Kizito Omona

By Kizito Omona

Testosterone is a hormone produced majorly by the testicles in adult human _ men. The hormone affects a man’s appearance and sexual development, stimulates sperm production and regulates a man’s sex drive. It also helps build muscles and bone mass. Testosterone production decreases with age. Its production is at its highest in a man’s early adulthood and drops slowly each year afterwards. The normal range of testosterone in the body is typically 300 to 1000 ng/dL for men and 15 to 70 ng/dL for women. A range of symptoms can occur if its production drastically drops below normal. Men with low T can experience a range of symptoms if its decrease becomes significant. Low testosterone, or low T, is diagnosed when levels fall below 300 ng/dL. A blood test, called ‘a serum testosterone test’, is used to determine the level of circulating testosterone. When the body does not produce the right amount of testosterone, the condition is called hypogonadism. This is sometimes called “low T”. Men diagnosed with hypogonadism can benefit from testosterone therapy. However, therapy is not usually recommended, unless testosterone level falls quite below the normal range for age. This is because there are some natural remedies which can help.

Part of the book: Reproductive Hormones

By Kizito Omona

Fibroid, also called leiomyomas, is common tumor of the uterus. Usually, women of reproductive age are at risk of getting it. However, majority of these women develop fibroid (s) by the age of 50 years. This condition usually causes painful and unpleasant symptoms such as; heavy bleeding, prolonged periods, inter-menstrual bleeding, abdominal pain and cramps, anemia, pelvic pain and pain during sexual intercourse, among others. Abnormal bleeding, such as bleeding that occurs with fibroids and heavy periods, often lasts more than 10 days per month. This fibroid symptom involves persistent bleeding between cycles, which can severely impact one’s quality of life. Abnormal bleeding, especially in fibroids, can be taken as missing three or more periods in a woman who had been having regular monthly period, or periods that last less than 21 days or more than 35 days apart from each other. Another indication of an abnormal period is bleeding through multiple pads and tampons in a short amount of time.

Part of the book: Fibroids

By Kizito Omona

Vaginal delivery refers to the birth of offspring in mammals or babies in humans, through the vagina, also known as the “birth canal”. It is the natural method of birth for most mammals excluding those which lay eggs. For women who deliver vaginally, childbirth progresses in three stages: labor, delivery of the baby and delivery of the placenta. There are two types of vaginal delivery: Unassisted vaginal delivery and assisted vaginal delivery. In the later, this assistance can vary from use of medicines to emergency delivery procedures. The following types of vaginal delivery have been noted; (a) Spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) (b) Assisted vaginal delivery (AVD), also called instrumental vaginal delivery (c) Induced vaginal delivery and (d) Normal vaginal delivery (NVD), usually used in statistics or studies to contrast with a delivery by cesarean section. Delivery of a full-term newborn occurs at a gestational age of 37–42 weeks, usually determined by the last menstrual period or ultrasonographic dating and evaluation. Nearly 80% of newborns are delivered at full term while approximately 10% of singleton pregnancies are delivered preterm and 10% of all deliveries are post-term.

Part of the book: Empowering Midwives and Obstetric Nurses