Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Vocabulary of Reproductive Health

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Critical Issues in Reproductive Health

Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis ((PSDE,volume 33))

Abstract

A Bengali speaking acquaintance who volunteers at a health centre for Bangladeshi immigrants in East London likes to tell the following story. She once explained in great detail the mechanics of taking the contraceptive pill to the wife in a couple that had come to the clinic for birth control help. Several weeks later, the couple was back, greatly upset that the wife was pregnant. When my acquaintance asked if the pill taking instructions had been strictly followed, the husband took umbrage at her suspicious questioning and declared that he had been most particular about taking the pill with breakfast every morning for 3 weeks and beginning the cycle again after a gap of 1 week. In other words, he had manfully assumed that my friend’s advice had been meant for him as he was the household head, and that she had been looking at his wife as she spoke only because she was a well-brought up South Asian woman who did not lock eyes with strange men.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For growing evidence of this possible overestimation, see Oomman (1996) and Prasad et al. (1999), on India; Zurayk et al. (1995), on Egypt; Bulut et al. (1997), on Turkey; Lien at al (2002), on Vietnam; Nayab (2004), on Pakistan, Pepin et al. (2004), on West Africa, Hawkes et al. (1999), on Bangladesh.

  2. 2.

    See for example, Sobo (1995), Rosenthal et al. (1998), Kirkman et al. (1998), and Smith (2004).

