Improving Pregnancy Chances for Women Who Don't Ovulate

Aging decreases the number of eggs in the ovaries that a woman can ovulate and therefore the odds of of conceiving also decreases as one age. The 24 million eggs that are present in the ovaries of a female fetus only result in about a million follicles at birth, and we only ovulate about 400 times. As the number of reserve eggs decreases the rate of regular ovulation goes down and in order to conceive a woman may require help in ovulating. Although previously it was thought that a single follicle awakes from a group of eggs that are stimulated in the weeks before ovulation, always thought to occur in a cycle before the cycle in which we ovulate, there is evidence now that the process takes more like 3 months. The cycle is mostly controlled by the brain hormone FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) from the pituitary gland. FSH stimulates follicles, which are sacs of cells that contain an egg, to develop during those important last two weeks when rapid growth in a follicle occurs.. And FSH is controlled by signals that feed back to the gland from the estrogen that the follicle begins to make as well as higher brain centers We know that local hormone signaling within the ovary
is important as well. And this may help to explain the fact that as women age there seems to be a poorer response to the hormone stimulation used to help her get pregnant. If a woman is not completing the process on her own medications have been used to help ovulation, the best known medication used for this is clomiphene, but medications such as aromatase inhibitors, like letrozole, and actual FSH injections are also used for this. Still some women will not respond with ovulation. Various strategies have been tried to improve a woman's chances, including pre-treatment with insulin sensitizing agents, birth control pills, GNRH (gonadotrophin releasing hormone), LH (luteinizing hormone) and the hormone DHEA (dihydroepiandosterone). The pretretment can help the follicle cells become more responsive to the FSH signals. A group of Korean fertility researchers just published their results with pretreatment using testosterone gel in low doses 12.5 mg (note this level is fairly low, or 0.125 grams, as compared to the 1.25 grams which is the lowest male androgen level available in the Androgel 1% testosterone gel that is used for male testosterone treatments) to help improve rates of success in their IVF patients. The testosterone gel is thought to mimic a normal step in the sequence necessary for a successful ovulation process by which the soon to be ovulatory follicle gets stimulated by local hormones to increase it's ability to respond to FSH. Although these women could potentially get side effects of the male hormone, it might help people who didn't get enough ovulation response from their other treatments, to be successful. Other fertility factors to be treated improve chances would include being sure the timing of sex is correct during the ovulation process, having healthy fallopian tubes, having a partner with an optimized sperm count, and using insemination techniques.

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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