Health related information and news from around the world.
It is sad that few hospitals now support postnatal family planning clinics and the opportunity to return to the place where the baby was born is seldom available. At such a visit the woman could show off the baby, have her new status as mother recognized and discuss her delivery, even though it might be [...]
Men are unlikely to admit that they consider contraception to be the woman’s business but again the shadow is there. ‘A lot of other men do,’ they say. Perhaps it is because many men are nervous about their sexuality. They stir quickly and not always when expected, and they are not used to the idea [...]
Some women present late because they genuinely did not believe themselves to be pregnant, often at the extremes of the reproductive age range, or because they have irregular cycles. Some deny the problem until the bulge begins to appear, or hope that they will miscarry. Others sadly may be the victim of a laborious system [...]
The COC is the most common form of contraception chosen by the younger patient. In view of this, it merits most attention in this chapter. The doctor looking after this age group has a unique opportunity to get it right at the first consultation as regards absolute and relative contraindications and risk factors. At the [...]
How have the negative feelings towards contraception come about in these families? Often both the women and men have grown up feeling that the world is against them. Unloved and rejected by their own parents, lacking self-esteem, feeling powerless to influence their destiny, they live from day to day, unable to plan for the future [...]
Withdrawal-This is a simple method but it can be frustrated by, or frustrating for, either partner. The man withdraws his penis during the interval between his orgasm setting in and ejaculation starting. Since his instinct at this time is to thrust his penis deep into the vagina he may fail to withdraw in time. As [...]
Although an increasing number of sexual difficulties are known to be the result of physical illness, the majority are probably of psychological origin. It is always possible that discoveries such as the fact that high prolactin or oestrogen production in some men can produce impotence will explain some sexual difficulties but they are unlikely to [...]
Our knowledge of the detail of what really happens during sexual arousal was, until about twenty years ago, very patchy indeed. The pioneering work of Dr William Masters and Dr Virginia Johnson in the USA changed all that and now many other researchers have repeated and extended their work. In a man-A man usually starts [...]
Because there are now so many people around in the remarriage market a whole new industry has arisen to cope with them. Marriage bureaux are, of course, not new but they are increasing in numbers and some deal with specialised groups of the population. Computer-dating is popular and singles clubs and those for the divorced [...]
Many a woman says that her husband will not row with her and that as a result she cannot clear the air. This often happens because women tend to have superior verbal skills and, along with their female logic, defeat men, who then choose not to argue. There must have been a failure of communication [...]
Women confront new sexual issues at menopause. The most obvious is that you have physical evidence that you can no longer get pregnant. The relief from having to deal with contraception or worry about periods can mean a new found freedom of sexual expression. Jane recalls, T never realized how much contraception interfered with our [...]
While we’re on that subject, it’s interesting to hear the attitudes of both men and women about penis size and how it relates to sexual performance. There has always been a popular mythology that a huge penis is the symbol of masculinity, potency and sexual magnificence. The comparisons start in the school toilets and are [...]
The nature of the birth process, with the physical and emotional exposure that it involves, means that many of a woman’s previous inhibitions are swept aside. Complete strangers are privy to one of your life’s most intimate and vulnerable moments and some women find they can ‘let loose’ more readily with their partner. For others [...]
A number of different techniques to help fertilization are now fairly commonplace. IVF (invitro fertilization) simply means ‘fertilization in glass’. Apart from being the best-known technique, it is probably also the most emotionally draining. We have become quite familiar with the media images of delighted couples nursing their IVF twins or triplets following years of [...]
Commitment doesn’t have to have a timeframe. Kay has been married to the same man for sixteen years. ‘We met when we were at school and we became good friends. We would sit together in class and have lunch together most days. Then one weekend when we were about seventeen I was invited to a [...]