Exploration of Medicine

Table 2. Critical aspects of the treatment of women with schizophrenia in their reproductive years

Critical aspects	Findings	Potential strategies
Early phases of disorder	Prodromal signs of psychosis differ between men and women	Training to recognize sex-specific prodromal signs [26, 27]
	High prevalence of childhood adversities in schizophrenia women	Careful history taking and early intervention [26]
	Negative influence of hyperprolactinemia on cognition	Screening, prevention, and monitoring of hyperprolactinemia [27, 28]
Sexual and reproductive health	Sexual dysfunction	Sexual health interventions [29]
	Abortion and sexual violence	Psychoeducation, family planning [30–35]
	Sexually transmissible infections relatively high in schizophrenia women	Counselling re safe and effective protection and contraception [28, 32, 33, 36, 37]
Drug-induced hyperprolactinemia	Drug-induced hyperprolactinemia more prevalent in women than men (e.g., galactorrhea, amenorrhea)	Appropriate choice and dose of antipsychotics and regular check of prolactin levels [38]
Low fertility	Hyperprolactinemia reduces fertility	Personalized drug choice and dose [39, 40]
Repeat pregnancies	Repeated inadvertent pregnancies	Psychoeducation [39] Long-term contraception

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Declarations

Author contributions

AGR and JC: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. MVS: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Supervision.

Conflicts of interest

AGR has received registrations for congresses or travel funds from Janssen Global Services, Lundbeck, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, and Angelini Pharma, and honoraria for lectures from Lundbeck and Otsuka.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Funding

Not applicable.

Copyright

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