Physiological changes in the mammary glands during a female's life.

The intricate development and physiological dynamics of the mammary glands, orchestrated by a delicate interplay of hormones, are crucial for reproductive function and lactation. Beginning with intrauterine clusters evolving into mature glands, hormonal fluctuations throughout puberty and the menstrual cycle finely tune mammary tissue growth. Oestrogens stimulate the proliferation of epithelial cells, while progesterone orchestrates the formation of lactiferous glands.

Kisspeptin and LH pulsatile temporal coupling in PCOS patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the temporal coupling between spontaneous kisspeptin and luteinizing hormone (LH) pulsatile releases in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients.

Methods: We examined 71 patients diagnosed with PCOS. A 2 h pulsatility study was performed to evaluate serum kisspeptin and LH pulse frequency and concentration, sampled every 10 min; baseline follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), prolactin (PRL), cortisol, 17-hydroksy-progesterone (17OHP), testosterone (T), free testosterone index (FTI, and insulin levels were also measured.

Clinical and hormonal features of women with polycystic ovary syndrome living in rural and urban areas.

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrinopathies among women at reproductive age, but its pathology remains unknown. From epidemiological studies it is known that endogenous, mainly genetic and exogenous, environmental factors are of importance.

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the phenotype of women diagnosed with PCOS from urban and rural areas of Poland.

Premature ovarian insufficiency: the context of long-term effects.

Purpose: Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is defined as the cessation of the ovarian function before the age of 40 years. POI aetiology may be related to iatrogenic or endogenous factors and in many cases remains unclear. The aim of this review was to characterize the long-term consequences of POI.

Pregnancy after oocyte donation in 45, X Turner syndrome women, complicated by gestational diabetes and polyhydramnios. Case report and mini-review of literature.

Patients suffering from Turner syndrome (TS) demonstrate characteristic clinical features, with a short stature and gonadal dysgenesis causing infertility in most patients. Spontaneous pregnancies in women with TS are quite rare and pregnancy outcomes involving an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirths are observed. In this case report, we present a 28 years old pregnant woman with the diagnosis of TS.

Spontaneous endogenous pulsatile release of kisspeptin is temporally coupled with luteinizing hormone in healthy women.

Objective: To evaluate the presence of a spontaneous pulsatile release of kisspeptin and whether it is temporally coupled to LH pulses.

Design: Experimental study.

Setting: Academic medical center.

Short-term estriol administration modulates hypothalamo-pituitary function in patients with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA).

Objective: To evaluate the influence of short-term estriol administration (10 d) on the hypothalamus-pituitary function and gonadotropins secretion in patients affected by functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA).

Study Design: Controlled clinical study on patients with FHA (n = 12) in a clinical research environment.

Intervention(s): Hormonal determinations and gonadotropin (luteinizing hormone [LH] and FSH) response to a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) bolus (10 μg) at baseline condition and after 10 d of therapy with 2 mg/d of estriol per os.

Recurrent endometrial hyperplasia as a presentation of estrogen-secreting thecoma - case report and minireview of the literature.

Thecoma is a rare ovarian tumor, presenting usually in postmenopausal women as unilateral, benign, solid lesion. About 15% of affected patients develop endometrial hyperplasia (EH) and 20% are diagnosed with endometrial cancer. In this case report, we present 60-year-old women admitted because of recurrent spotting of 5 years duration, which started 1 year after menopause.

Eating disorders in older women.

Eating disorders (EDs) are disturbances that seriously endanger the physical health and often the lives of sufferers and affect their psychosocial functioning. EDs are usually thought of as problems afflicting teenagers. However, the incidence in older women has increased in recent decades.

Mood disorders and quality of life in polycystic ovary syndrome.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5-10% of the population of women. The exact etiology of PCOS remains unclear, but it is believed to result from complex interactions between genetic, behavioral and environmental factors. The spectrum of its symptoms such as hirsutism, skin problems, obesity and finally infertility has a huge negative impact on the individuals' psychological and interpersonal functioning.

Pregnancy complications in polycystic ovary syndrome patients.

Infertility is a widely disputed problem affecting patients suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). As a serious dysfunction, it frequently occurs in PCOS patients. It is, therefore, important to devote more attention to pregnancy in PCOS sufferers.

Health in older women athletes.

Physical activity has been identified as a protective factor against a wide spectrum of diseases, but little is known about the link between older women's health and their professional involvement in sport in the past. The aim of this narrative review is to characterize and summarize the available data concerning the influence of physical activity on morbidity and mortality in former female athletes. Concerning bone health, it seems that physical activity in the past can be protective against osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, but these data come from observational studies only.

Bone mineral density in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Purpose: PCOS is a complex disorder and various features of this disorder may have great importance for bone metabolism. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between existing hormonal disorders, and bone mineral density (BMD) in young women with PCOS.

