Gynaecology

Gynecology

Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the medical practice dealing with the health of the female reproductive systems (vagina, uterus, and ovaries) and the breasts. Outside medicine, the term means "the science of women". Its counterpart is andrology, which deals with medical issues specific to the male reproductive system.

Almost all modern gynaecologists are also obstetricians (see obstetrics and gynaecology). In many areas, the specialities of gynaecology and obstetrics overlap.

Contents

 

• 1Etymology
• 2History
• 3Examination
• 4Diseases
• 5Therapies
• 6Specialist training
• 7Gender of physicians
• 8See also
• 9References
• 10External links
  
  
  
  

  History[edit]

  The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, dated to about 1800 BC, deals with women's health —gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, etc. The text is divided into thirty-four sections, each section dealing with a specific problem and containing diagnosis and treatment; no prognosis is suggested. Treatments are non surgical, comprising applying medicines to the affected body part or swallowing them. The womb is at times seen as the source of complaints manifesting themselves in other body parts.^[1]
  The Hippocratic Corpus contains several gynaecological treatises dating to the 5th/4th centuries BC. Aristotle is another strong source for medical texts from the 4th century BC with his descriptions of biology primarily found in History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals. ^[2] The gynaecological treatise Gynaikeia by Soranus of Ephesus (1st/2nd century AD) is extant (together with a 6th-century Latin paraphrase by Muscio, a physician of the same school). He was the chief representative of the school of physicians known as the "Methodists".
  J. Marion Sims is widely considered the father of modern gynaecology.^[3] Now criticized for the short comings.^{[clarification needed][4]} He developed some of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anaesthesia.^[5] Sims performed surgeries on 12 enslaved women in his homemade backyard hospital for four years. While performing the surgeries he invited men physicians and students to come watch the invasive and painful surgeries while the women were exposed. On one of the women, named Anarcha, he performed 13 surgeries and without anesthesia. Due to having so many enslaved women he would rotate from one to another continuous trying to perfect the repairment of fistulas. In the four years he performed these surgeries the physicians and students lost interest in assisting him. Due to this he got the other enslaved women, who were healing from their surgeries, to assist him in the operations, which required them to help in the performance of these painful surgeries on the other women. In 1855 Sims went on to found the Woman's Hospital in New York, this was the first hospital specifically for female disorders.
  
  
  
  

  History[edit]

  The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus, dated to about 1800 BC, deals with women's health —gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, etc. The text is divided into thirty-four sections, each section dealing with a specific problem and containing diagnosis and treatment; no prognosis is suggested. Treatments are non surgical, comprising applying medicines to the affected body part or swallowing them. The womb is at times seen as the source of complaints manifesting themselves in other body parts.^[1]
  The Hippocratic Corpus contains several gynaecological treatises dating to the 5th/4th centuries BC. Aristotle is another strong source for medical texts from the 4th century BC with his descriptions of biology primarily found in History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals. ^[2] The gynaecological treatise Gynaikeia by Soranus of Ephesus (1st/2nd century AD) is extant (together with a 6th-century Latin paraphrase by Muscio, a physician of the same school). He was the chief representative of the school of physicians known as the "Methodists".
  J. Marion Sims is widely considered the father of modern gynaecology.^[3] Now criticized for the short comings.^][4] He developed some of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anaesthesia.^[5] Sims performed surgeries on 12 enslaved women in his homemade backyard hospital for four years. While performing the surgeries he invited men physicians and students to come watch the invasive and painful surgeries while the women were exposed. On one of the women, named Anarcha, he performed 13 surgeries and without anesthesia. Due to having so many enslaved women he would rotate from one to another continuous trying to perfect the repairment of fistulas. In the four years he performed these surgeries the physicians and students lost interest in assisting him. Due to this he got the other enslaved women, who were healing from their surgeries, to assist him in the operations, which required them to help in the performance of these painful surgeries on the other women. In 1855 Sims went on to found the Woman's Hospital in New York, this was the first hospital specifically for female disorders.