Complementary medicines and therapies in clinical guidelines on pregnancy care: A systematic review.

Background: There is a need for evidence-based guidance on complementary medicines and therapies (CMT) use during pregnancy due to high prevalence of use and lack of guidance on the balance of benefit and harms.

Aim: Evaluate the extent to which current clinical practice guidelines relevant to Australian healthcare professionals make clear and unambiguous recommendations about CMT use in pregnancy, and synthesise these recommendations.

Methods: The search included EMBASE, PubMed, the National Health and Medical Research Council's Clinical Practice Guidelines Portal, and websites of Australian maternity hospitals and professional/not-for-profit organisations for published guidelines on pregnancy care.

Relevance of gastrointestinal symptoms in endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis commonly presents with a range of symptoms none of which are particularly specific for the condition, often resulting in misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis.

Aim: To investigate gastrointestinal symptoms in women with endometriosis and compare their frequency with that of the classical gynaecological symptoms.

Methods: Systematic exploration of symptoms in a consecutive series of 355 women undergoing operative laparoscopy for suspected endometriosis.