The genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) affects up to 84% of postmenopausal women and may significantly reduce the quality of life in some. For symptom relief, there are several non-hormonal and hormonal vaginal products available. In Europe, vaginal estriol (E3) is the most frequently chosen estrogen for GSM treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Thromboembolism Risk with Combined Hormonal Contraceptives: Current Status and Prescribing Practice The use of combined hormonal contraceptives (CHC) increases not only the risk for venous thromboembolism, but also for arterial thromboembolism. The risk for thromboembolism is the same for non-oral CHC (patches, vaginal rings) as for oral CHC. Risk factors such as age >35, obesity, smoking and a positive family history need to be recognized and considered in contraceptive counselling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe putative association between hormones and cognitive performance is controversial. While there is evidence that estradiol plays a neuroprotective role, hormone treatment has not been shown to improve cognitive performance. Current research is flawed by the evaluation of combined hormonal effects throughout the menstrual cycle or in the menopausal transition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSupporting and counselling couples with fertility issues prior to starting ART is a multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The first German-language interdisciplinary S2k guideline on "Diagnosis and Therapy Before Assisted Reproductive Treatments (ART)" was published in February 2019. The guideline was developed in the context of the guidelines program of the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) in cooperation with the Swiss Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (SGGG) and the Austrian Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (OEGGG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSupporting and counselling couples with fertility issues prior to starting ART is a multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The first German/Austrian/Swiss interdisciplinary S2k guideline on "Diagnosis and Therapy Before Assisted Reproductive Treatments (ART)" was published in February 2019. This guideline was developed in the context of the guidelines program of the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) in cooperation with the Swiss Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (SGGG) and the Austrian Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (OEGGG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuccessful implementation of chlorination for disinfecting community water systems in developing countries faces obstacles, with rejection of chlorinous flavor as a significant factor. Determining consumers' abilities to accurately detect chlorine in treated water is important to identifying acceptable chlorination levels that are also effective for water disinfection. Chlorine detection sensitivity was tested in untrained Ecuadorian consumers with limited prior experience with chlorinated water and US consumers with extensive prior experience with chlorinated water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute leukaemia is a life-threatening disease that needs treatment without delay. Fertility preservation is recommended, but often not possible because of the necessity to start treatment as soon as possible. The present study is a retrospective single-centre analysis of 459 patients diagnosed with acute leukaemia between 2002 and 2012.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: SLE is an autoimmune condition affecting predominantly women. Little is known regarding infection in women with SLE, which may drive autoimmunity and contribute to obstetrical and vascular complications.
Methods: This single-centre, case-control study set primary endpoint in the comparative seropositivity rate to major outer membrane protein (MOMP) and chlamydial heat-shock protein-60 (cHSP60) in age-matched subjects.
Objectives: This study's aim was to describe the emotional status of parents to be before and after the first-trimester combined prenatal screening test.
Methods: One hundred three couples participated, of which 52 had undergone an in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment [assisted reproductive technology (ART)] and 51 had conceived spontaneously. Participants completed the state scale of the State-trait Anxiety Inventory, the Edinburgh Depression Scale, and the Maternal and Paternal Antenatal Attachment Questionnaire before the first-trimester combined prenatal screening test at around 12 weeks of gestational age (T1) and just after receiving the results at approximately 14 weeks of gestational age (T2).
As a result of advances in oncologic treatment, a growing number of women diagnosed with cancer may envisage cure. Young women diagnosed with cancer often have a desire to fall pregnant in the future or may even be diagnosed with cancer in the process of family planning. The potential gonadotoxic effect of certain chemotherapeutic agents is well described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite increasing life expectancy, the age of onset of natural menopause has not significantly changed in recent decades. Thus, women spend about one-third of their lives in an estrogen-deficient state if untreated. There is a need for appropriate treatment of acute symptoms and prevention of the sequelae of chronic estrogen deficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuestions Under Study: To investigate if two distinct, commercially available embryo culture media have a different effect on birthweight and length of singleton term infants conceived after IVF-ICSI.
Methods: University hospital based cohort study. Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2004, patients conceiving through IVF-ICSI at the University Hospital, Lausanne have been allocated to two distinct embryo culture media.
