Book Description

Reproductive Health: Women and Men's Shared Responsibility is a much needed reference for both leaders and students in the field of public health. It offers a cutting-edge approach to its presentation of information about reproductive health, complete with recognition of the role of men, human rights, social justice, global health, infertility, environmental threats, gender violence, and more. There is no doubt that the need and timeliness for this book could not be greater. ... Read more

Book Description

This pioneering and contemporary book addresses how to preserve fertility after the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy on the gonads of women, men, and children. It reviews and forecasts developments in fertility preservation involving surgery, drug-based protocols and cryopreservation of spermatozoa, oocytes, embryos, and testicular and ovarian tissue. Each chapter contains extensive illustrations and a full bibliography. Edited by two renowned authors - a clinician and a scientist - Preservation of Fertility is the first book devoted to this topic written for all those involved in reproductive medicine and assisted conception. ... Read more

Book Description

Now in second edition, this massive volume covers every aspect-clinical and scientific-of the use of normal and abnormal sperm in assisted reproduction and assisted fertilization. The book contains 35 chapters by world-class authorities. Their contributions are organized into three parts: basic concepts of spermatology and fertilization, male factor diagnosis, and male factor treatment. Part 4 describes laboratory techniques not covered in their respective chapters. ... Read more

Book Description

A woman's sexuality evolves dramatically during her life. In this book, Elizabeth Davis explores hormones and menstruation, pregnancy and birth, menopause and aging, fertility management through body awareness, and much more, for a complete picture. She analyzes controversial hormone replacement therapy and looks at what effect stress, overwork, major life events, relationship upheaval, and sexual abuse have on a woman's sexual health. The book features chapters on sexual awakening, sex in the later years, and up-to-date information on the creativity hormone, oxytocin. Readers will appreciate her warmth and her "rare combination of breadth, practicality, strong - though not rigid - opinion and generous respect for individual experience" (Publishers Weekly). ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Eye-opening for all women!
I found this book very eye-opening on many topics, from the monthly hormonal cycle to the effects of the pill to menarche rituals and menopause. Lots of the information here will be new to even well-educated women, and can help them improve their lives and sex lives. After reading and rereading this book, I bought copies for my 3 sisters and my mother.

A book all women should read
This is truly the best book I have ever read. I not only learned so much about my own body but also that of my mom, and what she is physically and emotionally going through. I learned that other women can relate to some of my experiences and I no longer feel alone. I have learned to honor and respect my body and the monthly changes that I go through, and to appreciate those changes. I am going to teach my daughter that having her period is not something to dread, but something to celebrate. I plan to buy this book for my 18 year old niece and my mom.

A recommended contribution to personal and women's studies
In Women's Sexual Passages: Finding Pleasure And Intimacy At Every Stage Of Life, midwife and women's health care provider Elizabeth Davis draws upon her many years of experience and expertise to provide a frank and intimate overview of female sexuality and its evolution over a lifetime. She shows how women's sexuality is connected to (and affected by) childbirth, child rearing, stress, grief, and creativity. Her commentary on such issues as sex during menstruation, after childbirth, after menopause, after rape, after infidelity, and the sexuality of celibacy are both candid and informative. By tracing women's sexual cycles through the course of a lunar month and a developmental lifetime, Women's Sexual Passages is a welcome and recommended contribution to personal and women's studies that is enriched for readers with poetry, invocations of ancient goddesses, traces of ritual and herbal wisdom, along with fully up-to-date presentations on endometriosis and PMS.

I wish my mom had had this book to read when I was young!
I was referred to this book by my midwife (Debra O'Conner) as a book that I had to read as it's content was so "right on" and was she ever right. I know alot about my body. I am a licensed massage therapist and a mother of a 3 year old that I had at home. I spent hours and hours learning about my body during the childbirth process. That was great knowledge to add to the physiology I learned during my massage training. This book though, is something that every woman in our culture today should read. I now understand so much about my life and the directions it has taken! I hope to give this to everyone I know who has a daughter. I hope they will read it for themselves and then pass in on to their daughters when they feel the time is right. Our culture today is so lacking in this kind of positive message. It is women's reality and needs to be shared. Of course it is written by a Midwife! Thank you Elizabeth! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent reference guide
Susan Lark has provided a very good source of dietary information to help you control your fibroids.You start to understand the connection and to also understand that your body is just a little too good at some of thethings it does for you. Sort of like a cursing and a blessing.Youfigure if we all still lived in caves you would be in your element becausewith a healthy blood supply like yours you would have definitely been oneof the sought after females for producing offspring.But alas, we live ina different time and we need the info Susan can provide to stay away fromdoctors and drugs that do more harm than good.

