Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien

Diagnosis and treatment of infertility, once a purely empirical process, can now be based on rational exclusion of alternatives. The author reviews the drug treatment of infertility, emphasizing ovulation induction. He also discusses the en…

The family physician dealing with gynecologic pelvic pain (acute or chronic) enters at the beginning of the problem as diagnostician, refers the patient to a specialist in the interim, and resumes care in the follow-up period. Patients with…

Although the exact incidence of infertility in Canada is unknown, mathematical models predict that approximately 10% to 15% of couples will fail to achieve a pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse. The diagnosis requires assess…

Most women with symptomatic acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) are now managed outside of hospital by private practitioners. Clinical diagnosis of PID is often inaccurate, but can be improved by knowledge of risk factors, use of simple…

Newer techniques for diagnosing early pregnancy have shown that post-implantation embryo loss may be four times the accepted rate of 15%-20%. This article describes various causes of spontaneous abortion and its clinical evaluation and trea…

Transport technology in the last 35 years has created new environmental frontiers in which family physicians are, and will continue to be, involved both in research and in administering patient care. Some frontiers address basic physiologic…

Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) is defined as abnormal uterine bleeding that results from an ovarian endocrinopathy. It may be associated with ovulatory and anovulatory cycles. The diagnosis of DUB depends on a thorough history and phy…

Vasectomy is done by a family physician at the family planning clinic of le Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval. The technique used combines an occlusion with metal clips and an excision of one to two centimetres of the vas deferens. T…

The tender uterus is one of the most common gynecological presentations. Making a correct diagnosis is of vital importance in the management of patients with this condition because of the diverse etiology involved. In most cases, diagnosis …

In postmenopausal women, inevitable longitudinal loss of bone mass is increased in association with reduced levels of endogenous estrogen. A review of the health-care literature on therapy for postmenopausal osteoporosis provides strong evi…

Although it has been suspected that endometriosis has familial tendencies, systemic studies have not been conducted until relatively recently. The inheritence is not a monogenic, but rather a polygenic multi-factorial process. A case is pre…

Infertility affects 15% of couples. The primary causes are poor sperm production, ovulation defects, and fallopian tube obstruction, which can be detected by a simple, logical investigation. Infertility and its investigation precipitate cha…

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is characterized by a wide variety of symptoms occurring over several days before menstruation. In the differential diagnosis, family physicians should consider other conditions such as chronic yeast infection, a…

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Providing medical care for young adults is both demanding and rewarding. Young adults are past the age when congenital defects are lethal or crippling and not yet at the stage where degenerative diseases are clinically significant. Tact, di…

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Painful coitus is a distressing symptom for both sexes. Often, physician and patient avoid this issue because of their own inability to deal with such problems. Dyspareunia may be caused by a variety of conditions, mainly related to the rep…

Miscarriage is a frequent outcome of pregnancy, with major emotional implications to the couple experiencing such an event. This review examines common emotional sequelae to miscarriage, drawing on both the medical literature and reports of…