Reproductive health

BACKGROUND: There is no evidence of the practices of obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYNs) regarding contraceptive use and determinants influencing contraceptive choices, including emergency methods such as combined oral contraceptives …

BACKGROUND: In India, community based studies and media reports indicate a surge in the number of young women undergoing hysterectomy in the past few years. This has led to suspicion on the misuse of procedure, and intense debates on its po…

BACKGROUND: Attention to additional factors affecting the success of assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs) is very important and with appropriate interventions in some of these factors, success rate can be as high as improve a lot. There …

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, awareness and use of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) among young women has rapidly increased in Ghana; however, the rate of unintended pregnancy among this group remains high. We conducted a qualitativ…

BACKGROUND: Public funding for fertility services within the United Kingdom is limited, and therefore, strict guidance exists regarding who can be offered treatment under the National Health Service (NHS). Body mass index (BMI) is a univers…

BACKGROUND: During the last decade, research has shown that besides the known predictive factors, such as duration of subfertility, a women's age, the body mass index, also the microbiome might affect fertility. Micro-organisms together wit…

BACKGROUND: Phthalates, a class of endocrine disruptors, have been demonstrated to accelerate loss of ovarian follicle pool via disrupting folliculogenesis, and lead to diminished ovarian reserve. However, human data are limited. Here, we a…

BACKGROUND: The effects of female occupational exposures on fecundity have not been evaluated in South Africa. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of three specific occupational groups on time-to-pregnancy (TTP). METHODS: This …

BACKGROUND: In patients treated with IVF, the incidence of poor ovarian response (POR) after ovarian stimulation varies from 9 to 25 %. However, at present, there are no clear guidelines for treating these poor responders. This study was de…

BACKGROUND: Many women throughout the world have history of subfertility (resolved or unresolved), but much remains unknown about services and treatments chosen. METHODS: We developed a mixed-mode fertility experiences questionnaire (FEQ) …

BACKGROUND: Achieving pregnancy by in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment depends on many factors, including the ovaries' capacity and the efficiency of ovarian stimulation. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of ovarian stimu…

Over the years, IVF/ICSI protocols have continued to evolve with efforts to improve outcomes. As a result, treatment success may be related to certain procedural factors, including number of embryos transferred and stage at which they are t…

BACKGROUND: Most women report negative experience about the symptoms of uterine leiomyoma (UL) in their lives, such as abnormal uterine bleeding and pelvic pain. Many studies have been conducted about efficacy of UL treatment, but little re…

BACKGROUND: Awareness of infertility risk factors is an essential first step to safeguard future fertility. Whereas several studies have examined university students' awareness of female fertility and related risk factors, the topic of male…

BACKGROUND: Bladder pain syndrome (BPS), a condition with no gold standard diagnosis, comprises of a cluster of signs and symptoms. Bladder filling pain and bladder wall tenderness are two basic clinical features, present in a high number o…

BACKGROUND: To date the IMSI procedure represents the only real-time and unstained method available to discard spermatozoa with ultrastructural defects. Several studies demonstrated that IMSI provides positive results in couples with severe…

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea are largely symptomless diseases which, left untreated, can result in serious complications including infertility. Fertility problems currently affect appro…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a chronic condition whose pathophysiology is unknown, but there is evidence suggesting a link with oxidative stress. Paraoxonase is a serum enzyme which circulates associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL).…

BACKGROUND: Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to treat infertility have been available for nearly three decades. There have been a number of systematic comparisons of the health and development of ART-conceived with spontaneously-con…