In recent decades there has been an explosion in work in the social and physical sciences describing the similarities between human and nonhuman as well as human and non-animal thinking. This work has explicitly decentered the brain as the sole, self-contained space of thought, and it has found thinking to be an activity that operates not only across bodies but also across bodily or cellular membranes, as well as multifaceted organic and inorganic environments. For example, researchers have looked at the replication and spread of slime molds (playfully asking what would happen if they colonized the earth) to suggest that they exhibit 'smart behavior' in the way they move as a potential way of considering the spread of disease across the globe. Other scholars have applied this model of non-human thought to the reach of data mining and global surveillance. In The Biopolitics of Alphabets and Embryos, Ruth Miller argues that these types of phenomena are also useful models for thinking about the growth, reproduction, and spread of political thought and democratic processes. Giving slime, data and unbounded entities their political dues, Miller stresses their thinking power and political significance and thus challenges the anthropocentrism of mainstream democratic theories. Miller emphasizes the non-human as highly organized, systemic and productive of democratic growth and replication. She examines developments such as global surveillance, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning, which have been characterized as threats to the privacy, dignity, and integrity of the rational, maximizing and freedom-loving democratic citizen. By shifting her level of analysis from the politics of self-determining subjects to the realm of material environments and information systems, Miller asks what might happen if these alternative, nonhuman thought processes become the normative thought processes of democratic engagement.

With 3000 new references added since the first edition, this book gives the information necessary to produce embryos totally through in vitro techniques. It shows the commercial applications of embryo and oocyte research. Cattle remain at the forefront of many new developments in reproductive technology and what can be done for the cow today will later be applicable to other farm livestock and perhaps humans. This new edition reviews the considerable advances and issues in embryo production technology, based on reports since the first edition in 1994. This is a must have volume for those who own the first edition, and in itself an incredibly informative text.

This book describes the principles and skills of counselling. It provides practical guidelines which show, by example, how to communicate effectively, how to offer counselling and support, and how to face and deal with difficult situations. Detailed attention is given to issues such as preparing women for surgery, breaking bad news, and providing information and support before, during and after childbirth. The book aims to increase the awareness of health workers by describing a broad range on women's experiences and reactions to their particular problems and health concerns, as well as the ways in which these are treated.

ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST SUMMER READS 2022 5* 'A jaw-dropping memoir' - THE TELEGRAPH 'One of the maddest memoirs you'll read this year... a beautiful, warm, funny book.' -The Times 'A wholly absorbing page-turner that everyone will want to read. You should probably buy two.' -Kirkus Starred Review 'A riveting debut.' -People Magazine 'By turns hilarious, wrenching, and achingly tender.' -Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author 'A remarkable and wise book, two memoirs braided together with such tendresse that readers will come to believe the ironic title in earnest' -LA TIMES 'Riveting and hilariously funny' - The Times For most of her life, Chrysta Bilton was one member of a small, if dysfunctional, family of four. There was her sister, Kaitlyn, her hedonistic, glamorous, gay mum Debra, and Jeffrey, who Debra hand-picked, in an LA hairdressers, to be the father of her children. During Chrysta's unstable childhood, Debra struggled to keep the family afloat and Jeffrey wandered in and out of their lives. Then, in her twenties, Chrysta discovered that her father had secretly donated his sperm over 500 times - and that she had at least 35 other siblings. A Normal Family is a captivating coming-of-age memoir about Chrysta's reckoning with the secrets both parents had carefully kept from her. Heartfelt, warm and funny, it's a story of embracing the family we have, in all the forms we find it.

The most common abnormal growth of the female reproductive system, fibroids, are thought to affect the majority of women at some point during their reproductive years. This text from leading fibroid experts looks at the latest evidence on how the problem impinges on reproduction and the most up-to-date management and treatment options available to help patients with fibroids hoping to conceive. Print versions of this book also include access to the eBook version with links to procedural videos.

This new edition provides a much-needed reference book to accommodate emerging and expanding knowledge in fertility preservation, the rapidly growing field of reproductive medicine associated with advances in oncology. Written by a team of world-leading experts in the field and comprehensive in its scope, the book covers the full range of techniques and scientific concepts in detail. It opens with an introduction to fertility preservation in both cancer and non-cancer patients, followed by fertility preservation strategies in males and females, including medical/surgical procedures, ART, cryopreservation and transplantation of ovarian tissue, and in-vitro follicle culture. Concluding chapters address new technologies, as well as ethical, legal and religious issues. The book has been thoroughly updated, includes additional contributors, and now provides greater focus on practical and clinically relevant issues. Richly illustrated throughout, this is a key resource for clinicians specializing in reproductive medicine, gynecology, oncology, hematology, endocrinology and infertility.

