Are educators at high risk of sub-fertility? A multicenter study.

Problem: A high percentage of women schoolteachers having fertility problems were observed by three independent teams.

Method: Expected percentage of educators was calculated in 4650 sub-fertile women and 2,062,891 women at reproductive age. To explore the possibility that schoolteachers' contact with childhood viral infections results in alterations of peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells, a multiple linear regression analysis for profession, age, difficulty to conceive, number of abortions/implantation failures (predictor variables) was performed in childless educators (210) and housewives (184).

How valuable is measurement of peripheral blood natural killer cells at the time of abortion?

Problem: Increased peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells are associated to immune-mediated abortion, but their diagnostic value when measured at the time of miscarriage is unknown.

Method Of Study: In women with therapeutic (A = 79) or elective (C = 34) pregnancy termination, the NK-cell percentage was measured before and 5 days after curettage. Additionally, immune-mediated lesions (scored 0-3) and CD56(+) and CD16(+) decidual NKs (scored 1-3) were detected on the abortion material.