I don't followeverything she saids but I follow enough to know that it does make adifference.Even if amazon.com doesn't have a current copy try and find aused one, it is worth it.

YOU HAVE THE WRONG REVIEW
I just wanted to let you know you have the wrong review attached to this book.According to the title, the book is a nutrition guide & cookbook. The Review that pops up about this book seems to be about a guideto over the counter pharmaceuticals. ... Read more

Book Description

While there are many books and manuals that deal with women’s health issues, men’s health has long been a neglected topic.

Many men believe they should have an innate understanding of how their penis works. As a result men rarely ask questions about their health and their knowledge is limited to urban myths and legends.

Through a question and answer format, Your Penis: A User's Guide attempts to destroy much of the mystery that surrounds what many men consider to be their most precious asset.

This books is written by men for men but also provide good revision for medical students and practitioners of men’s health. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Informative & Funny
At last a book that answers many of the questions men are often too afraid or embarrassed to ask!
I found this book very informative and as opposed to the majority of books on the subject of men's health, an easy read. The use of every day language and sayings provide a humorous and relatable background, while the underlying medical facts are most interesting (and also dispel a few common myths about the subject).
I recommend this book for anyone with or interested in the subject. ... Read more

Book Description

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is the detection and screening of genetic abnormality in gametes prior to fertilisation and embryos fertilised in vitro prior to implantation. This exciting new text provides an introduction and overview of the principles of PGD.
An exciting fusion of prenatal diagnosis (PD) with in vitro fertilisation (IVF), this book is will appeal to both the prenatal diagnosis community, of clinical geneticists and foetal medicine specialists within obstetrics and gynaecology, and the IVF community within reproductive medicine. It is also an essential introduction to PD, clinical genetics and IVF for non-specialists.

• A concise introduction to the field of PGD
• Detailed explanations of the techniques and procedures used
• The law and ethical implications of PGD
• Future uses of PGD

Book Description

"Finally! Such a comprehensive resource for survivors has been long overdue." —Michelle Melin, M.P.P., Director of Patient Services Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization

"An excellent, well-researched book that responds to the needs of survivors." —Anna Meadows, M.D. Director, Division of Oncology and Children's Cancer Research Center Children's Hospital of Phildadelphia.

Now as never before cancer survivors are discovering their potential for renewed sexuality, which many may never have thought possible. In this comprehensive new book, the leading authority in the field carefully and reassuringly explains your options and gives you the accurate, up-to-date information you need to take advantage of them. Now you can make the decisions that are best for you based on recent medical advances and the newest perspectives. This unique guide covers:

• The kinds of sexual problems both men and women are likely to face after treatment —and state-of-the-art solutions
• The most effective infertility treatments
• How to assess the risks of pregnancy
• The latest information on body image, low sex drive, performance anxieties, medications, sex aids, and reconstructive surgery
• Special topics such as sex after breast or prostate cancer, and the specific problems facing gays, singles, and survivors of childhood cancers.

Reviews (1)

A must-read for all cancer patients
I recommend this book to all cancer patients. If the shock of a cancer diagnosis doesn't reak havoc on your sex life, the treatments probably will. This book offers lots of suggestions for maintaining and/or improving intimacy and sex during and after cancer. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This is an Abridged Version
This is just an abridged version of her book, Overcoming Infertility Naturally, which I highly recommend.

all natural
It help a friend of mine and me too. I think it worth reading. If you want to do it without drugs. ... Read more

Book Description

What arouses an animal or human from an inactive, nonresponsive state to a condition of activity and responsiveness? What are the biological mechanisms for this change? In this book Donald W. Pfaff focuses on a reproductive behavior typical of many female animals. Sensory stimuli from the male trigger responses in a well-defined circuit of nerve cells. At the top of the circuit, certain nerve cells receive and retain sex hormones such as estrogens and progesterone. As a result, specific genes in these nerve cells are turned on at specific times, affecting in turn the rest of the neural circuit and causing a state of sexual responsiveness.

According to Pfaff, the biological bases for the most primitive human drives are largely explained by mechanisms uncovered in animal brains that have not changed in their fundamental properties over millions of years of evolution. Focusing on a single instinctive behavior, in this case the sex drive, is an important step toward understanding the biological reasons for the change from unmotivated to motivated animal behavior. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Everything you ever wanted to know about rat sex, and more!
This book is mainly about Pfaff's research into the neurobiological basis of sexual response, principally in the female rat, using the lordosis response as a model system. It is clearly written and well illustrated. The integration of hormonal and genetic influences in the context of a specific neural network is illuminating. Applications to understanding human sexuality are discussed but are limited in scope. Should be accessible to anyone with a couple of college courses in biology and physiological psychology.

