This work aims to throw some light on questions relating to premature menopause, while challenging some of the myths and stereotypes surrounding it. Taking a biopsychosocial approach, the editors bring together experts from a range of disciplines, including endocrinology, gynaecology, general practice, nursing, psychotherapy, complementary medicine and clinical psychology, as well as hearing from women themselves. It offers information on the topic, as well as practical suggestions for improved health care.

The separation of procreation from conception has broadened notions of parenthood and created novel dilemmas. A woman may carry a foetus derived from gametes neither or only one of which came from her or her partner; or she may carry a foetus created using in vitro fertlization (IVF) with the purpose of handing it to two other parents, neither or both of whom may be genetically realted to the prospective child. Parents may consist of single-sex couples, only one of them genetically related to the child; the prospective mother may be past her menopause; and genetic parenthood after death is...