Reproductive Health and Intersections of biology, environment, culture, and human rights

Question 1

What is the most appropriate medical anthropological approach useful for explaining reproductive process?

Answer 1

Medicalization: A process by which some condition (physiological,
behavioural, or emotional) seen as a medical problem, a pathology necessitating treatment or intervention by a health-care professional.

Question 2

Who did argue that menstruation is itself an adaption?

Answer 2

Margie Profet (1993)

Question 3

Who did propose that menstruation is a byproduct of the way that the thinning of the endometrium occurs in humans?

Answer 3

Finn(1994)

Question 4

What does menarche symbolize for a young girl in India?

Answer 4

Menarche: an important life cycle rite across cultures, some very public, others more private in nature.

In India often symbolizes new restrictions on a girl’s movements and
activities, as she is now considered marriageable and vulnerable to
sexual overtures

Question 5

What is the most common indicator of menstruation cross-culturally?

Answer 5

Menstruation as opportunity:
▪ an indicator of a woman’s health and fertility
▪ The appearance of menstrual blood is greeted with relief

Question 6

What are some of the determinants of fertility?

Answer 6

Periods
Frequency of intercourse
Ovarian cycle length etc.

Question 7

What is premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)? Is PMS culture-bound?

Answer 7

Some women experience a range of negative emotional symptoms just
prior to the onset of menses, which now has a recognized medical termPMS.

Anthropologists found PMS is a culture-bound syndrome unique to some
women:
1. PMS historically was not universally recognized as a medical
syndrome and was much less frequently noted in subsistence societies,
where menstruation is more often perceived as a sign of health, youth,
fertility, and femininity than in the United States or in European
countries

Question 8

What is the most common cause of death for women?

Answer 8

Heart Disease?

Question 9

Why were women often excluded from clinical trial research?

Answer 9

Because there emotions are too all over the place.

Question 10

What is medicalization?

Answer 10

The process by which some aspects of human life come to be considered as medical problems, whereas before they were not considered pathological.

Question 11

Which region of the world is referred to as the “infertility belt” and why?

Answer 11

“Infertility Belt”:
* Sub-Saharan African countries considered “infertility belt” they
have the highest rates of infertility in the world

Question 12

What are some of the factors that can impair fertility among men and women?

Answer 12

Various diseases, such as HIV and other STIs
Dietary and environmental toxins.
Nutrient deficiencies
Medical treatment, such as chemotherapy, unsafe abortions

Question 13

What was the central focus of the Medical Anthropologist Marcia Inhorn’s research in Dubai?

Question 14

What do pregnancy and childbirth refer to?

Answer 14

pregnancy may be described with medical terminology—e.g., a “diagnosis” or “symptoms” of pregnancy—and medical care for all stages as well as birth is deemed essential.
*Involves a variety of compromises between the well-being of the
mother and that of the fetus.

Birth: Birth represents the literal and figurative emergence of a new
individual into a community of siblings, kin, and neighbors and the
biological transition from complete physiological symbiosis with the
mother to a more fluid, yet still dependent relationship on her and
other care givers.

Question 15

What is meant by “natural birth”?

Answer 15

An alternative to medicalized and technocratic birth?

Question 16

Briefly explain the importance of “informed choice” in midwifery.

Answer 16

Promoting women as knowing, capable, and strong, their bodies perfectly designed to carry a fetus and to give birth successfully without the high-tech surveillance and interventions of physicians in a hospital setting.

Question 17

What is embedded inequality?

Answer 17

processes that differentially affect desires, decisions, and actions relative
to childbirth and result in assertions, violations, and negotiations of claims
to biomedical obstetric care and to safe delivery

Question 18

What is social exclusion?

Answer 18

Can be accounted for relational as well as distributional aspects of
poverty.
*Can be the processes through which individuals or groups are
excluded from material resources and societal belonging.

Question 19

Why is the rate of maternal mortality very high among poor women?

Answer 19

In general, poor have limited access to biomedical services
*There is a lack of adequate biomedical care (or “skilled attendance”) more
available to many women in labor.

Question 20

Identify the five choices a woman may have in labor.

Question 21

What is obstetric violence?

Answer 21

Obstetric violence (OV) is the term for the bullying, coercion, humiliation, and/or assault of persons who are in labour or giving birth by medical personnel, such as nurses, physicians, and midwives. Obstetric violence, to put it briefly, is when medical staff or family members inflict harm or disregard for a person’s rights when they are in labour or giving birth, particularly by coercing them into actions against their will.

Question 22

What are the differences between medicalization and hypermedicalization?

Answer 22

Medicalization:As conceptions of what counts as normal are shifted by
technological interventions in childbirth, the potential for new kinds of bodies is created.

Hypermedicalization: The overuse or misuse of medicine and technology in health care ( or bad practices in obstetrics).
*Produces violation of women’s
bodies, privacy, rights, and health

Question 23

Why is the hypermedicalization of childbirth and health care considered problematic?

Answer 23

The overuse or misuse of medicine and technology in health care ( or
bad practices in obstetrics).
*Produces violation of women’s bodies, privacy, rights, and health

Question 24

What is manual revision of uterine cavity? Why is it considered an offensive act?

Answer 24

the doctor manually scrapes out the woman’s uterus (after delivery of the baby and placenta) with a gloved hand to make sure that no pieces of the placenta remain that could cause infection.
*This routine medical procedure as one of the most offensive experiences women had to go through there, both because of:
- the intense pain it can cause (it is done without anesthesia in
most cases) and
- its lack of basis in evidence as a preventative measure

Question 25

Why is addressing structural violence in public health in Mexico challenging?

Question 26

How is obstetric violence movement different from humanization of birth movement?

Answer 26

Obstetric violence movement: the explicit emphasis on underlying structural inequalities—along with the strong language and legal repercussions.

Humanization of birth movement: more about individual choices and responsibilities in terms of birthing options.

Question 27

What is the female genital cutting (FGC)?

Answer 27

Female Genital Cutting (FGC): “all procedures (surgical) that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or non-medical reasons” (WHO)

Question 28

What are some of the consequences of female genital cutting?

Answer 28

FCG is viewed as “female circumcision”/”purification” and nonmutilating

Question 29

Identify the four categories of female genital cutting (FGC) defined by the World Health Organization.

Answer 29

Type I Clitoridectomy: removal of the clitoral hood, almost invariably
accompanied by removal of the clitoris itself

Type II Excision: removal of the clitoris and inner labia. Both types I and II
are widely known as “sunna” circumcisions in Sudan.

Type III Infibulation: removal of all or part of the inner and outer labia, and
usually the clitoris, and the fusion of the wound, leaving a small hole for
the passage of urine and menstrual blood—the fused wound is opened for
intercourse and childbirth.

Type IV Miscellaneous (include non tissue removals procedures):
- a symbolic pricking or piercing of the clitoris or labia
- to cauterization of the clitoris,
- cutting into the vagina to widen it

Question 30

What is considered to be the most severe form of FGC?

Answer 30

It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed, without anesthesia, by a traditional circumciser using a knife, razor, or scissors.

Question 31

What are some of the harmful effects of FGC?

Answer 31

Excessive bleeding (hemorrhage) and sometimes girls bleed to death
*Blood poisoning (septicemia)
*Retention of urine, or shock [obstruction of the flow of urine or menses]

Question 32

What are the causes of practicing FGC in different societies? Describe

Question 33

In terms of consent and human rights, what two rights have been violated through the practice of FGC?

Answer 33

Since these girls are mostly under 15 years old they are hardly informed about the risks and consequences.

Even the arranged marriage for the girls under the age of 18 years is the violation of human rights.