Mothers' general anxiety, anxiety about the well-being of the child and psychological stress before prenatal testing was studied by comparing women who conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with women who conceived naturally. Before the first trimester screening test for Down's syndrome, a group of 51 women who conceived through IVF/ICSI and a group of 54 women who conceived spontaneously completed the State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-Anxiety; Spielberger, 1983), the Fear of Bearing a Physically or Mentally Handicapped Child Subscale of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ-R; Huizink et al., 2004), the Psychological Stress Measure (PSM; Lemyre & Tessier, 1988), and the Prenatal Psychosocial Profile (PPP; Curry, Campbell, & Christian, 1994).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than ten years after the publication of the "Women's Health Initiatives" (WHI) study, a global consensus statement on menopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been edited by an expert committee, composed by all the international menopausal societies. This global consensus has been published in April 2013 in the journal Climacteric. In conclusion, HRT has to be an individual decision, weighing up benefits and risks and it should not be prescribed for the first time in women older than 60 years or more than ten years after the onset of menopause.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Infertility treatments are a major source of the increase in multiple pregnancies (MPs).
Aims: The aims of the present study were (1.) to investigate the origin and maternal/neonatal outcomes of MP and (2.
Swiss Med Wkly
September 2013
This is a critical review of the medical, ethical, judicial and financial aspects of the so called "social freezing", the cryopreservation of a woman's oocytes for non-medical purposes. The possibility of storing the eggs of fertile women in order to prevent age-related fertility decline is being widely promoted by fertility centres and the lay press throughout the world. Research data has shown that social freezing should ideally be performed on women around 25 years of age in order to increase their chances of a future pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare the expression of the prostaglandin (PG) E(2) transporter multidrug resistance-associated protein 4 (MRP4) in eutopic and ectopic endometrial tissue from endometriosis patients with that of control subjects and to examine whether MRP4 is regulated by the antiinflammatory lipid lipoxin A(4) (LXA(4)) in endometriotic epithelial cells.
Design: Molecular analysis in human samples and a cell line.
Setting: Two university hospitals and a private clinic.
Antibiotics and antibacterials are present in water bodies worldwide but little is known about their effects on the biological processes often used to treat water. In this research, the effect of antibiotics on bacterial activity and community structure was investigated by growing biofilms in the presence and absence of a mixture of three compounds (sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin, and ciprofloxacin) in a continuous-flow rotating annular bioreactor fed acetate as a carbon and energy source. Steady-state, surface area-normalized substrate utilization rates for all antibiotic treatments (all at 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDue to constant progress in oncology, survival rates of patients (children and adults) with cancer are increasing. Consequently, the reproductive future of young cancer patients needs to be addressed carefully. Fertility preservation techniques are available and issues such as the time available for fertility treatments, patients' age, presence of a partner and patients' personal wishes have to be considered.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To analyze the expression of estrogen receptors α and β as well as their target genes implicated in proliferation, c-myc, cyclin D1, and GREB1, in the endometrium of women with or without endometriosis.
Design: Expression analysis in human tissue.
Setting: University hospitals and a clinic.
Objective: To analyze the vascularization of the endometrium via hysteroscopy and to assess its correlation with angiogenic factor gene expression and embryo implantation rate.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Public university hospital.
Objective: To produce age-related normograms for serum antimüllerian hormone (AMH) level in infertile women without polycystic ovaries (non-PCO).
Design: Retrospective cohort analysis.
Setting: Fifteen academic reproductive centers.
Using a continuous-flow rotating annular bioreactor, sorption of three selected antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), and erythromycin (ERY)) to bacterial biofilm was investigated. CIP had the greatest biofilm partition coefficient (K(oc) = 92,000 ± 10,000 L/kg) followed by ERY (K(oc) = 6000 ± 1000 L/kg) and then SMX (K(oc) = 4000 ± 1000 L/kg). Antibiotic sorption to biofilm did not correlate with experimentally-determined K(ow) values (CIP: -0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Med Suisse
October 2010
New child wish after vasectomy: vasovasostomy or assisted reproductive medicine? In the case of a new child wish after vasectomy, there are two options: vaso-vasostomy (VV) or biopsy of the testicle associated with intra-cytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI). Both methods are not reimbursed. The VV offers a cumulative pregnancy rate of 28-40%, depending on pre-, intra- and postoperative factors.
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