This handbook adopts a life-cycle approach to examine key milestones and events in women's sexual and reproductive health, using a multi-disciplinary perspective. This is essential reading for scholars and students interested in women's reproductive health.

Jane M. Ussher is Professor of Women's Health Psychology at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is the author of 11 books, including The Madness of Women: Myth and Experience and Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body. Jane is also editor of the Routledge Women and Psychology book series.

Joan C. Chrisler, PhD, is The Class of '43 Professor Emerita of Psychology at Connecticut College, USA. She is the founding editor of the journal Women's Reproductive Health, co-author of Woman's Embodied Self: Feminist Perspectives on Identity and Image, and author of dozens of articles and chapters on women's embodiment and health.

Janette Perz is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of the Translational Health Research Institute (THRI) at Western Sydney University, Australia. She has undertaken a significant research program in sexual and reproductive health, including premenstrual syndrome, menopause, and concerns about fertility and sexuality after cancer.

Author biographies

Introduction - Joan C. Chrisler, Jane M. Ussher and Janette Perz

Part I: Menarche, menstruation and menopause

1. Pubertal development and menarche: physiological and developmental aspects - Margaret L. Stubbs

2. Menarche. psychosocial and cultural aspects - Maria Luisa Marván and Verónica Alcalá-Herrera

3. The menstrual cycle: its biology in the context of silent ovulatory disturbances - Jerilynn C. Prior

4. The menstrual cycle: attitudes and behavioral concomitants - Joan C. Chrisler and Jenifer A. Gorman

5. Premenstrual mood disorders: a feminist psychosocial perspective - Jane M. Ussher and Janette Perz

6. Menopause and midlife: psychosocial perspectives and interventions - Myra S. Hunter

Part II: Reproductive and gynecological disorders

7. Menstrual-cycle-related disorders: polycystic ovary syndrome, dysmenorrhea and menstrual migraine - Nancy Fugate Woods and Nancy J. Kenney

8. Women's experience of endometriosis - Elaine Denny and Annalise Weckesser

9. Breast and reproductive cancers: genomics and risks - Cheryl B. Travis

10. Psychosocial aspects of women's sexual and reproductive well-being after cancer - Chloe Parton

Part III: Contraception and infertility

11. Contraception across the reproductive life-course - Deborah Bateson

12. Abortion in context - Jeanne Marecek

13. Women's experiences of infertility - Jessica L. Barnack-Tavlaris

14. Fertility and cancer - Michelle Peate, Lesley Stafford and Yasmin Jayasinghe

15. Assisted conception: fertility preservation, surrogate motherhood, gamete/embryo donation and in vitro fertilization - Olga B. A. van den Akker

Part IV: Pregnancy and childbirth

16. 'Adolescent pregnancy': social problem, public health concern, or neither? - Catriona Ida Macleod and Tracey Feltham-King

17. Smoking and pregnancy: risk factors, women's experiences and interventions - Michael Ussher, Felix Naughton, Cailtlin Notley and Linda Bauld

18. Medical aspects of pregnancy - Annemarie Hennessy

19. Miscarriage - Heather Rowe and Alexandra J. Hawkey

20. The ultimate in women's labor: stillbirth and grieving - Joanne Cacciatore and Jill Wieber Lens

21. Psychological aspects of pregnancy and pregnancy health care in their social and cultural contexts - Jane R.W. Fisher and Karin Hammarberg

22. Childbirth and sexuality - Hannah H. Dahlen and Sahar Sobhgol

23. Postpartum adjustment: psychological aspects - Paula Nicolson

24. Understanding perinatal mental health problems: prevalence, risk factors, approaches to prevention, early identification and treatment - Virginia Schmied

Part V: Sexuality and sexual health

25. Women's sexual health and embodiment - Niva Piran

26. Sexual health of adolescent girls - S. Rachel Skinner, Cristyn Davies, Jennifer Marino, Jessica R. Botfield and Larissa Lewis

27. Older women and sexual health: social, relational and medical considerations - Camille J. Interligi and Maureen C. McHugh

28. Sexuality and sexual dysfunction: psychological perspectives and interventions - Julia Velten and Sonia Milani

29. Sexuality and sexual dysfunction: critical analyses - Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Lianne A. Rosen, Maxime Charest and Alyson K. Spurgas

30. HIV, STIs, risk taking and sexual health - Jennifer Power

31. Impacts of sexual violence on women's sexual health - Kyja Noack-Lundberg

32. Feminist perspectives on child sexual abuse - Sam Warner

33. Female genital mutilation and genital surgeries - Hilary Burrage

Part VI. Marginalized women's health

34. Shame, silence and secrecy: migrant and refugee women's sexual and reproductive health and embodiment - Alexandra Hawkey

35. Reproductive health disparities among women experiencing homelessness - Courtney Cronley and Shamsun Nahar

36. Reproductive justice and culturally safe approaches to sexual and reproductive health for indigenous women and girls - Pat Dudgeon and Abigail Bray

37. Reproductive health of women in low- and middle-income countries - Kirsten I. Black and Miriam O'Connor

38. Experiences of reproductive and sexual health and health care among women with disabilities - Heather Dillaway, Brianna Marzolf, Heather Fritz, Wassim Tarraf and Catherine Lysack

39. Women with intellectual and developmental impairments: differences not deficits - Jan Burns

40. Lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgender women's sexual and reproductive health - Ruth P. McNair

Index