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