Sharing Clinical Trial Data: A Proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

In a joint publication across 14 member journals, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) proposes to require sharing of deidentified individual patient data underlying published clinical trials.

Role of emotional processing in depressive responses to sex-hormone manipulation: a pharmacological fMRI study.

Sex-hormone fluctuations may increase risk for developing depressive symptoms and alter emotional processing as supported by observations in menopausal and pre- to postpartum transition. In this double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, we used blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate if sex-steroid hormone manipulation with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) influences emotional processing. Fifty-six healthy women were investigated twice: at baseline (follicular phase of menstrual cycle) and 16 ± 3 days post intervention.

Epigenetics and assisted reproductive technologies.

Epigenetic modification controls gene activity without changes in the DNA sequence. The genome undergoes several phases of epigenetic programming during gametogenesis and early embryo development, coinciding with assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatments. Imprinting disorders have been associated with ART techniques, but disentangling the influence of the ART procedures per se from the effect of the reproductive disease of the parents is a challenge.

Surrogacy: outcomes for surrogate mothers, children and the resulting families-a systematic review.

Background: Surrogacy is a highly debated method mainly used for treating women with infertility caused by uterine factors. This systematic review summarizes current levels of knowledge of the obstetric, medical and psychological outcomes for the surrogate mothers, the intended parents and children born as a result of surrogacy.

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane and Embase databases up to February 2015 were searched.

Family intentions and personal considerations on postponing childbearing in childless cohabiting and single women aged 35-43 seeking fertility assessment and counselling.

Study Question: What characterizes childless women aged 35 years and above seeking fertility assessment and counselling in relation to their reproduction and are there significant differences between single and cohabiting women?

Summary Answer: Despite the women's advanced age and knowledge of the age-related decline in fecundity, 70% of the single women sought fertility assessment and counselling to gain knowledge regarding the possibility of postponing pregnancy.

What Is Known Already: Recent studies have indicated an increasing demand for ovarian reserve testing in women without any known fertility problem to obtain knowledge on their reproductive lifespan and pro-fertility advice. Women postpone their first pregnancy, and maternal age at first birth has increased in western societies over the past two to four decades.

Ovarian reserve assessment in users of oral contraception seeking fertility advice on their reproductive lifespan.

Study Question: To what extent does oral contraception (OC) impair ovarian reserve parameters in women who seek fertility assessment and counselling to get advice on whether their remaining reproductive lifespan is reduced?

Summary Answer: Ovarian reserve parameters defined by anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), antral follicle count (AFC) and ovarian volume were found to be significantly decreased by 19% (95% CI 9.1-29.3%), 18% (95% CI 11.

Assisted reproductive technology treatment in women with severe eating disorders: a national cohort study.

Introduction: This national retrospective cohort study investigates the prevalence of women with severe eating disorders in assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment compared with an age-matched background population without ART treatment. It assesses the frequency distribution of the first and last eating disorder diagnosis before, during, and after ART treatment, and evaluates differences in obstetric outcomes between women with and without a severe eating disorder.

Material And Methods: Hospital-diagnosed eating disorders among 42,915 women in the Danish National ART cohort (DANAC), registered during 1994-2009 in the mandatory Psychiatric Central Research Register, were compared with a non-eating disorder ART cohort of 42,644 women and an age-matched background population of 215,290 women without a history of ART treatment for the main outcome measures prevalence of eating disorders, frequency distribution of diagnoses before/during/after ART treatment, as well as ART treatment and obstetric outcomes.

Sex-Steroid Hormone Manipulation Reduces Brain Response to Reward.

Mood disorders are twice as frequent in women than in men. Risk mechanisms for major depression include adverse responses to acute changes in sex-steroid hormone levels, eg, postpartum in women. Such adverse responses may involve an altered processing of rewards.

Are repeated assisted reproductive technology treatments and an unsuccessful outcome risk factors for unipolar depression in infertile women?

Introduction: Previous studies have shown conflicting results as to whether unsuccessful medically assisted reproduction is a risk factor for depression among women. This study therefore investigated if women with no live birth after assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment had a higher risk of unipolar depression compared with women with a live birth after ART treatment.

Material And Methods: The Danish National ART-Couple (DANAC) Cohort is a national register-based cohort study that consists of women who received ART treatment from 1 January 1994 to 30 September 2009, in Denmark (n = 41 050).

Role of Serotonin Transporter Changes in Depressive Responses to Sex-Steroid Hormone Manipulation: A Positron Emission Tomography Study.

Background: An adverse response to acute and pronounced changes in sex-hormone levels during, for example, the perimenopausal or postpartum period appears to heighten risk for major depression in women. The underlying risk mechanisms remain elusive but may include transiently compromised serotonergic brain signaling. Here, we modeled a biphasic ovarian sex hormone fluctuation using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) and evaluated if emergence of depressive symptoms was associated with change in cerebral serotonin transporter (SERT) binding following intervention.

Risk of hypertensive disorders in pregnancies following assisted reproductive technology: a cohort study from the CoNARTaS group.

Study Question: Is the risk of hypertensive disorders in pregnancies conceived following specific assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures different from the risk in spontaneously conceived (SC) pregnancies?

Summary Answer: ART pregnancies had a higher risk of hypertensive disorders, in particular following cryopreservation, with the highest risk seen in twin pregnancies following frozen-thawed cycles.

What Is Known Already: The risk of hypertensive disorders is higher in ART pregnancies than in SC pregnancies. The increased risk may be partly explained by multiple pregnancies and underlying infertility, but a contribution from specific ART procedures has not been excluded.

Trends in perinatal health after assisted reproduction: a Nordic study from the CoNARTaS group.

Study Questions: Has the perinatal outcome of children conceived after assisted reproductive technology (ART) improved over time?

Summary Answer: The perinatal outcomes in children born after ART have improved over the last 20 years, mainly due to the reduction of multiple births.

What Is Known And What This Paper Adds: A Swedish study has shown a reduction in unwanted outcomes over time in children conceived after ART. Our analyses based on data from more than 92 000 ART children born in four Nordic countries confirm these findings.

Follicle pool, ovarian surgery and the risk for a subsequent trisomic pregnancy.

Study Question: Is there an association between trisomic pregnancy, a marker for decreased oocyte quality, and the reduced oocyte quantity that follows ovarian surgery?

Summary Answer: Previous ovarian surgery is not associated with an increased risk for a subsequent trisomic pregnancy.

What Is Known Already: Ovarian surgery diminishes the number of oocytes. The risk for a trisomic pregnancy is suggested to be higher in women with fewer oocytes, independent of their chronological age.

Fertilization failure after IVF in 304 couples--a case-control study on predictors and long-term prognosis.

Objectives: To identify predictors of total fertilization failure (TFF) and thereby optimize the primary allocation of patients with no well-defined male factor to either IVF or intracytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI). Further, to evaluate the long-term fertility prognosis of couples experiencing TFF.

Study Design: A retrospective case-control study including 304 couples with TFF and 304 controls with fertilization after IVF during a 10-year period from year 2000-2010.