PERSPECTIVES OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

This issue of Patient Education and Counseling is dedicated to reprodu ctive health. The main focus is infertility as it is experienced in di fferent parts of our world. In western societies, medical breakthrough s give couples with fertility problems a good chance to have a child. However, in many developing societies adequate medical treatment is on ly available for the upper classes, and many women keep going to tradi tional healers. In addition, the social consequences of childlessness are much greater than in western societies. Another focus of this issu e is negative experiences regarding pregnancy. A very distressing expe rience is late pregnancy loss, Late pregnancy loss is different from i nfertility with respect to the tangibility of an object of grief, thou gh it may also result in permanent childlessness. Other aspects of neg ative pregnancy experiences are exceptional physical reactions and rec urrent induced abortions. Furthermore, two other elements of reproduct ive health are addressed in this issue: STD among female adolescents a nd gender aspects of gene technology. Finally, the ramifications of th ese various aspects of reproductive health on education and counseling are discussed.