References

  • Abraham, L. (2002). Bhai-behen, true love, time pass: Friendships and sexual partnerships among Youth in an Indian Metropolis. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 4(3), 337–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amin, S. (2003). Menstrual regulation in Bangladesh. In A. M. Basu (Ed.), The sociocultural and political aspects of abortion (pp. 153–166). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anarfi, J. (2003). The role of local herbs in the recent fertility decline in Ghana: Contraceptives or abortifacients? In A. B. Basu (Ed.), The sociocultural and political aspects of abortion (pp. 139–152). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, D. W., Gazmararian, J. A., Scott, T., Parker, R. M., Ren, D. J., & Peel, J. (2002). Functional health literacy and the risk of hospital admission among Medicare managed care enrollees. American Journal of Public Health, 92(8), 1278–1283.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bang, A., & Bang, R. (1997). Findings on reproductive tract infections among males presented based on a study in progress at Gadchiroli in a workshop on involving men in a reproductive health program. Cited in Verma et al. (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A. M. (1992). Culture, the status of women and demographic behavior: Illustrated with the case of India. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A. M. (Ed.). (2003). The social and political context of abortion. Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A. M. (2005). Ultramodern contraception: Social class and family planning in India. Asian Population Studies, 1(3), 303–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A. M. (2006). The emotions and reproductive health. Population and Development Review, 32(1), 107–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bulut, A., et al. (1997). Contraceptive choice and reproductive morbidity in Istanbul. Studies in Family Planning, 28(1), 35–43.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C., Reddy, P. H., & Caldwell, P. (1982). The causes of demographic change in rural South India: A micro approach. Population and Development Review, 8(4), 689–727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collumbien, M., Bohidar, N., Das, R., Das, B., & Pelto, P. (1999). Male sexual health concerns in Orissa – An emic perspective. Paper presented at the Seminar on Social Categories in Population Health, organised by the Committee on Anthropological Demography of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Cairo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gangoli, G. (2009). Indian feminisms: Issues of sexuality and representations. In K. M. Gokulsing & W. Dissanayake (Eds.), Popular culture in a globalized India (pp. 53–65). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, S. (1998). Why include men? Establishing sexual health clinics for men in Rural Bangladesh. Health Policy and Planning, 13, 121–130.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, S., et al. (1999). Reproductive tract infections in women in low-income, low prevalence situations: Assessment of syndromic management in Matlab, Bangladesh. Lancet, 354, 1776–1781.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Islam, M. M., Rob, U., & Chakroborty, N. (2004). Menstrual regulation practices in Bangladesh: An unrecognized form of contraception. Asia-Pacific Population Journal, 19(4), 75–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkman, M., Rosenthal, D., & Smith, A. M. (1998). Adolescent sex and the romantic narrative: Why some young heterosexuals use condoms to prevent pregnancy but not disease. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 3(4), 355–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, E. (2003). Cleaning the belly: Managing menstrual health in Guinea, West Africa. In A. M. Basu (Ed.), The sociocultural and political aspects of abortion (pp. 103–118). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, R. (1984). Emotion, knowing, and culture. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 214–237). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lien, P. T., et al. (2002). The prevalence of reproductive tract infections in Hue, Vietnam. Studies in Family Planning, 33(3), 217–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narayana, G. (1996, June). Family violence, sex and reproductive health behaviour among men in Uttar Pradesh, India (unpublished). Cited in Verma et al. (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayab, D. (2004). Women’s ability to identify and address reproductive tract infections: A case study in Pakistan. Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Demography and Sociology Program, Australian National University, Acton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichter, M. (1981). Idioms of distress: Alternatives in the expression of psychosocial distress: A case study from South India. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 5, 379–408.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Obeyesekere, G. (1976). The impact of Ayurvedic ideas on the culture and the individual in Sri Lanka. In C. Leslie (Ed.), Asian medical system. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Flynn, N., & Britten, N. (2004). Diagnosing menstrual disorders: A qualitative study of the approach of primary care professionals. British Journal of General Practice, 54, 353–358.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oomman, N. (1996). Poverty and pathology: Comparing rural Rajasthani women’s ethnomedical models with biomedical models of reproductive morbidity: Implications for women’s health in India. Dissertation submitted to the School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osella, C., & Osella, F. (2002). Contextualizing sexuality: Young men in Kerala, South India. In L. Manderson & P. Liamputton (Eds.), Coming of age in South and Southeast Asia. Richmond: Curzon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patel, V., & Oomman, N. (1999). Mental health matters too: Gynecological symptoms and depression in South Asia. Reproductive Health Matters, 7(14), 30–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pepin, J. S., et al. (2004). Low prevalence of cervical infections in women with vaginal discharge in West Africa: Implications for syndromic management. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 80, 230–235.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prasad, J. H. et al. (1999). Prevalence of reproductive tract infections among adolescents in a rural community in Tamil Nadu (unpublished paper). Cited in Oomman (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H. (1975). The meaning of ‘meaning’. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 7, 131–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramasubban, R. (2000). Women’s vulnerability: The recent evidence on STIs. In R. Ramasubban & S. J. Jejeebhoy (Eds.), Women’s reproductive health in India. Jaipur/New Delhi: Rawat Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramasubban, R., & Rishyaringa, B. (2001). Weakness (‘ashaktapana’) and reproductive health among women in a slum population in Mumbai. In C. M. Obermeyer (Ed.), Cultural perspectives on reproductive health (pp. 13–37). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rele, J. R., & Kanitkar, T. (1980). Fertility and family planning in greater Bombay. Bombay: Popular Prakasan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renne, E. P. (2003). Changing assessments of abortion in a Northern Nigerian town. In A. M. Basu (Ed.), The sociocultural and political aspects of abortion: Global perspectives (pp. 119–138). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal, D., Gifford, S., & Moore, S. (1998). Safe sex or safe love: Competing discourses? AIDS Care, 10(1), 35–47.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, M., Davison, L., & Gerdes, G. (1988). Culture, critical theory and reproductive illness behavior in Haiti. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, 2(4), 270–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. J. (2004, April). Premarital sex, procreation and problems of HIV risk in Nigeria. Paper presented to the Annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobo, E. J. (1995). Finance, romance, social support, and condom use among impoverished inner-city women. Human Organization, 54(2), 115–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stambach, A. (2003). Kutoa Mimba: Debates about schoolgirl abortion in Machame, Tanzania. In A. M. Basu (Ed.), The sociocultural and political aspects of abortion (pp. 79–102). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trollope-Kumar, K. (1999). Symptoms of reproductive tract infection – Not all that they seem to be. The Lancet, 354, 1745–1746.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van der Geest, S., & Whyte, R. R. (1989). The charms of medicines: Metaphors and metonyms. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, 3(4), 345–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verma, R. K., Rangaiyan, G., Singh, R., Sharma, S., & Pelto, P. J. (2001). A study of male sexual health problems in a Mumbai Slum population. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 3(3), 339–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (1993). Recommendations for the management of sexually transmitted diseases (WHO Global Program on AIDS/STD93.1). Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (1995). STD Case management workbooks, Modules 1–7. Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zurayk, H., Khattab, H., Younis, N., Kamal, O., & Wl-Helw, M. (1995). Comparing women’s reports with medical diagnosis of reproductive morbidity conditions in rural Egypt. Studies in Family Planning, 26(1), 14–21.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Alaka Malwade Basu M.Sc.

Authors
  1. Alaka Malwade Basu M.Sc.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alaka Malwade Basu M.Sc. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

    Andrzej Kulczycki

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Basu, A.M. (2014). The Vocabulary of Reproductive Health. In: Kulczycki, A. (eds) Critical Issues in Reproductive Health. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6722-5_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6722-5_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6721-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6722-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation