Fertility awareness
Fertility awareness: Also known as natural family planning, periodic abstinence and the rhythm method, this approach entails not having sexual intercourse on the days of a woman’s menstrual cycle when she is most likely to become pregnant or using a barrier method (such as a condom, the diaphragm or a cervical cap) for birth control on those days.
Because a sperm may live in the female’s reproductive tract for up to 7 days and the egg remains fertile for about 24 hours, a woman can get pregnant in a substantial window of time — from 7 days before ovulation to 3 days after. Methods to approximate when a woman is fertile are usually based on the menstrual cycle, changes in cervical mucus, or changes in body temperature. This approach to birth control will likely fail and the woman to become pregnant.
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- Fertility
Fertility: The ability to conceive and bear children, the ability to become pregnant through normal sexual activity.
- Fertilization
Fertilization: The process of combining the male gamete, or sperm, with the female gamete, or ovum. The product of fertilization is a cell called a zygote.
- Fertilization, in vitro
Fertilization, in vitro: IVF, a laboratory procedure in which sperm are placed with an unfertilized egg in a Petri dish to achieve fertilization. The embryo is then transferred into the uterus to begin a pregnancy or cryopreserved (frozen) for future use. IVF was originally devised to permit women with damaged or absent Fallopian tubes to […]
- Fetal alcohol effects (FAE)
Fetal alcohol effects (FAE): A softer diagnosis than fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The diagnosis of possible FAE is considered when: 1. The person has some signs of FAS; 2. The person does not meet all of the necessary criteria for FAS; and 3. There is a history of alcohol exposure before birth.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome
The sum total of the damage done to the child before birth as a result of the mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) always involves brain damage, impaired growth, and head and face abnormalities. No amount of alcohol has been proven safe during pregnancy. Women who are or may become pregnant are […]