Reproductive Health

About this unit

Reproductive health means total well-being in all aspects of reproduction: physical, emotional, behavioural and social. This unit looks at why a society needs reproductively healthy people, how population growth can be managed through contraception, the safe and legal use of medical termination of pregnancy, the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and the technologies that help infertile couples have children. India was among the first countries to start national-level family planning programmes, now covered under broader reproductive and child health programmes.

Key ideas

• Awareness, sex education and better health facilities improve reproductive health.
• Amniocentesis is a foetal test; its misuse for sex determination is banned in India.
• Contraceptives may be natural, barrier, IUDs, oral pills, injectables, implants or surgical methods.
• MTP is legal in India under specified conditions.
• STIs can often be prevented and are curable if detected early (except a few such as HIV, hepatitis B and genital herpes).
• Assisted reproductive technologies include IVF, ZIFT, GIFT, ICSI, IUI and AI.

How to prepare

Make a chart of contraceptive methods with their mode of action and examples. Learn the full forms of all ART methods and what is transferred where. Expect case-based questions on choosing a method.