For most women, hysterectomy does not adversely affect sexuality. In studies of the effects of the operation on sexual interest and response, a minority of women — between 7 and 20% depending on the study — report some decrease in sexual function after hysterectomy. About the same proportion report an improvement, and more than half [...]

IVF is a technique for fertilising your eggs with your partner’s sperm outside your body – hence the use of the phrase ‘test tube babies’. The fertilised egg is then implanted back into your womb. Who Should Have It? IVF may be used as a last resort by couples who have had unexplained fertility for [...]

Relief When a doctor finally puts a name to all that pain and suffering you feel relieved. At last someone has recognized that you do have something wrong with you and it is not all in your head. No, you are not neurotic and your symptoms have a name. Endometriosis. You do not have cancer [...]

How do you get it? By far the majority of infections are transmitted through sexual contact, so things which increase your chances of getting PID include: • having unprotected sex • having unprotected sex with several different partners • having unprotected sex with someone who has had sex with several different partners. Another (less common) [...]

Natal is Latin for something to do with birth. (It also refers to buttocks in the same language. Odd, isn’t it?) Ante- means before, and post- means after. Peri-means around, and neo- means new. This is how a pregnant woman can undergo antenatal care, until the perinatal period, when she delivers a neonate, and then [...]

If you don’t want to put your own health (and, since AIDS, your life) at risk, it is wise to think ahead, and be a little cautious in your behaviour. All of us have at some stage regretted an impetuous moment (or two). The problem (or one of them) with sexually transmitted diseases, is that [...]

Tubal ligation. Having the fallopian tubes ‘cut and tied’ or ‘clipped’ provides a fairly neat way of preventing sperm going up the tubes and eggs going down the tubes, so it is an effective way of avoiding getting pregnant, particularly if you are certain you won’t want any future pregnancies. The procedure is done under [...]

The average amount of menstrual loss is 40 milliliters per cycle. Up to 80 milliliters a cycle is still considered within normal limits. The term used for periods heavier than this is menorrhagia. Most women can judge the amount of loss they have by how many pads or tampons they change in a day. Again [...]