Patient Educ Couns. 1997 May; 31(1): 1-5.

Perspectives of reproductive health.

van Balen F, Visser AP.

Department of Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This issue of Patient Education and Counseling is dedicated to reproductive health. The main focus is infertility as it is experienced in different of our world. In western societies, medical breakthroughs give couples with fertility problems a good chance to have a child. However, in many developing societies adequate medical treatment is only available for the upper classes, and many women keep going to traditional healers. In addition, the social consequences of childlessness are much greater than in western societies. Another focus of this issue is negative experiences regarding pregnancy. A very distressing experience is late pregnancy loss. Late pregnancy loss is different from infertility with respect to the tangibility of an object of grief, though it may also result in permanent childlessness. Other aspects of negative pregnancy experiences are exceptional physical reactions and recurrent induced abortions. Furthermore, two other elements of reproductive health are addressed in this issue: STD among female adolescents and gender aspects of gene technology. Finally, the ramifications of these various aspects of reproductive health on education and counseling are discussed.