GynoFiles

A new study shows that women with the infertility treatment of IVF have greater risks of blood clots in their legs. There are many reasons women are at greater risk for blood clots in their legs when they become pregnant. Physiologic and anatomic changes during pregnancy increase the risk for thromboembolism. Hypercoagulability, increased venous stasis, decreased venous outflow, uterine compression of the inferior vena cava and pelvic veins, reduced mobility, and changes in levels of coagulation factors normally regulating hemostasis all result in an increased thrombogenic state. You can do many things to reduce your chance of having a clot in your legs. Normalizing weight, having a proper amount of exercise, not being a smoker, and wearing support stockings all reduce your risk of having a blood clot. Increasingly it has become important to know your genetics prior to attempting pregnancy, and we commonly encounter genetic traits that increase the risk of blood clots in your le...

When it comes to your birth control patch, stickiness is important, there should be less than 2%of the patches fall off because they aren't sticking at all. They stick so well that they actually improve how consistently a woman uses her contracpetion, in fact the patch beats the ring when it comes to consistent use! And very few sould peel up at the corners as well.  There is no reason to put duct tape over your contraceptive patch to help it hold, if that is necessary, get a new one. Fortunately you really shouldn't get to that point as the patches have a lot of good goo! But too much stickiness on our skin is troublesome and we hate the traces of gum or glue, and we really hate the glue with little bits of lint left on our arm after we remove the patch. So to peel off traces of adhesive from your hormone patches or contraceptive patch, get out some tape, and you can use the tape to pick up the traces of the adhesive! Clean arm! Nice.

It's easy to get a contraceptive patch to stick: pick a clean spot, not one where clothing rubs, apply, and gently give it about 10 seconds of pressure, and you're done for the next week's contraception. In fact, contraceptive patches are a very successful method of birth control for many women. Contraceptive patches  can be started virtually any day of your cycle (use back up for 7 days), they are fairly rapidly reversed, they have a very steady hormone level, and they can even be used longer than three consecutive weeks to provide long cycles and less bleeding. For women who find it difficult to remember pills or keep to a regular time of day oral contraceptive schedule--patches are much easier! It is a very effective method. Bloating has never been reported to change the stickiness of the patch, but over time, if you gain weight and weigh over 200 pounds you should know that the patch effectiveness may not be as good. Over time the stickiness of the the contraceptiv...

Gynuity Health Projects and other researchers have summarized the current studies on venous thromboembolism (blood clots, primarily deep vein) and the newest hormonal contraceptives. They point out that the risks of blood clots for the average user is very low. Most women will have a risk of blood clotting before hormonal contraceptives of 1/10,000 and after their is will rise on bontraceptives, but even with the newest generation progesterones the risks will only risk in the 5-10/10,000 range. The studies varied in the risks they showed. It is important for women with signs or symptoms of deep vein clots, whether on hormonal contraceptives or not, to promptly see their health care provider, and only accurate testing can help us get a firm diagnosis. Many of the studies quoted suffered from incomplete information on some patients. If a woman has trauma or surgery this many increase her risk, whether or not she is on hormonal contraception, and it's also important for health care ...

1.The method should be very effective 2. Take effect quickly 3. There should be significant non-contraceptive health benefits 4. Be easy to use 5. Be acceptable to your partner 6. Afford you privacy 7. Have no medical reasons you cannot use the method 8. Be affordable 9. Be reversible (if you want to get pregnant, not if you never do) 10. Have minimal mild and serious side effects Self-directed use Low level of side effects

Birth control pills need to be used faithfully.But we are human right? We can't always be in the same place, at the same time, every day. So skipped pills are common and when you take pills you need to know what to do. If you are on most types of birth control and you have missed a pill, then you can just take another with your regular pill the next day and you are protected! If you manage to miss two days before you realize, play catch up, take two a day for the next two days. However, with some of the newest formulations the hormone levels vary from day to day, and the instructions on what to do vary depending on which pill you missed..For those who aren't sure then you need to use back up, and ideally check with your gyno, get on line with the individual pill company, and if you notice this becoming a habit you need to think about your lifestyle and what will be the best contraception for you!

