette and her fraught relationship to the ova in her body. Filled with colourful characters and fascinating morsels, Egg is a playful, informative and surprising history that guarantees you'll never take the egg for granted again.