Adolescence, adolescents, gynecology and gynecologists

Abstract

The use of certain criteria to define adolescence as an age period, has been stained by sociocultural benchmarks that go beyond the medical aspects. Definitions that prove to be useful for statistical and epidemiological effects, taken literally, may lead to incur in errors affecting the proper approach of clinical situations. Biological characteristics of adolescence in general, and girls in particular, are well known nowadays. Adolescent gynecology sprang from adolescent medicine, initiated by pediatricians. This new vision gradually incorporated criteria from the social sciences and psychology. When clinical gynecological problems of teenagers need being considered, it is mandatory to keep in mind that besides some well-known pathologic conditions, new ones have been added in recent decades, namely problems caused by new lifestyles and the sum of multiple risk-taking behaviors. Adolescent gynecologists need to be trained to understand the multiplicity of influences that adolescents are facing today, both positive and negative. They also are expected to address those situations avoiding to be judgmental or to incur in punitive attitudes, besides being capable of functioning harmonically in interdisciplinary networks.