CBSE Class 12 Biology Reproductive Health Notes Set B

• WHO – World Health Organisation have defined it as a total well-being in all aspects of reproduction, i.e., physical, emotional, behavioural & social.

Reproductive health – problems and strategy:
• India was among the 1st countries to initiate actions & plans to attain total reproductive health as social goal. These programmes are called as ‘Family Planning’
• Improved programmes currently in operation under the popular name ‘Reproductive & Child Health CareProgramme (RCH)’. 

Amniocentesis- It is a fetal sex determination test based on the chromosomal pattern in the amniotic fluid surrounding the developing embryo.
• They are misused for sex determination of unborn child and increase female feticides. Population explosion & Birth control:
• The world’s population being 2 billion in 1900 was rocketed to 6 billions in 2000.
• A rapid decline in death rate, MMR & IMR as well as an increase in number of people in reproducible age are the reasons for this.

Why such population explosion?
• Most of the urban people are uneducated.
• Girls were given into early marriage at 18 years of age.

Contraceptive Methods:

1. Natural Methods:
• Avoids meeting of sperms & ovum.
• Periodic Abstinence: Avoids copulation/intercourse from day 10–17 of menstrual cycle when ovulation is expected. (Ovulation Period).
• Fertile Period: Chances of fertility is very high during from day 10-17 of menstrual cycle.
• Withdrawal or coitus interrupts: Male partner withdraws his penis from vagina just before ejaculation to avoid insemination.
• Lactational amenorrhea: Absence of menstrual cycle during first six months of lactational period.
• Prevents conception by blocking entry of sperm through cervix.

2. Barrier Methods:
• Condoms -Thin rubber used to cover penis in male or vagina & cervix in females.
• Diaphragms, Cervical caps & vaults are all barriers for females to cover cervix during coitus. Advantages of Barrier Methods:
• They are disposable and reusable
• They can be self –inserted.

Intra Uterine Devices (IUD’s):
• Devices inserted by doctors or nurses in uterus through vagina.
• E.g. CuT, Cu7, Multiload 375, Lippes loop.
• Cu ions released suppress sperm motility & fertilizing capacity of sperms.
• Hormone releasing IUDs makes the uterus unsuitable for implantation & cervix hostile to the sperm.

IUDs are ideal contraceptives for the females who want to delay pregnancy and/or space children. It is one of most widely accepted method.

Oral Pills:
• Pills are taken daily for 21 days in the form of tablets.
• They are very effective with fewer side effects.
• Injection or implantation of progesterone /estrogen under the skin- implants can also be used.
• Eg., Saheli (once a week pill)

3. Surgical Method (Sterilisation)
• It is advisable for male/female partner as a terminal method to prevent any more pregnancies.
• In male, they’re called vasectomy, where the vas deferens is cut or tied.
• In female, it’s called tubectomy, where a small part of the fallopian tube is cut or tied up.
• This method is highly effective but their reversibility is very poor.

Side effects of contraceptive method:
• It is very important that the selection of contraceptive method should be taken under the consultation of the doctors.
• Their possible ill-effects are nausea, abdominal pain, breakthrough bleeding,irregular menstrual bleeding or even breast cancer.

What is MTP Medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) or induced abortion.
• Intentional or voluntary termination of pregnancy before full term is called

Why MTP?
• MTP is done to get rid of unwanted pregnancies due to casual unprotected intercourse or failure of the contraceptive used during coitus or rape.
• MTP’s are also essential in certain cases where continuation in pregnancy could be harmful or even fatal to the mother or to the foetus or both.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
Diseases or infections which are transmitted sexually through sexual intercourse is called as sexually transmitted diseases (STD) or venereal diseases (VD) or reproductive tract infections.
STDs can be classified as viral, bacterial, protozoan, fungal etc.

How Are STDs Caused?
• Depending on the disease, STDs can be spread with any type of sexual activity. STDs are most often caused by viruses and bacteria.

Various types of sexually transmitted diseases
• The various types of sexually transmitted diseases include gonorrhoeae, syphilis, genital herpes, and of course the most common HIV leading to AIDS .

Prevention
• STDs are a major threat to a healthy society. Therefore, early detection or prevention and cure of these diseases are given prime consideration under reproductive health-care programmes.
• Though all people are vulnerable to these infections, their incidences are reported to be very high among the age group of 15-24years. These infections can be prevented by following a few simple rules which include:
• – Avoid sex with unknown partners or multiple partners 
• – Always use condoms during coitus
• – In case of doubt, go to a qualified Doctor for early detection
• – Get complete treatment if diagnosed with disease.

Infertility
• A large number of couples all over India are infertile, i.e., they are unable to produce children in spite of unprotected sexual co-habitation.
​​​​​​​• The reasons for this could be many-physical, congenital, diseases, drugs, Immunological or even psychological. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) are special techniques that assist couples to have children.

Various types of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) include:

In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
• Fertilisation outside the body in similar almost similar conditions as that in the body.
• In this method, popularly known as test tube baby programme, ova from the wife / donor (female) and sperms from the husband / donor (male) are collected and are induced to form the zygote under simulated conditions in the lab.
• The zygote or early embryos could then be transferred into the fallopian tube (ZIFT – Zygote Intra Fallopian Transfer) Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI)
​​​​​​​• Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is another spcialized procedure to form an embryo in the lab in which a sperm is directly injected into the ovum.

Gamete intra fallopian tube (GIFT)
• Transfer of an ovum collected from a donor into the fallopian tube of another female who cannot produce one, but can provide suitable environment for fertilization and further development is another method attempted.

Artificial Insemination (AI)
• Infertility cases either due to inability of the male partner to inseminate the female or due to very low sperms counts in the ejaculates could be corrected by artifical insemination.
​​​​​​​• In this technique, the semen collected either from the husband or a healthy donor is artifically introduced into the vagina or into the uterus (IUI – intrauterine insemination) of the female.
• Adoption can be done from orphanage / relatives.