A lucidly written account of a fascinating subject.
"Smell-driven behaviors, dependent on sex hormones,partake of a Dionysian form of neurobiology," writes RockefellerUniversity scientist Donald W. Pfaff. "It just so happens that this ... type of neural function is necessary for reproduction." In his recently published book, "Drive - Neurobiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Sexual Motivation," Dr. Pfaff describes the interactions of hormones, hormone receptors, transcription factors, and genes, as well as the neuroanatomical circuits in which they operate, in producing the sexual differentiation and behavioral patterns necessary for procreation in mammals from rodent to homo sapiens. "Drive," declares Dr. Pfaff, "is a name for neural states that energize and direct behavior." It has two components, general (arousal) and particular (e.g., hunger, thirst, warmth, sex). The central nervous system is directly hormone-responsive, and a "neuroanatomical sex steroid receptor system" is highly conserved through evolution. The neural circuit for producing primary female reproductive behavior, and its dependence on estrogen and progesterone (as originally reported from Dr. Pfaff's laboratory) represents "the first example of the induction of a specific transcription factor key for the performance of a specific behavior." Hormonal interactions can be either competitive or synergistic. Vasopression, dependent on testosterone, "facilitates offensive aggression toward an intruder." By contrast, oxytocin, interacting with estrogen, "... is the neurohormone of affiliation and love." (Estrogen, moreover, favorably affects memory and is currently being studied for possible efficacy in Alzheimer's disease.) The book is profusely illustrated with tables, photomicrographs, and neuroanatomical diagrams. It is also clearly written and deserves to attract a large number of both professional and lay readers. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Beyond the Natural Body presents an episode in the history of life sciences that is essential to our current understanding of sex and the body and the relations between gender and science. Since the early decades of this century, the notion of the hormonally-constructed body has become the dominant mode of conceptualizing bodies, particularly female bodies, to such an extent that we now assume that it is a natural phenomenon. This book challenges the idea that there is such as thing as a "natural" body, and demonstrates that it is the process by which scientific claims achieve universal status that constructs such discourses as natural facts. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Biology as cultural history
This book is about the social construction of gender and body in biology. Oudshoorn shows how a Victorian idé fixe about finding the "natural" source of gender differences in order to maintain them led to the "discovery" of hormones such as estrogen and adrenaline and to their classification as "sex" hormones. She goes on to show how the availability of materials for hormone extraction and testing, the entrance of various professions and institutions into those activities, and the availability of (mostly female) bodies for clinical experimentation steered the development of those hormones into clinical products such as The Pill. Since Oudshoorn's analysis is about every body, I as a reader can experience it as being about my own body. For instance: I suffer from an autoimmune disease which affects many parts of the body -- intestines, skin, skeleton, eyes. Symptoms vary with stress levels and with the menstrual cycle. According to the hormonal concept of the body, this implies that the course of my disease is steered by "sex" hormones, the hormones that regulate fertility and secondary sex traits. But my experience also implies that these so-called "sex" hormones also are stress hormones, immune system hormones, digestive tract hormones, etc. Thus it is fascinating for me to read Oudshoorn's account of how the sexualized concept of these hormones and the hormonalized concept of the gendered body emerged and came to preclude other conceptualizations. Having read that account, I have a new understanding of why medicine is institutionalized such that my disease and therefore my body as a patient fall within the purview of gastro-enterology, while the hormones which seem to steer the disease fall within the purview of gynecology. I had wondered why neither my gastro-sugeon nor my gynecologist have been able to tell me what effects hormone therapies might have on the course of the disease, and although that is not a question Oudshoorn sets out to answer in Beyond the Natural Body, answer it she does. I have also read the book from the perspective of a fellow researcher and teacher in the social study of science and technology. Oudshoorn's book is fast becoming an important resource in this field. Here are four good reasons to buy it: 1) The gendered hormonal concept of the body is currently part of the hegemonic set of views in biology and medicine. This entails that many (all?) of us, like myself, are personally confronted by practices and institutions which derive from and serve to maintain the concept. The knowledge, practices, and institutions of the hormonal body are full of frustrating gaps and perplexing inconsistencies. As a material, historical, socio-political map of the hormonal body concept, Oudshoorn's book can perhaps help us deal with these gaps and inconsistencies, perhaps help us steer the further development of the hormonal body concept according to our interests as lived bodies. 2) In extension of the book's empirical arguments, there are a number of important theoretical arguments -- e.g. the role of materiality in socio-technical networks, or the mechanisms for stability and instability of prescientific concepts as they are drawn into science. These and other theoretical issues are important to those who would study the practice and culture of science, not least because they bridge disciplinary boundaries in the field. 3) The book is extremely well written. While the historical documentation is thorough and the analysis subtle and complex, the book is still a strikingly smooth and easy read. This is one of the few books of solid academic history I have found to be as engaging as a popular ethnography, or even a good mystery novel. I expect that it will prove to be a good teaching text at both undergraduate and graduate levels. 4) Another aspect of the style of Oudshoorn's writing is the emotional distance she maintains to the many potentially politically incendiary issues in the history of (so-called) sex hormones. One might think that such a style would render the text politically impotent. Not so. I cannot say how others will react, but I for one found the text all the more politically motivating on three counts. One is that the rage I felt over some of these issues I felt as my own, not as an emotion imposed on me by the author. The second is that I felt that rage being directed away from the windmills of my own hasty assumptions and towards the forces which Oudshoorn convincingly documented were at work. The third is that those first two made the book an exciting model for politically effective academic writing based on constructivist theories, a project which some have deemed futile but which Oudshoorn shows to be eminently worth the effort. ... Read more

