Reproductive Health in 10 Sentences

1. Reproductive health refers to total well-being — physical, emotional, behavioral, and social — in all aspects of reproduction; India launched the world's first national family planning programme in 1951.

2. Contraceptive methods fall into five categories: natural (rhythm, coitus interruptus, LAM), barrier (condoms, diaphragm), IUDs (copper or hormonal), hormonal (OC pills, Saheli), and surgical (vasectomy, tubectomy).

3. Only condoms provide dual protection — against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases — making them unique among all contraceptive methods.

4. Saheli is the only non-steroidal oral contraceptive in India, containing centchroman (developed by CDRI Lucknow), and works by blocking estrogen receptors to prevent implantation, not ovulation; it is taken once weekly.

5. Copper IUDs (Cu-T, Cu-7, Multiload 375) work non-hormonally by releasing Cu2+ ions that are directly toxic to sperm and increase phagocytosis of sperm by uterine macrophages.

6. The MTP Act (1971) permits pregnancy termination up to 20 weeks (standard) or 24 weeks (special categories, 2021 amendment), while the PCPNDT Act (1994) bans prenatal sex determination.

7. Bacterial STDs (gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydiasis) are curable with antibiotics; viral STDs (herpes, Hepatitis B, HIV) are not curable, though Hepatitis B has a preventive vaccine.

8. HIV is a retrovirus that targets and destroys CD4+ T helper cells, progressively collapsing the immune system; it is managed but not cured with Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).

9. In ART, ZIFT and GIFT both transfer material into the fallopian tube, but ZIFT delivers a fertilized zygote while GIFT delivers unfertilized gametes; IVF-ET delivers an embryo directly to the uterus.

10. ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) is the definitive ART for severe male infertility, requiring only a single viable sperm to be injected into the oocyte cytoplasm.