C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor is Professor of Human Population Biology and Health at the University of Cambridge. His main fields of research are the inter-relationships between nutrition, growth and disease and reproductive ecology. Lyliane Rosetta is a recently retired senior scientist from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France. Her research is devoted to the study of the regulation of fertility in relation to nutrition, energetics and the resulting energy availability.

• Preface; 1. Reproduction and environment Alan S. McNeilly; 2. Genetic damage and male reproduction Michael Joffe; 3. The microenvironment in health and cancer of the mammary gland John P. Wiebe; 4. The energetic cost of physical activity and regulation of reproduction Darna L. Dufour; 5. Energetic cost of gestation and lactation in humans Prakash Shetty; 6. Adaptive maternal, placental and fetal responses to nutritional extremes in the pregnant adolescent: lessons from sheep Jacqueline M. Wallace; 7. Growth and sexual maturation in human and non-human primates: a brief review Phyllis C. Lee; 8. The evolution of post-reproductive life: adaptionist scenarios Lynnette Leidy Sievert; 9. Analysing the characteristics of the menstrual cycle in field situations in humans: some methodological aspects Jean-Christophe Thalabard, Laurence Joubin, Lyliane Rosetta and C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor; 10. An insidious burden of disease: the pathological role of sexually transmitted diseases in fertility Geoff P. Garnett; 11. Family planning and unsafe abortion Anna Glasier; 12. Global sexual and reproductive health: responding to the needs of adolescents Molly Secour-Turner, Linda H. Bearinger and Renee Sieving; 13. Understanding reproductive decisions Andrew Hinde; Index.