Gynaecology Professor, Minimally Invasive Gynaecological Surgery Unit, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Published: April 2015
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Background: Endometriosis is a chronic and progressive condition of women of reproductive age. It is strongly associated with significant impairment of sexual function.
Aim: To objectively evaluate the impact of laparoscopic excision of endometriosis on sexual function in patients with deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) compared to healthy women.
Setting And Design: Prospective study, including 250 patients with a diagnosis of DIE scheduled for laparoscopic surgery and 250 healthy women.
Methods: A sexual activity questionnaire, SHOW-Q (Sexual Health Outcomes in Women Questionnaire), was used to collect data pertaining to women's satisfaction, orgasm, desire and pelvic problem interference with sexual function. Women with DIE underwent complete excision of endometriotic lesions. All participants were asked to complete the SHOW-Q questionnaire before and after surgery.
Results: SHOW-Q scores in the endometriosis group before and 6 months after surgery were compared with the healthy group scores. A significant improvement was found between pre- and post-treatment in the scores of the satisfaction scale, desire scale and pelvic problem interference scale of SHOW-Q. The distribution of post-surgery SHOW-Q scores was comparable to healthy women's scores apart from the orgasm scale score, which was unchanged in the post-surgery group.
Conclusions: The surgical approach to treatment has a positive impact not only on organ impairment but also on sexual function in women affected by DIE.
The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a gregarious generalist species, which makes it a good model for studying play. However, play has not been described for this species so far. We describe play behaviour in house sparrows for the first time, quantifying all play and play-related behaviours, searching for differences between the different sexes and ages, the possible association with reproductive success and the diffusion of this behaviour in the population.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) oxylipins regulate inflammation, and acute systemic inflammation can precipitate cognitive impairment. Females have more HDL and stronger immune responses than males, yet higher dementia risk. Little is known about sex differences in oxylipin responses to inflammatory stimuli and potential crosstalk between acute systemic inflammation and central oxylipin signaling in either sex.
Biochemical and evolutionary interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes ('mitonuclear interactions') are proposed to underpin fundamental aspects of biology including evolution of sexual reproduction, adaptation and speciation. We investigated the role of pre-mating isolation in maintaining functional mitonuclear interactions in wild populations bearing diverged, putatively co-adapted mitonuclear genotypes. Two lineages of eastern yellow robin Eopsaltria australis-putatively climate-adapted to 'inland' and 'coastal' climates-differ by ~7% of mitogenome nucleotides, whereas nuclear genome differences are concentrated into a sex-linked region enriched with mitochondrial functions.
Although mammals resist both acute weight loss and weight gain, the neural circuitry mediating bi-directional defense against weight change is incompletely understood. Global constitutive deletion of the melanocortin-3-receptor (MC3R) impairs the behavioural response to both anorexic and orexigenic stimuli, with MC3R knockout mice demonstrating increased weight gain following anabolic challenges and increased weight loss following anorexic challenges (i.e.
Objectives: To enhance evidence-based knowledge about sexual function and the prevalence of sexual dysfunction after surgical therapy for congenital anomalies with menstrual outflow obstruction.
Materials And Methods: In this long-term case-control study, all patients underwent surgical correction of an obstructive Müllerian anomaly between 1980 and 2013. At the start of the case-control study, patients were at least 18 years old and were two years post their initial operation.
