This paper examines economic factors affecting the declining fertility rate in Japan. A major cause of this continuous decline is the increasing participation of women in the labor force. This, in turn, increases the opportunity costs of having children for a family. These opportunity costs are closely related to the scarcity of full-time jobs for women due to the fixed employment practices of ...

The HIV epidemic is lowering fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. This decline in fertility appears to reflect a fall in the demand for children, and not any adverse physiological consequences of the disease, as it is matched by changes in the expressed preference for children and the use of contraception, and is not significantly correlated with biological markers of sub-fecundity. A fall in ferti...

OBJECTIVE To review the clinical modalities that are available to women receiving potentially sterilizing cancer therapy. DESIGN The MEDLINE database was reviewed for all publications on medication, surgery, or assisted reproductive technology that could potentially preserve fertility in women who are receiving cancer therapy. CONCLUSION(S) There are many options available to a patient unde...

Immature teratomas are quite rare tumors arising in young women. They are usually diagnosed in early stage and grade and have a good prognosis. In these young patients, fertility-sparing management is suggested as the standard of care. Bilateral immature teratoma is a rare condition with an incidence of 10%, with a five-year survival rate of 80%. The majority of patients received fertility-spar...

Over 150,000 reproductive age individuals face fertility-threatening cancer treatments each year. Improved detection and treatment of cancer in reproductive-age patients have greatly increased the long-term survival and made it possible for these individuals to consider their long-term quality-of-life after cancer including having biologic offspring. Various methods of fertility preservation (F...

The correlation between female labor force participation rate (FPR) and total fertility rate (TFR) across developed countries has switched from negative to positive. This paper provides a structural explanation of the historical pattern via changes in substitutability between mother’s direct childcare and indirect market care. Analysis of a life-cycle model of married women’s labor supply and f...

Cancer therapy can be lifesaving but significantly diminish female reproductive potential. This review provides an overview of the deleterious effects of cancer treatments on reproductive function, the fertility preservation options currently available for young women, and the outcomes of pregnancy after cancer treatment. In addition, special considerations for women who are diagnosed with canc...

The large post-reproductive life span reported for the free-living hermaphroditic nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, which lives for about 10 days after its 5-day period of self-reproduction, seems at odds with evolutionary theory. Species with long post-reproductive life spans such as mammals are sometimes explained by a need for parental care or transfer of information. This does not seem a su...