Fertility awareness: jet-age rhythm method?

Article Abstract:

Contraceptive development is currently eschewed by major pharmaceutical firms, largely because of the possibility of litigation and the length of time required before a method is approved and saleable. This has prompted the reexamination of an old method of natural family planning. The method relies on determining the time of ovulation and avoiding vaginal intercourse for several days before and afterwards. This can result in abstaining from sexual intercourse for up to 17 days each month. However, better monitoring could reduce this period considerably and, since the actual fertile period is little more than one day, precise knowledge could make the abstention time much shorter. Home test kits that determine ovulation usually measure hormone levels in urine or sometimes use saliva. Estradiol and luteinizing hormone (LH) are two hormones which increase in concentration prior to ovulation 83 and 32 hours (average times), respectively. Of the two, estradiol increases more gradually, making it a better index measurement, since sperm can survive for three days. A second rise in estradiol levels, or an increase of progesterone, could signal the end of the fertile period. Tests based on progesterone in urine are already available for home-use. The best approach would be to devise two dipsticks to test saliva samples, one which indicates when to abstain from intercourse, the other to indicate when it is safe to resume intercourse. However, it is not known if such products would be used, which is a reason for the lack of motivation for the development of such a research program. Monitoring of hormones is now performed mainly by women who wish to become pregnant, who have also primarily carried the burden of much of the cost and inconvenience of 'data collection' in this area as they have attempted to solve their problem. A more important incentive to develop better birth control is the large number of women who will want and need to delay fertility for professional reasons. A test group for an epidemiological study necessary to supply basic information about home-use outcomes could be college students. The time may come when such knowledge is perceived as a requisite part of basic health information, and birth control may simply be one of many consequences of that knowledge. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Evaluation, Testing, Fertility, Human, Human fertility, Contraception, Natural family planning

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Sex in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Article Abstract:

Reproductive power is being shifted to women with the improvements in assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Reproductive technologies are causing a separation of fertilization and sex. In vitro fertilization, developed in 1977, was the first successful ART, and more than 300,000 babies have been born to women using this technology. Intracytoplasmic sperm injections, developed in 1992, is still largely unrecognized, but more than 10,000 babies have been born using this technology.

Social aspects, Childbirth, Delivery (Childbirth), Reproductive technology

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How the brain gets rhythm

Article Abstract:

Brain research has provided insights into how brain rhythms caused by the same stimulus in separate regions of the brain are synchronized. Sets of neurons appear to act as networks. The role of gamma oscillations is discussed.

Physiological aspects, Neurons, Perception, Perception (Psychology), Brain stimulation

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