Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: fertility

  • The history of fertility preservation in young people with cancer

    Terrence StephensonLondon, England A whole cohort of cancer survivors owe both their lives and the conception of their children to a group of pediatric oncologists and colleagues from many disciplines spanning medicine, science, and the humanities. Their work brought to fruition and revolutionized the long-term care of childhood cancer survivors around the world and is…

  • America’s Arab refugees: Vulnerability and health on the margins

    Richard ZhangNew Haven, Connecticut, United States Arab refugees, like others throughout history, have grappled with issues of somatic and mental health, cultural belonging, and fertility. Timely and eye-opening, Marcia Inhorn’s America’s Arab Refugees is the first anthropological book to focus on the aforementioned refugees and their barriers to health. This work is exemplary in its…

  • Historical contraception: birth control before “the pill”

    Emily R. W. DavidsonChapel Hill, United States Since the advent of the birth control pill, birth control advocates claim that women’s control over their reproductive potential increased the proportion of women in the US workforce over the course of the 20th century (Fig 1). Long before the oral contraceptive pill’s emergence, however, women found ways…

  • Lost Babies: How a photosculpture is changing the etiquette of consolation

    Nancy GershmanChicago, Illinois, United States The mother who loses her full-term baby goes home with the five stages of grief (Elisabeth Kübler-Ross), funeral home pamphlets, and a support group calendar. But the well-meaning friends and family who await her return have little if no experience with consolation. They will prattle on about how So and…