What do we do with the SARS reports?

The magnitude of the SARS disaster led to the establishment of several commissions and inquiries, whose reports are now available. While the reports were triggered by SARS, and focus on many issues arising from SARS, they all clearly acknowledge that concerns regarding public health in this country are long-standing. Virtually every report on the future of our health system has identified the need for investment in public health, disease prevention and health promotion as a key to sustaining our healthcare system. Yet, these earlier recommendations have been largely ignored. We can only hope that with the magnitude of the SARS disaster still relatively fresh in our minds, we will not ignore these new reports.     

Conceiving Time? Women who do or do not conceive

This article explores the importance of time for an understanding of women's experiences of reproductive identity. In order to do this we draw on data from two separate qualitative research projects. The first project is concerned with the experiences of conception, pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood in primagravidae, whilst the second focuses on the experiences of individuals (especially women) who defined themselves (at the time of the fieldwork, or some time previously) as 'involuntarily childless' and/or 'infertile'. These two areas are usually treated as separate; this article, however, explores similarities between them in terms of time and medicalisation. Our central concern, then, is with exploring the similarities of experience for women who do or do not conceive.     

Stress management. What do you do to relax?

Stress has been identified as a leading cause of disease in our society. The dynamics of the healthcare administration profession cause managers to be easy victims of this contemporary disorder. Many people realize that an antidote to stress is leisure-time hobbies. To find out what managers do with their leisure time, MGMA conducted an informal poll of Association members. Their responses were enlightening, interesting, and sometimes amusing. Some managers share similar interests, while some are quite unique.     

Endometriosis and infertility: what do we do for each stage?

Endometriosis and infertility have been linked in the discipline of gynecology for more than a century. There is evidence that endometriosis can and does decrease fertility. However, our ability to determine fertility prognosis based on a staging system is severely limited. Treatment options include medical therapy, surgical intervention, and assisted reproduction. For endometriosis-associated infertility, medical therapy seems to have no value alone. Surgical therapy is beneficial for all stages of diseases, as in assisted reproduction. The relative value of these two latter approaches, however, is untested. Our suggestions for the treatment of early-stage endometriosis are surgery and/or superovulation with intrauterine insemination as first-line treatments. For more advanced disease, with tubal damage, surgery or in vitro fertilization are options. For the most advanced cases, in vitro fertilization preceded by 3 months of medical treatment of the endometriosis is advised.