OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract

Since obstetrics and gynecology emerged as one of the first medical specialties in the late nineteenth century, the female reproductive body has been a key focus of scientific knowledge production. Understandings of how women’s health impacts the health of future children have expanded beyond science and medicine into the general public, reinforcing common associations of reproductive risk and responsibility with women’s bodies. It was not until relatively recently that questions about how men’s health affects reproductive outcomes received serious attention. In her second book, sociologist Rene Almeling asks why it took so long for these questions to be taken more seriously.