Reproductive medicine

Reproductive medicine is a branch of medicine concerning the male and female reproductive systems. It encompasses a variety of reproductive conditions, their prevention and assessment, as well as their subsequent treatment and prognosis.

Reproductive medicine has allowed the development of artificial reproductive techniques (ARTs) which have allowed advances in overcoming human infertility, as well as being used in agriculture and in wildlife conservation. Some examples of ARTs include IVF, artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer, as well as genome resource banking.

The study of reproductive medicine is thought to date back to Aristotle, where he came up with the “Haematogenous Reproduction Theory”. However, evidence-based reproductive medicine is traceable back to the 1970s. Since then, there have been many milestones for reproductive medicine, including the birth of Louise Brown, the first baby to be conceived through IVF in 1978. Despite this, it was not until 1989 that it became a clinical discipline thanks to the work of Iain Chalmers in developing the systematic review and the Cochrane collection.

Reproductive medicine addresses issues of sexual education, puberty, family planning, birth control, infertility, reproductive system disease (including sexually transmitted infections) and sexual dysfunction. In women, reproductive medicine also covers menstruation, ovulation, pregnancy and menopause, as well as gynecologic disorders that affect fertility.

The field cooperates with and overlaps mainly with reproductive endocrinology and infertility, sexual medicine and andrology, but also to some degree with gynecology, obstetrics, urology, genitourinary medicine, medical endocrinology, pediatric endocrinology, genetics, and psychiatry.

Reproductive medicine deals with prevention, diagnosis and management of the following conditions. This section will give examples of a number of common conditions affecting the human reproductive system.

Reproductive tract infections (RTIs) are infections that affect the reproductive tract. There are three types of RTIs: endogenous RTIs, iatrogenic RTIs and sexually transmitted infections. Endogenous RTIs are caused by an overgrowth of bacteria which is normally present. An example of an endogenous RTI is bacterial vaginosis.

Iatrogenic RTIs are infections contracted as a result of a medical procedure.