Fertility Awareness is key to understanding sexual and reproductive health at all life stages. It can be used to either plan or avoid pregnancy. Fertility Awareness Methods (FAMs) are highly effective when motivated couples are taught by trained practitioners. These methods are in demand for ecological, medical, cultural, religious and moral reasons. The ability to control fertility naturally is a lifestyle choice. The Complete Guide to Fertility Awareness provides the science and methodology suitable for health professionals and a general audience. It covers reproductive physiology and the fertility indicators: temperature, cervical secretions and cycle length calculations. It explores ways to optimise conception and to manage conception delays. Case studies and self-assessment exercises are included throughout. The book addresses the scientific credibility of new technologies including fertility apps, home test kits, monitors and devices. The Complete Guide to Fertility Awareness offers: evidence-based information for general practitioners, practice nurses, school nurses, midwives, sexual health doctors and nurses a unique perspective on subfertility for gynaecologists and fertility nurses an authoritative source of reference for medical, nursing and midwifery students a straightforward and practical reference for new and experienced FAM users the core text for the FertilityUK Advanced Skills Course in Fertility Awareness

Introduced in Phnom Penh around 1990, at the twilight of socialism and after two decades of conflict and upheaval, ultrasound took root in humanitarian and then privatized medicine. Services have since multiplied, promising diagnostic information and better prenatal and general health care. In Fixing the Image Jenna Grant draws on years of ethnographic and archival research to theorize the force and appeal of medical imaging in the urban landscape of Phnom Penh. Set within long genealogies of technology as tool of postcolonial modernity, and vision as central to skilled diagnosis in medicine and Theravada Buddhism, ultrasound offers stabilizing knowledge and elicits desire and pleasure, particularly for pregnant women. Grant offers the concept of "fixing"-which invokes repair, stabilization, and a dose of something to which one is addicted-to illuminate how ultrasound is entangled with practices of care and neglect across different domains. Fixing the Image thus provides a method for studying technological practice in terms of specific materialities and capacities of technologies-in this case, image production and the permeability of the body-illuminating how images are a material form of engagement between patients, between patients and their doctors, and between patients and their bodies.

Spermatogenesis is a tightly regulated cellular renovation and differentiation process. It consists of self-renewal and differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), spermatocytic meiosis and spermiogenesis; each of these processes is essential to the continuous, successful production of male gametes. During spermiogenesis, haploid spermatids undergo extensive cellular, molecular and morphological changes, including acrosome biogenesis, flagellum development, cytoplasmic reorganization and chromatin condensation. These changes ultimately result in mature spermatozoa with an acrosome-covered head and motile tail. In this book, Chapter One summarizes the progress that has been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying acrosome biogenesis, and the authors discuss the potential directions of future investigations of this process. Chapter Two briefly addresses the basics of spermatogenesis and the synthesis of ncRNAs, and then the authors discuss the recent progress in understanding of the functions of miRNAs, endo-siRNAs, piRNAs and lncRNAs in the regulation of spermatogenesis. Chapter Three provides a review of the current literature on testicular immunoregulation and its underlying mechanisms, along with its effect on testicular functions.

Although there are far more opportunities for LGBTQ people to become parents than there were before the 1990s, attention to the reproductive challenges LGBTQ families face has not kept pace. Reproductive Losses considers LGBTQ people's experiences with miscarriage, stillbirth, failed adoptions, infertility, and sterility. Drawing on Craven's training as a feminist anthropologist and her experiences as a queer parent who has experienced loss, Reproductive Losses includes detailed stories drawn from over fifty interviews with LGBTQ people (including those who carried pregnancies, non-gestational and adoptive parents, and families from a broad range of racial/ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds) to consider how they experience loss, grief, and mourning. The book includes productive suggestions and personal narratives of resiliency, commemorative strategies, and communal support, while also acknowledging the adversity many LGBTQ people face as they attempt to form families and the heteronormativity of support resources for those who have experienced reproductive loss. This is essential reading for scholars and professionals interested in LGBTQ health and family, and for individuals in LGBTQ communities who have experienced loss and those who support them. See additional material on the companion website: www.lgbtqreproductiveloss.org/

The comprehensive and authoritative guide to clinical reproductive science The field of clinical reproductive science continues to evolve; this important resource offers the basics of reproductive biology as well as the most recent advance in clinical embryology. The author - a noted expert in the field - focuses on the discipline and covers all aspects of this field. The text explores causes of male and female infertility and includes information on patient consultation and assessment, gamete retrieval and preparation, embryo culture, embryo transfer and cryopreservation. Comprehensive in scope, the text contains an introduction to the field of clinical reproductive science and a review of assisted reproductive technology. The author includes information on a wide range of topics such as gonadal development, the regulation of meiotic cell cycle, the biology of sperm and spermatogenesis, in vitro culture, embryo transfer techniques, fundamentals of fertilisation, oocyte activation and much more. This important resource: Offers an accessible guide to the most current research and techniques to the science of clinical reproduction Covers the fundamental elements of reproductive science Includes information on male and the female reproductive basics - everything from sexual differentiation to foetal development and parturition Explores the long-term health of children conceived through IVF Contains the newest developments in assisted reproductive technology Clinical Reproductive Science is a valuable reference written for professionals in academia, research and clinical professionals working in the field of reproductive science, clinical embryology and reproductive medicine.

