Contributor(s): Professor Tiziana Leone | This inaugural lecture will look at key issues in the study of women’s health through the lens of reproductive histories, looking at both contingent and cumulated events to include physical and mental shocks such as conflict and disasters which would eventually have an impact later in life.

The overview will start with the challenges of studying this topic in a low resource settings. It will then focus on key challenges and priorities in social science research from menarche to menopause and beyond going via key events such as abortion, maternal health care services in order to understand how women’s ageing process can be affected by their reproductive pathways.