Overview
This advanced course develops the methodological, ethical, and analytical capabilities required to design, evaluate, and communicate original research in male gestational science, obstetrics, and perinatal medicine. Students formulate researchable questions, synthesize evidence, construct conceptual frameworks, and develop feasible protocols spanning observational studies, randomized and pragmatic trials, translational investigations, laboratory research, qualitative inquiry, implementation science, and systematic or scoping reviews.
The course examines recruitment and retention, eligibility criteria, sample-size justification, intervention fidelity, comparator selection, outcome hierarchies, patient-reported outcomes, long-term follow-up, and reporting standards relevant to male gestational and reproductive healthcare. Methodological content includes reproductive epidemiology, causal inference, biostatistics, omics and biomarkers, laboratory quality assurance, data management, and reproducible research workflows.
Research governance is addressed through institutional review, informed consent, privacy, vulnerable populations, genetic and reproductive data stewardship, gamete and embryo research, equitable participation, conflicts of interest, and responsible innovation. Students critically appraise primary research, identify evidence gaps, manage research risks, interpret negative or inconclusive findings, and communicate research through proposals, manuscripts, posters, and oral defenses for scientific and clinical audiences.
Learning Outcomes
- Formulate clinically relevant and methodologically precise research questions in male gestational science and perinatal medicine.
- Critically appraise primary studies, systematic reviews, and research protocols for methodological rigor, ethical integrity, and clinical relevance.
- Synthesize literature to construct defensible conceptual frameworks and identify significant gaps in evidence.
- Design a feasible research protocol incorporating appropriate recruitment, eligibility, retention, comparator, outcome, and follow-up strategies.
- Select and justify analytical approaches for observational, experimental, qualitative, implementation, laboratory, and omics-based investigations.
- Evaluate threats to validity, including confounding, selection bias, measurement error, attrition, inadequate intervention fidelity, and limited generalizability.
- Construct sample-size justifications and assess the suitability of statistical, causal-inference, and patient-reported outcome methods.
- Develop data-management, quality-assurance, privacy, reproducibility, and research-risk mitigation procedures.
- Evaluate ethical and governance requirements for research involving gestational patients, fetuses, genetic data, gametes, embryos, and vulnerable populations.
- Defend a research proposal and communicate findings clearly to scientific, clinical, and community audiences.
Timetable
| Type | Length | Frequency | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Tutorial | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Workshop | 3 hours | Fortnightly | All semester |
| Practicum | 2 hours | Fortnightly | Second term |
Assessment Schedule
| Type | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Research question and literature synthesis | 15.00% |
| Deliverable | Protocol development and ethics submission | 25.00% |
| Quiz | Critical appraisal quizzes (4 × 5%) | 20.00% |
| Capstone | Research proposal presentation and defense | 15.00% |
| Exam | Final research methods examination | 25.00% |
Prerequisites
- Requirement A university-level course in biostatistics or research methods
Teaching Staff & Programs
This course is delivered jointly by faculty from the participating programs listed below. In line with the Douchewater Way, the University of Sexology tailors core instruction directly to each cohort's specific discipline — adapting curriculum to program needs rather than forcing students into a one-size-fits-all model. Learn more about our approach at The Douchewater Way.