This article presents collections of a wide variety of philatelic materials, such as postage stamps, artistic stamped covers and first day covers, postal blocks and special cancellation stamps, maximum cards and small sheets of stamps, thematically devoted to both obstetrics and gynecology, as well as issues of women's reproductive health and family planning, contraception and infertility. In total, this research article presents 273 screenshot copies of collectible philatelic materials.

The issues directly related to the study of medicine and its individual areas, such as obstetrics and gynecology in all their varieties, their history and heroes, achievements and development, are always relevant and in demand. This directly concerns such a direction of research as the study of the representation of these two important clinical disciplines in a wide variety of collecting media and, in particular, in philately - on postage stamps, artistic stamped envelopes (ASE) and first day covers (FDC), postal blocks, maximum cards, special postmarks, special cancellations. This topic is quite popular with collectors and researchers of medicine and its history. In preparation for this study and conducting a literary-critical analysis of existing works, works of other authors on the issue under study, a number of other research works were discovered, the authors of which had previously conducted similar studies [1, 2]. But, since that time, many years have passed, other, new, collection materials have appeared, in particular, philatelic. The author of this research work, taking into account the experience of previous researchers and the materials presented by them, supplemented and expanded the range presented by him, mainly, with new research materials, which was expressed in the materials presented by him, his own, author's article. The materials of the article are accompanied by a large, illustrative material, in the form of screenshot copies of various philatelic materials made by the author of the article, accompanied by brief explanations and comments by the author of this research article. In the article itself, the author has highlighted additional subsections, thematically devoted to such important subsections, in particular gynecology, such as oncological diseases, the female genitourinary and reproductive system, the problem of contraception, infertility and family planning, and in obstetrics, consideration of the work of midwives and neonatologists, pregnancy itself, childbirth and the postpartum period.

Aim  

The purpose of this research article is to present a variety of philatelic materials - postage stamps, artistic stamped covers, and first day covers, postage blocks and postmarks, small sheets of stamps and maximum cards, from different countries of the world, and from different years of issue, dedicated to both gynecology and obstetrics, and their related disciplines.  

Hypothesis of the article  

During the initial preparation for the study, its author put forward a working hypothesis, the essence of which was as follows: there is a fairly large number of the most diverse collection materials, and in particular, philatelic, in all their diversity, thematically dedicated to both gynecology and obstetrics, their history, famous medical practitioners and scientists from different countries of the world who dedicated themselves to these two important areas of medical science. I would like to note that among the philatelic materials found, there are significantly more of them dedicated not separately to gynecology and obstetrics, but jointly - both on obstetrics and gynecology, primarily on congresses, conventions and other organizational events.  

In writing this research article, its author actively used such research methods as literary-critical analysis of available materials on the issue under study. For this purpose, both medical sites and Internet pages devoted to obstetrics, gynecology and a number of related disciplines were studied, as well as professional sites of collectors, in particular, philatelists, in order to find in them any materials thematically devoted to the issue, from people of different age groups. Also, the list of sources, strictly necessarily, indicates the places of their borrowing from the Internet, with the aim of mandatory compliance with copyright.

Starting to present various, found as a result of the search and selection, collectible philatelic materials, I would like to start with screenshot copies of postage stamps dedicated to gynecology and a number of its subdivisions and areas. Thus, in Figure 1, postage stamps of such countries of the world as Australia (1967), the Federal Republic of Germany/West Germany (1985), Malaysia (2006), the states of Curacao, Argentina (2004) are presented - dedicated to the problem of cervical cancer, caused, among other things, by papillomavirus infection; Also, in this collection, in Figure 1, three brightly coloured artistically executed artistically marked envelopes (AME) are presented, with images on their front side, images of female reproductive organs, dedicated to the fight against cancer of the female internal genital organs, such as cancer of the body and cervix/vaginal cancer, ovarian cancer and fallopian tubes. These three AMEs were issued under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is written on the front side of these envelopes, next to the WHO logo [1-9].