Methods: 69 reproductive-aged PCOS women and 30 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled to the study women.

Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea and its influence on women's health.

Introduction: Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) is one of the most common causes of secondary amenorrhea. There are three types of FHA: weight loss-related, stress-related, and exercise-related amenorrhea. FHA results from the aberrations in pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion, which in turn causes impairment of the gonadotropins (follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone).

Cushing's syndrome in pregnancy: a case report and mini review of the literature.

Adrenal diseases in pregnant women are diagnosed relatively rarely. The main cause of hypercortisolemia during pregnancy is Cushing's syndrome related to adrenal adenoma. It is important to diagnose Cushing's syndrome in pregnant women because it can lead to significant maternal and foetal complications and morbidity.

Long-term consequences of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric disorder that occurs mainly in female adolescents and young women. The obsessive fear of weight gain, critically limited food intake and neuroendocrine aberrations characteristic of AN have both short- and long-term consequences for the reproductive, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and skeletal systems. Neuroendocrine changes include impairment of gonadotropin releasing-hormone (GnRH) pulsatile secretion and changes in neuropeptide activity at the hypothalamic level, which cause profound hypoestrogenism.

Hypothalamic amenorrhea in a Camurati-Engelmann disease--a case report.

Objective: A case report of a patient diagnosed with Camurati-Engelmann Disease (CED) in association with the functional hypothalamic amenorrhea disturbances. CED is a very rare genetically determined disorder classified as a type of bone dysplasia.

Design: Case report.

Kallmann syndrome in women: from genes to diagnosis and treatment.

Kallmann syndrome (KS) can be characterized as genetic disorder marked by hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia. Franz Jozef Kallmann was the first who described this disease in 1944. He suggested, that this disease has hereditary background.

[The controversies in the diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome].

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinological disorder in women of reproductive age. The main clinical features of PCOS include abnormal ovulation, clinical or laboratory indices of elevated androgen levels and polycystic morphology of the ovaries. Even though the PCOS was described primarily in the 1935 by Stein and Leventhal, to date we are lacking the commonly accepted agreement in the issue of diagnosis of this syndrome.

[Natural history of polycyclic ovary syndrome].

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) occurs in 3-6% women of reproductive age. The Rotterdam 2003 criteria for PCOS diagnosis include: oligo or anovulation, hyperandrogenism and a typical clinical picture of polycystic ovaries in the USG image when other causes of hypoestrogenism are excluded. The etiology of the syndrome remains largely unknown.

Gherlin expression in women with polycystic ovary syndrome--a preliminary study.

The etiology and pathogenesis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is still unknown. Using real-time PCR, we detected that polycystic ovaries showed almost ten times lower expression of ghrelin mRNA than normal ovaries, whereas the mRNA levels in blood cells were similar in both study groups. This suggests that the presence of ghrelin in PCOS and normal ovaries may have an autocrine/paracrine modulatory effect on ovary functions and local significance in the etiology of PCOS.

[Assessment of the bone mass density in young women with secondary amenorrhea].

Analisys of results of bone mass density among 120 patients of Gynecological Endocrinology Clinic AM Poznań was presented. Endocrinological background of lowered bone mass density was viewed.

[Molecular background of hyperandrogenism of ovarian origin].

Ovarian androgens constitute substrates for estrogen formation, the key enzyme in androgen production being 17 alpha-hydroxylase/17,20 lyase, while in estrogen synthesis, aromatase. Both enzymes are constituents of a complex, comprising two proteins: cytochrome P450 reductase and respective cytochromes P450c17 or P450arom, whose expression play an important role in a proper function of the ovaries and its genetically determined abnormalities may lead to appearance of clinical symptoms. Although it is difficult to clearly define the genetic background of disturbances, leading to hyperandrogenism, metabolic abnormalities, resulting in excessive androgen production, were observed in polycystic ovarian syndrome, hyperthecosis and hyperinsulinemia.

Typical hormonal profiles are accompanied by increased immunoreactivity of theca folliculi steroid 17 alpha-hydroxylase P450 in polycystic ovary syndrome.

The localisation and expression of steroid 17 alpha-hydroxylase had been studied in ovaries obtained from 40 patients in whom polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO) was diagnosed, and in 15 normal ovaries. In patients, elevated serum LH and testosterone and normal FSH, prolactin and dehydroepiandrosterone levels were recorded. Serum oestradiol concentration was slightly decreased.

[Molecular basis of polycystic ovarian syndrome].

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCO) is a relatively poorly defined type of steroidogenic abnormality, dependent on an overproduction of lutropin (LH). The PCO is characterized by infertility, amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea, obesity and hirsutism. The clinical symptoms are associated with typical morphological changes of the ovaries.