Reproductive medicine and biology

PURPOSE: To analyze the usefulness of intravaginal insemination (IVI) for the infertility treatment in couples with sexual dysfunction before applying assisted reproductive technology (ART). METHODS: Among 208 couples who presented sexual …

PURPOSE: To determine the influence of a patient education and care program on the quality of life (QOL) of female patients undergoing non-assisted reproductive technology (ART) fertility treatment. METHODS: Participants completed the MOS …

BACKGROUND: Mechanobiology in the field of human female reproduction has been extremely challenging technically and ethically. METHODS: The present review provides the current knowledge on mechanobiology of the female reproductive system. …

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be derived from several tissues such as bone marrow, placenta, adipose tissue, or endometrial tissue. MSCs gain a lot of attention for cell-based therapy due to their characteristics including d…

PURPOSE: Human adenomyosis has an adverse effect on female fertility. Exact mechanistic basis is still unclear. We investigated the occurrence of chronic endometritis (CE) in different types of human adenomyosis. METHODS: This is a prospec…

PURPOSE: Uncertainties remain regarding the clinical efficacy of ovarian tissue cryopreservation and grafting. We report a retrospective analysis of reproductive outcomes and lessons learnt following 55 ovarian tissue transplant procedures …

PurposeWe investigate the relationships between oocyte developmental capacity and follicular size of its origin in Japanese women: those undergoing conventional IVF (cIVF) and ICSI, respectively.MethodsA total of 3377 follicles were punctur…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a common gynecological condition in which stromal or glandular epithelium is implanted in extrauterine locations. Endometriosis causes detrimental effects on the granulosa cells, and phthalate interferes with th…

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of celiac disease in infertile women. METHODS: A systematic search of four databases was conducted up until February 6, 2020. The search terms "c(o)eliac disease", "gluten", "vill(o)us atrophy", "infert…

PURPOSE: This study compared the therapeutic effects of transdermal testosterone gel (TTG) application at 4 and 6 weeks before controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) in women with poor ovarian response (POR). METHODS: In this randomized…

PURPOSE: To determine how subcategorizing unexplained infertility based on female laparoscopy and total-motile-sperm-count assessment would impact cumulative live-births after one in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle. METHODS: Seven hundred …

PURPOSE: This study aimed to analyze whether the presence of refractile bodies (RFs) negatively affects fertilization, embryo development, and/or implantation rates following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). METHODS: This retrospec…

PURPOSE: To study the effects of mildly elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and thyroid antibodies on pregnancy rates among infertile women and their potential contribution to prolonged infertility treatment. METHODS: This ca…

BACKGROUND: Extra-pelvic endometriosis is a rare type of endometriosis, which occurs in a distant site from gynecological organs. The diagnosis of extra-pelvic endometriosis can be extremely challenging and may result in a delay in diagnosi…

PURPOSE: Subendometrial myometrium exerts wave-like activity throughout the menstrual cycle, and uterine peristalsis is markedly reduced during the implantation phase. We hypothesized that abnormal uterine peristalsis has an adverse effect …

PURPOSE: We investigated the contribution of subchorionic hematoma (SCH) involvement in early pregnancy to the risk of pregnancy complications in women who underwent frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET). METHODS: A hypoechogenic area surrou…

PURPOSE: Surgery for endometriomas may cause detrimental effects on ovarian reserve. We evaluated the safety of three-step laparoscopic surgery for endometriomas utilizing dienogest in terms of post-surgical ovarian reserve. METHODS: Twelv…

PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcomes of embryo transfer (ET) and to identify the parameters influencing pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: This study included 938 ET cycles involving single frozen and thawed good-quality blastocyst (Gardner grade ≥…

BACKGROUND: The placenta is an essential organ for the normal development of mammalian fetuses. Most of our knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of placental development has come from the analyses of mice, especially histopathological exam…

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to analyze the pregnancy outcomes of IVF patients presenting Lactobacillus-dominated microbiota (LDM) or non-Lactobacillus-dominated microbiota (NLDM) of their endometrium and to report cases who were treate…

BACKGROUND: The female reproductive tract contains an active microbiome comprising mainly bacteria from the Lactobacillus genus, which is associated with a healthy microbiome state. However, spatio-temporal fluctuations of this microbiome t…

PURPOSE: We asked whether the relationship between anti-Műllerian hormone (AMH) value and the response to ovarian stimulation (OS) might be AMH value-related and differ for each regimen, aiming at getting clues as to how to choose OS protoc…