"The Atlas of Chick Development, Third Edition," a classic work covering all major event of chick development, is extensively updated with new and more detailed photographs, enlargements showing regions of special-interest and complexity, and new illustrations. The revised text and expanded illustrative material describe the intricate changes that take place during development, together with accounts of recent experimental and molecular research that has transformed our understanding of morphogenesis.

These wide-ranging updates make this book an essential resource for developmental biologists, geneticists, molecular biologists, poultry scientists, biochemists, immunologists, and other life scientists who use the chick embryo as their research model. Individuals joining this burgeoning area, ignited by the increased insight into events surrounding organ and tissue differentiation, will find this a valuable tool to help grow a basic knowledge of morphogenesis.
Remains the established standard the only book providing a comprehensive description of chick development from fertilization to hatching
Contains more than 750 photographs and illustrations, including 410 labelled histological sections and 85 new high-quality plates, showing the major anatomical events from the earliest stages to 13 days of incubation
Includes more than 200 labelled and detailed scanning electron micrographs, showing various tissues in great detail
Leads the reader to important reviews on aspects of this rapidly moving field, along with extensive and updated references"

In this book the authors present current research in the study of foetal development and its stages of growth, maternal influences and potential complications. Topics discussed in this compilation include the equine foetal development, fetomaternal interaction and potential complications during pregnancy; comparative anatomy, development and functional significance of the mammalian yolk sac; influence of exercise training on e-NOS expression, nitric oxide production and mitochondrial function in the human placenta; maternal melamine and foetal development; and immunolocalisation of syntaxin2 in sinusoidal endothelial cells during mouse liver development.

Since the late nineteenth century, medicine has sought to foster the birth of healthy children by attending to the bodies of pregnant women, through what we have come to call prenatal care. Women, and not their unborn children, were the initial focus of that medical attention, but prenatal diagnosis in its present form, which couples scrutiny of the fetus with the option to terminate pregnancy, came into being in the early 1970s. Tangled Diagnoses examines the multiple consequences of the widespread diffusion of this medical innovation. Prenatal testing, Ilana Löwy argues, has become mainly a risk-management technology—the goal of which is to prevent inborn impairments, ideally through the development of efficient therapies but in practice mainly through the prevention of the birth of children with such impairments. Using scholarship, interviews, and direct observation in France and Brazil of two groups of professionals who play an especially important role in the production of knowledge about fetal development—fetopathologists and clinical geneticists—to expose the real-life dilemmas prenatal testing creates, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the sociopolitical conditions of biomedical innovation, the politics of women’s bodies, disability, and the ethics of modern medicine.

Male factor infertility is receiving greater emphasis in IVF programs. This book reviews the scientific evidence for various medical, environmental and lifestyle factors that can affect male fertility, such as chromosome abnormalities, age, anti-sperm antibodies and endocrine disruptors. Part of a four-book series on improving IVF success, this volume subsequently explores a range of treatments and strategies to improve sperm quality, including FSH treatment and antioxidants. It also discusses methods to prevent male infertility from childhood through to adulthood. Concise, practical and evidence-based - and with insights from global experts in the field - this text will enable gynecologists, urologists and andrologists to make evidence-based decisions that can influence the success rate of fertilization in subsequent IVF cycles.

Infertility affects about 15% of couples in western societies. In addition to isolation, infertility challenges women's sense of identity, expectations of their life trajectory and their perceived value in society. This book presents current research on the genetic factors, treatment risk and benefits, and social and psychological consequences of infertility. Topics include the traditional Chinese medicine approach to fertility management; adverse outcomes of assisted reproduction techniques; the impact of follicular fluid components and embryo-endometrial cross-talk on the oocyte quality or embryo viability; iatrogenic damage incurred during fertility treatment upon gamete competence and embryonic viability; genetic factors of male infertility; animal models for studying female infertility; and treatment of endometriosis associated with infertility.

The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, by Drs. Keith L. Moore, T.V.N. Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia, delivers the world's most complete, visually rich, and clinically oriented coverage of this complex subject. Written by some of the world's most famous anatomists, it presents week-by-week and stage-by-stage views of how fetal organs and systems develop, why and when birth defects occur, and what roles the placenta and fetal membranes play in development. You can also access the complete contents online at www.studentconsult.com, along with 17 remarkable animations, downloadable illustrations, additional review questions and answers, and more.