                                                  Figure 1. Thematic selection of postage stamps of the world, dedicated to various areas of modern gynecology

Moving on to the presentation of artistic stamped envelopes (ASE) and first day covers (FDC) dedicated to gynecology and its various fields, Figure 2 shows ASE and FDC of the Federal Republic of Germany (1985); Australia (1967); USA (1978); Malaysia (2006). Also, this collection presents ASE and FDC dedicated to gynecology and congresses in this medical field; George Papanicolaou and the screening process he developed for the presence of papillomavirus infection (PAP-TEST); maximum card of Germany (1985) - on the obverse and reverse, with an image of a scene of a consultation with a gynecologist, when he prescribes a contraceptive drug to a patient; 2 thematic artistic stamped envelopes of Australia (1967), dedicated to the holding in Australia of the international congress on  

innovations in gynecology and obstetrics; Congress of gynecologists in Tenerife (Spain), in 1962; national congress of gynecologists and obstetricians, in Italy, in 1974; VII International Congress of obstetricians and gynecologists, held in the USSR, in Moscow, under the auspices of FIGO (International Organization of Gynecologists and Obstetricians), in 1973 - 2 HMC [10]; Further, the Romanian MCC (1979) is presented, dedicated to the VIII National Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, with a postage stamp depicting the coat of arms of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, where this Congress was held, and a special cancellation postmark dedicated to this event [11]. A total of 15 philatelic materials from a number of countries are presented [5, 10-20].

                                                                                     Figure 2. Philatelic collection dedicated to gynecology

Further, starting with Figure 3, thematic plots dedicated to obstetrics and its multifaceted aspects, reflection of various philatelic means will be presented. Thus, a thematic selection is presented - 45 screenshot copies of philatelic materials - postage stamps, artistic stamped covers and first day covers, postcards, from different countries of the world, such as the Netherlands (2020); Australia (1978); Republic of Djibouti (2004); Republic of France (2012); a horizontal postage stamp of the Republic of Dahomey, which presents a plot of an obstetric examination of a pregnant woman lying on a couch, a pregnant woman, carried out by an obstetrician / or midwife; Gilbert & Ellice Islands (1972) – United Kingdom/Commonwealth, Barbados, Brazil and Portugal, Aitutaki (Solomon Islands group), Ecuador, Costa Rica, Luxembourg, Mozambique, Surrey, Forrester Islands, India, Mexico, Albania, with the image of a midwife and a pregnant woman [21-30, 39, 40]. Further, a postal block of Spain is depicted, with the image of a plot on it, when a husband presses his ear to the belly of a pregnant wife, hearing the heartbeat of his unborn child, and next to them, stands their eldest child [29]. A postage stamp of Italy contains on its front side the image of a pregnant woman in the process of the initial moments of labor, next to her is a midwife who controls and accompanies the birth process, and next to pregnant woman, two other women. Possibly close relatives present at the birth [26]. On the postage stamp of the Republic of Cuba, on the left side of the horizontal postage stamp, there is a profile of a pregnant woman looking to the right, at a gymnasium where they are doing prenatal gymnastics, three pregnant women lying on their mats on the floor [27, 39]; on the postage stamp and the CMC of Colombia, there is an image, in profile, of four pregnant women of different ages, and next to them, there is the symbolism of the WHO, under the auspices of which, both the postage stamp and this CMC were issued [28]. In Figure 30, on the picture of the famous Ukrainian artist and poet, T.G. Shevchenko, he painted his younger, pregnant sister, Ekaterina, in honor of whose tragic fate, T.G. Shevchenko wrote the poem "Katerina" [30].

                         Figure 3. Thematic commemorative coins of a number of countries around the world dedicated to family planning

Continuing the theme of numismatics and the reflection of the issue of family planning in it, Figure 4 shows, in the obverse and reverse, commemorative medals dedicated to this topical issue. For example, the first is a commemorative, colored medal, made of yellow metal, of the Arab Republic of Egypt (1971), 70 mm in diameter and 4 mm thick [29]. Next, in the same figure, a thematic, commemorative medal of the USA (1972), dedicated to family planning, is shown [30]. Also, in the same figure, a French award medal is shown, of three degrees, made of gold, silver and bronze, called "Family of France", which was made from 1918, after the end of World War I and, practically, until 1938, the beginning of World War II [47].

                                                                      Figure 4. Commemorative medals dedicated to family and family planning

This completes another author's research article, a thematic article, from a series of articles devoted to a variety of issues and/or topics devoted to obstetrics and gynecology. The author is preparing for imminent publication completely new research articles of the same or similar, close subject matter, never published by him before.

1. The author of this research, thematic article managed to present the topic he studied, both the text and illustrative parts, in a fairly complete volume.  

2. This research article presents such an important section of collecting as philately, with their general presentation in the article, in the form of 273 copies of philatelic screenshot copies.  

3. The use by the author of this research article, in the form of accompanying illustrations to the text part of the article, screenshot copies of the collected materials found by them, is an innovative, exclusive innovation in the design of research articles of this kind.  

4. These research materials, presented by their author in this article, may be of interest to both the medical community and numerous collectors in its various areas of collecting tools and, first of all, those involved in medical topics.  

5. The author of this article managed to fully achieve the goal of his research and confirm the hypothesis of the study he put forward.