The hymen is a thin piece of mucosal tissue that surrounds or partially covers the vaginal opening. A small percentage are born with hymens that are imperforate and completely obstruct the vaginal canal. It forms part of the vulva and is similar in structure to the vagina. The term comes straight from the Greek, for 'membrane'.
Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. Worldwide, pregnancy complications are the leading cause of death for women and girls 15 to 19 years old. The definition of teenage pregnancy includes those who are legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the period between the ages of 10 and 19 years. Pregnancy can occur with sexual intercourse after the start of ovulation, which can happen before the first menstrual period (menarche). In healthy, well-nourished girls, the first period usually takes place between the ages of 12 and 13.
Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and applied anthropology, and is a subfield of social and cultural anthropology that examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or influenced by issues of health, health care and related issues.
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:
Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.
Interculturalism is a political movement that supports cross-cultural dialogue and challenging self-segregation tendencies within cultures. Interculturalism involves moving beyond mere passive acceptance of multiple cultures existing in a society and instead promotes dialogue and interaction between cultures. Interculturalism is often used to describe the set of relations between indigenous and western ideals, grounded in values of mutual respect.
A maternal bond is the relationship between a biological mother/caregiver and her child or baby. While typically associated with pregnancy and childbirth, a maternal bond may also develop in cases later on in life where the child is unrelated, such as in the case of an adoptee or a case of blended family.
Critical medical anthropology (CMA) is a branch of medical anthropology that blends critical theory and ground-level ethnographic approaches in the consideration of the political economy of health, and the effect of social inequality on people's health. It puts emphasis on the structure of social relationships, rather than purely biomedical factors in analyzing health and accounting for its determinants.
Syndemics combine the synergies of epidemics to evaluate how social and health conditions travel together, in what ways they interact, and what upstream drivers may produce their interactions. The idea of syndemics is that no disease exists in isolation and that often population health can be understood through a confluence of factors that produces multiple health conditions that afflict some populations and not others. Syndemics are not like pandemics ; instead, syndemics reflect population-level trends within certain states, regions, cities, or towns.
Merrill Singer is a medical anthropologist and professor emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and in Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He is best known for his research on substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, syndemics, health disparities, and minority health.
Public anthropology, according to Robert Borofsky, a professor at Hawaii Pacific University, "demonstrates the ability of anthropology and anthropologists to effectively address problems beyond the discipline—illuminating larger social issues of our times as well as encouraging broad, public conversations about them with the explicit goal of fostering social change". The work of Partners In Health is one illustration of using anthropological methods to solve big or complicated problems.
Barbara Rylko-Bauer is a medical anthropologist and author who lives in the United States. She is an adjunct associate professor at Michigan State University's Department of Anthropology. She was born in 1950 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and emigrated with her parents to the United States that same year.
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unintended pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only became available in the 20th century. Planning, making available, and using human birth control is called family planning. Some cultures limit or discourage access to birth control because they consider it to be morally, religiously, or politically undesirable.
Marcia Claire Inhorn is a medical anthropologist and William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University where she is Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies. A specialist on Middle Eastern gender and health issues, Inhorn conducts research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America. She has also completed a major study of egg freezing in the United States, described in her book Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs. Inhorn has published 21 books and more than 200 articles and book chapters.
Prenatal care in the United States is a health care preventive care protocol recommended to women with the goal to provide regular check-ups that allow obstetricians-gynecologists, family medicine physicians, or midwives to detect, treat and prevent potential health problems throughout the course of pregnancy while promoting healthy lifestyles that benefit both mother and child. Patients are encouraged to attend monthly checkups during the first two trimesters and in the third trimester gradually increasing to weekly visits. Women who suspect they are pregnant can schedule pregnancy tests prior to 9 weeks gestation. Once pregnancy is confirmed an initial appointment is scheduled after 8 weeks gestation. Subsequent appointments consist of various tests ranging from blood pressure to glucose levels to check on the health of the mother and fetus. If not, appropriate treatment will then be provided to hinder any further complications.
Access to safe and adequate sexual and reproductive healthcare constitutes part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as upheld by the United Nations.
Carolyn Sargent is a medical anthropologist.
Teenage pregnancy in the United States occurs mostly unintentionally and out of wedlock but has been declining almost continuously since the 1990s. In 2022, it fell to 13.5 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, the lowest on record. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this decline is due to abstinence and the use of contraception. However, the averages conceal significant ethnic or geographic differences within the nation. The birth rates for Hispanic and African-American teens were more than double those of European-American teens, while Asian-American adolescents have the lowest pregnancy and birth rates of all. As of 2015, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi had the highest adolescent birth rates in the Union.
Jean J. Schensul is a medical anthropologist and senior scientist at The Institute for Community Research, in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Schensul is most notable for her research on HIV/AIDS prevention and other health-related research in the United States, as well as her extensive writing on ethnographic research methods. She has made notable contributions to the field of applied anthropology, with her work on structural interventions to health disparities leading to the development of new organizations, community research partnerships, and community/university associations. Schensul’s work has been dedicated to community-based research on topics such as senior health, education, and substance abuse, among others.
Robbie Davis-Floyd is an American cultural, medical, and reproductive anthropologist, researcher, author, and international speaker primarily known for her research on childbirth, midwifery, and obstetrics. She chose to study women's birth experiences due to her own birth experiences and espouses the viewpoint that midwives play an important role in safeguarding positive outcomes for women giving birth. Beginning in 1983, she has given over 1000 presentations at universities and childbirth, midwifery, and obstetric conferences around the world.
Vaginal steaming, sometimes shortened to V-steaming and also known as wormwood steaming, is an alternative health treatment wherein a woman squats or sits over steaming water containing herbs such as mugwort, rosemary, wormwood, and basil. It has been practiced in Africa, Asia, and Central America.