A Common Thread is a collection of sixteen brave and honest accounts of fertility issues and miscarriage. Each journey is unique; yet each contributor shares truthfully from their heart the highs and lows they have been through; how their journey has affected their faith and how God has brought them through. Although the physical, emotional and mental toll can be unbearable for those who find themselves facing these battles, there is hope. Within this book you will read the stories of those who have experienced successful IVF, failed IVF, multiple miscarriages, miscarriage after having children, adoption, miracle births, and those who have never been able to have children. Although we all experience the journey differently, we all share 'a common thread' of understanding. You are not alone.

Human embryo research touches upon strongly felt moral convictions, and it raises such deep questions about the promise and perils of scientific progress that debate over its development has become a moral and political imperative. From in vitro fertilization to embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and gene editing, Americans have repeatedly struggled with how to define the moral status of the human embryo, whether to limit its experimental uses, and how to contend with sharply divided public moral perspectives on governing science. Experiments in Democracy presents a history of American debates over human embryo research from the late 1960s to the present, exploring their crucial role in shaping norms, practices, and institutions of deliberation governing the ethical challenges of modern bioscience. J. Benjamin Hurlbut details how scientists, bioethicists, policymakers, and other public figures have attempted to answer a question of great consequence: how should the public reason about aspects of science and technology that effect fundamental dimensions of human life? Through a study of one of the most significant science policy controversies in the history of the United States, Experiments in Democracy paints a portrait of the complex relationship between science and democracy, and of U.S. society's evolving approaches to evaluating and governing science's most challenging breakthroughs.

With contributions from: Eric Blyth, Ken Daniels, Julia Feast, Robert Lee, Nina Martin, Alexina McWhinnie, Derek Morgan, Clare Murray, Sharon Pettle, Claire Potter, Jim Richards and Francoise Shenfield

The separation of procreation from conception has broadened notions of parenthood and created novel dilemmas. A woman may carry a foetus derived from gametes neither or only one of which came from her or her partner; or she may carry a foetus created using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the purpose of handing it to two other parents one, neither or both of whom may be genetically related to the prospective child. Parents may consist of single-sex couples, only one of them genetically related to the child; the prospective mother may be past her menopause; and genetic parenthood after death is now achievable. In a world increasingly reliant on medical science, how can the argument that equates traditional with natural and novel with unnatural/unethical be justified? Should there be legislation, which is notoriously slow to change, in a field driven by dazzling new possibilities at ever faster rate; particularly when restrictions differ from country to country, so that those who can afford it travel elsewhere for their treatment of choice? Whose rights are paramount - the adults hoping to build a family or the prospective child(ren)s future well being? On what basis can apparently competing rights be regulated or adjudicated and how and to what extent can these be enforced in practice?

This book comprehensively addresses female and male fertility preservation. It discusses in detail all major aspects of fertility preservation in both sexes, explains the basis of fertility preservation, and highlights the currently available techniques; further chapters are dedicated to specific diseases. The book offers an essential reference guide for all physicians, specialists or not, seeking to improve their grasp of female and male fertility preservation.

The method of vitrification of oocytes and embryos is fundamental for the outcome of IVF. This atlas presents data on both closed system and open vitrification techniques, and the consequences of each method for survival rates, aiding the comparison of vitrification methods. Structured on a patient-by-patient basis, the atlas describes 100 clinically documented case studies that follow the evolution of cryopreserved blastocysts between warming and blastocyst transfer. It relates fresh to post-warming blastocyst morphology and to response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. For each case, pronuclear morphology and synchrony, as well as embryo morphology, are reported and described. Data on indications for treatment, stimulation type and duration, are accompanied by over 400 high-quality images of vitrified blastocysts. Covering the state-of-the-art techniques, this atlas is an essential aid in selecting the vitrification method for clinical embryologists and physicians in reproductive medicine.

The assessment and selection of oocytes and embryos is fundamental to the live birth rate data of all IVF units, the parameter that is used to gauge a clinic's success and credibility. This new atlas contains over 1000 high-quality images of oocytes, zygotes and embryos, presented with accompanying data on indications for treatment, stimulation type and duration, as well as short medical histories of each couple and final outcome of treatment. All images in the book can be downloaded from the accompanying CD-ROM. Structured on a patient-by-patient basis, the atlas describes 100 clinically documented case studies that follow the evolution of oocytes and zygotes between day two and day five. Pronuclear morphology and synchrony as well as embryo morphology are reported and described for each case. Written and produced by experienced embryologists, this practical atlas is an important resource for clinical embryologists and physicians in reproductive medicine.