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Four Million Women Worldwide Used The Dalkon Shield Intrauterine device between 1970 and 1974. The shield was promoted as the 'Cadillac of contraception.' However, physicians and women were not warned of its dangers. Users suffered from pelvic inflammatory disease, bleeding, septic abortions, and infertility. Three hundred thousand women filed a class action suit against the manufacturer, A.H. Robins, for causing bodily harm. Two hundred thousand women received monetary compensation from the Dal...

At the age of thirty-nine, Sarah Kowalski heard her biological clock ticking, loudly. A single woman harboring a deep ambivalence about motherhood, Kowalski needed to decide once and for all: Did she want a baby or not? More importantly, with no partner on the horizon, did she want to have a baby alone? Once she revised her idea of motherhood-from an experience she would share with a partner to a journey she would embark upon alone-the answer came up a resounding Yes. After exploring her options...

Although voluntary childlessness has come to be accepted as permissible, the "normal" plans of most American couples include parenthood. Having a child is still seen as a rite of passage to adulthood. When a couple finds out that they are infertile and that life is not going to go according to plan, they  ask, "why me?"  Greil explores not only "why me?"  and the difficulty of finding a satisfying answer, but other questions as well. Why do women and men respond differently to infertility?  Do g...

Enlightening, encouraging and empowering, this work describes the very simple techniques of self-insemination. It not only provides frank and clear explanations of techniques, but also includes sensitive chapters on the many issues surrounding self-insemination, including: making the decision; screening for health; getting pregnant; communicating with the children; the law; and telling others. The main encouragement for lesbians and single women hovering on the brink of motherhood lies in knowin...

Infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in India lie at the confluence of multiple cultural conceptions. These ‘conceptions’ are key to understanding the burgeoning spread of assisted reproductive technologies and the social implications of infertility and childlessness in India. This longitudinal study is situated in a number of diverse locales which, when taken together, unravel the complex nature of infertility and assisted conception in contemporary India.

Nominated for the 2007 Book Prize by the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (AAA) Reproductive disruptions, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and childhood disability, are among the most distressing experiences in people’s lives. Based on research by leading medical anthropologists from around the world, this book examines such issues as local practices detrimental to safe pregnancy and birth; conflicting reproductive goals between women and men; miscommunications between...

The Learning About Myself (LAMS) Program for At-Risk Parents: Learning About the Past--Changing the Future presents a basic, hands-on, weekly curriculum based on the concept of “Learning About Myself” that helps change participants’lives from hopeless and helpless to confident and self-assured. Social workers, counselors in public and private agencies, clinical psychologists, therapists, group leaders, and educators can use this book to help clients cope with life rather than be overwhelmed by l...

Prepared by one of the world's leading authorities, Human Sexuality and its Problems remains the foremost comprehensive reference in the field. Now available in a larger format, this classic volume continues to address the neurophysiological, psychological and socio-cultural aspects of human sexuality and how they interact. Fully updated throughout, the new edition places a greater emphasis on theory and its role in sex research and draws on the latest global research to review the clinical mana...

A distinguished collection of papers by leading scientists and bioethicists on the science and social issues related to large-animal cloning. The book details the prospective medical benefits for development of pharmaceuticals in transgenic animals and of organs for xenotransplants, and the implications for the possibility of human cloning. It provides a thorough, authoritative assessment and explanation of what has been done, including recent animal cloning, and what the possibilities are for t...

In pocket-sized, coded diaries, an upper middle-class American woman named Mary Poor recorded with small "x's" the occasions of sexual intercourse with her husband Henry over a twenty-eight-year period. Janet Farrell Brodie introduces this engaging pair early in a book that is certain to be the definitive study of family limitation in nineteenth-century America. She makes adroit use of Mary's diaries and letters to lift a curtain on the intimate life of a Victorian couple attempting to control t...

Climate change is the biggest threat to the fertility of mammals across the globe through its potential effects on heat stress, nutrition security, extreme weather events, vulnerable shelter, and population migration. Climatic variables, such as temperature and humidity, are common environmental stressors as well as nutritional stress, which reduces fertility. Besides climate and nutritional stressors, another major factor responsible for reduced fertility discovered within the past decade is th...

Learn to tailor physical activity interventions to the women you work with! Ethnic minority and low-income women have some of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the highest rates of physical inactivity—an independent risk factor for CVD. This book discusses the environmental, policy, and cultural factors that affect the tendency of these women (ages 20–50) to undertake physical activities. This vital information is based on qualitative research conducted in various location...

Throughout history man has revered his penis as his 'most precious ornament'. Yet, ambivalently, his penis has always been the source of man's deepest neuroses too. Do women find it, in the erect state, inherently ridiculous? Why can't a man be certain his penis will stand and deliver when he commands? If and when it steadfastly refuses, what can he do to remedy the situation? And then, of course, there's the matter of size... To possess a penis, Sophocles said, is to be 'chained to a madman'....