Migraines? Tension headaches? Premenstrual headaches? No matter what type of head ache you have you can use POPs (progesterone only pills or the "mini" pill). You can also safely use DMPA (depoProvera), Implanon and the Mirena IUD. So there are lots of good ways to contracept and get cycle control even if you have migraines. There are special types of migraines that may mean more work up, and may mean stroke risks, for that you do still have to have that discussion with your gyno. But don't give up on the idea of effective contraception just because a headache has you down!

It occurred to some researchers at USC in the Gyno department in 2005 to see if a woman could get better control of her male hormones by using the birth control patch or the birth control pill. The did this by  comparing blood androgen profiles in 24  women treated with the contraceptive patch versus an oral contraceptive (OC). The pill was a 35 mcg pill, basically a mid level pill, and the patch was basically the OrthoEvra patch that is on the market and thought of as roughly equivelent to a bit higher estrogen dose ). Blood samples were taken at baseline and end of three cycles. Serum levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone (T), androstenedione (A), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and 3alpha-androstanediol glucuronide (3alpha-diol G) were quantified by immunoassay methods. The hormone SHBG that binds male hormones went up more with the patch but the free circulating testosterone was greater in patch users....

Where to put your patch? Definitely not on your breast. For most medicated patch wearers (contraceptive patches included) there may not be a lot of difference, or a lot of differences that will make changes to the effectiveness or to the numbers of your side effects. The least absorption is usually the abdomen, relative to the place like the buttock. This probably has to do with the amount of fat, the way the patch lays, all sorts of variables. But one thing researchers also point out, when it comes to knowing exactly which spot would be best: The intrasubject steroid level variability is very high. So if you have questions, ask your gyno!

When it comes to your birth control patch, stickiness is important, there should be less than 2% fall off. And very few should peel up at the corners as well. But too much stickiness is troublesome and we hate the traces of gum left on our arm. So to peel off traces of adhesive from your hormone patches or contraceptive patch, get out some tape, and you can use the tape to pick up the traces of the adhesive! Clean arm! Nice.

Do you know the statistics behind contraceptive effectiveness? Your doc will base this on how many women are pregnant at the end of the year out of every hundred that use the method. That fact is called the Pearl index. Pearl indexes in this country has been creeping up, for some reason contraception, although used a bit more, is less likely to work. So, ,your method is more likely to fail now than if you were on the same method years ago. Contraceptive products tested in the USA now have higher failure rates than they had ten yrs ago. This drift in effectiveness rates is real, it is steady, and we don’t know the reason for it. Experts have looked into similar products overseas, and it doesn’t happen in Europe. Are we more forgetful? Are we heavier? Yes we are heavier, but that apparently is not the issue for obese women. A new study looked at why women who are heavier seem to have greater birth control failures, and guess what, it wasn't their weight, it was that heavier women...

We used to have to rely on world wide contraceptive guidance, now we have a league of our own. CDC identifies criteria for safe contraceptive use for US individuals so that we no longer have to rely exclusively on criteria set up to cover the WHO Criteria. The WHO criteria covers a lot of methods that aren't even available in the US, so one just crafted specifically for methods only available in the US is less confusing. So if you are writing that contraceptive report, trying to give a patient some advice, or just digging around for that special piece of information on your individual case, look here first!

We always try anything to get women to remember to plan each pregnancy be safe against STDs and to minimize the side effe cts while maximizing the non-contraceptive benefits of your method. So what do you choose? Contraception patch? Condoms to snare the sperm? Or just Spermicides to kill off the sperm? Which is the best contraception for you? Some might just question which is most effective? We are constantly trying to improve the pill. Side effect profiles can improve, But effectiveness improve it over 99% effective rates ? My industrial engineering colleges say that if you have something that is 99% effective for the job it is supposed to do, that is not what you typically look to replace. And in fact, in spite of the removal of 98% of the hormone dose since the initial formulation of the oral contraceptive pill, perfect use effectiveness of the pill remains at about 99% with perfect use and ovulation rates are low. Yet the United States still has the highest rates of unplann...