Book Description

The Human Genome Project, discoveries in molecular biology, and new reproductive technologies have advanced our understanding of how genetic science may be used to treat persons with genetic disorders. Greater knowledge may also make possible genetic interventions to "enhance" normal human characteristics, such as height, hair or eye color, strength, or memory, as well as the transmittal of such modifications to future generations.The prospect of inheritable genetic modifications, or IGMs, whether for therapeutic or enhancement purposes, raises complex scientific, ethical, and regulatory issues.

Designing Our Descendants presents twenty essays by physicians, scientists, philosophers, theologians, lawyers, and policy analysts addressing these issues from diverse perspectives.In three sections, the authors discuss the short- and long-term scientific feasibility of IGM technology; ethical and religious issues related to safety, justice, morality, reproductive rights, and enhancement; and regulatory issues including the necessity of public input and oversight and the influence of commercialization.Their goal is to open a dialogue engaging not only scholars and scientists but also government officials and concerned citizens.The authors conclude that while IGM cannot be carried out safely and responsibly on humans utilizing current methods, it is important to begin public discussion now to determine whether, and if so how, to proceed. ... Read more

Book Description

Straight Answers to Your Most Pressing Intimate Questions

Drawing on more than twenty-five years of clinical experience and familiarity with the anxieties and fears men have about their health, the physician known for years to Men's Health newsletter readers as "Dr. Private Parts" knows just what worries men enough to seek help. Covering everything from "Is this normal?" questions to cancer treatment options, Dr. Gilbaugh puts locker-room misconceptions to rest, and offers the facts as well as up-to-date treatment advice on:

Book Description

In the years since its first publication, O'Rahilly and Muller's Human Embryology and Teratology has been widely praised as an exceptional reference on normal and abnormal human prenatal development. This revised and expanded Third Edition offers more in-depth coverage of the central topics in human embryology and incorporates the latest data from ongoing embryological investigations.
Authored by two of the world's foremost authorities on the human embryo, this new edition provides a comprehensive overview of general and systemic development, referring throughout to the internationally accepted Carnegie system of embryonic staging. Extensively illustrated, the book features nearly 400 figures, including detailed, color-enhanced line drawings that clarify the developmental processes of every major organ and system. Useful recommendations for additional reading are listed at the end of each chapter.
The Third Edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to include:
* Elaboration of the nervous system to conform to the second edition of the authors' The Embryonic Human Brain
* Reorganization of the chapters on the heart and eye, and clarification of the liver, vertebrae, and neuroteratology
* Expanded tables explaining the initial appearance of features in each body system
* Further indications of precise embryonic stages
* 35 new drawings and 27 new photomicrographs in color
* Numerous new references
* Updated terminology, standardized according to the accepted usage
The undisputed authority on human embryology and embryonic abnormalities, Human Embryology and Teratology, Third Edition belongs in the library of every physician, biologist, student, and research scientist whose research is concerned with human anatomical development. Its authoritative, concise, and thoroughly illustrated presentation also makes it an ideal reference for practitioners in all medical and surgical subspecialties. ... Read more

Book Description

The essential reference guide to studies regarding the physical, psychological, and social effects of abortion. This is the only publication to list, all in one place, all the major statistically significant studies on abortion.This newly revised third edition has been updated with listings for recent studies and reoganized for easier reference. ... Read more