Anxiety and depression in expectant parents: ART versus spontaneous conception.

Study Question: Do expectant parents experience increased anxiety and depression during pregnancies conceived through ART compared to spontaneous conception?

Summary Answer: Among all expectant parents in the sample, those who conceived through ART reported overall lower levels of anxiety and depression in pregnancy compared to expectant parents who conceived spontaneously, while in the subsample of parents who conceived both through ART and spontaneous conception, expectant mothers experienced increased anxiety and depression in early pregnancy following ART compared to spontaneous conception.

What Is Known Already: Previous research on expectant parents' psychosocial adjustment in response to ART has found mixed results, with some studies suggesting ART is associated with increased anxiety and depression, and other studies suggesting improved mental health or no relationship. Mixed findings may relate to the use of cross-sectional designs that do not account for confounding differences between groups, or variability in the timing of assessment.

Can time to menopause be predicted?

Menopause represents the definite end of a woman's reproductive life and the onset of a persistent hypoestrogenic state. This postmenopausal period will for most women last several decades. Although mean menopausal age seems to have increased somewhat during the last century, there is a significant individual variation in age at natural menopause.

Risk of cardiovascular disease after preventive salpingo-oophorectomy.

Introduction: Breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutation carriers are recommended to undergo early oophorectomy to prevent ovarian cancer. Premature loss of ovarian hormones may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Because women with preventive oophorectomy are mainly young and healthy, they rarely undergo specialized cardiological surveillance.

Development of a prediction model to aid primary care physicians in early identification of women at high risk of developing endometriosis: cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To identify predictors of disease among a few factors commonly associated with endometriosis and if successful, to combine these to develop a prediction model to aid primary care physicians in early identification of women at high risk of developing endometriosis.

Design: Cross-sectional anonymous postal questionnaire study.

Setting: Women aged 18-45 years recruited from the Norwegian Endometriosis Association and a random sample of women residing in Oslo, Norway.

Childbirth close to natural menopause: does age at menopause matter?

Research Question: Does a successful spontaneous pregnancy in the years close to natural menopause depend on age at menopause?

Design: This was a retrospective population-based study of 4157 parous postmenopausal women in Norway, born during the years 1925-1940. Data were obtained by two self-administered questionnaires in the HUNT2 Survey (1995-1997). We calculated the proportions of women who gave birth within 5 years and within 10 years prior to menopause both among all women, and according to categories of age at menopause.