GynoFiles

Hardly a medical visit goes by to the gyno office without discussing estrogen or progesterone, and often we get blood tests for it as well. But the granulosa cells of the ovary that make estrogen, make many more substances as well, so your gyno says there is another ovarian hormone. Actually there are several other ovarian hormones besides just the estrogen and progesterone.. Inhibin, activin and follistatin are all made at the same time as estrogen, and in response to the same hormone, FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), that stimulates estrogen production and the formation of a healthy egg. Actually, just as estrogen has many activities on many cells and in many organs, these molecules do as well. We do run tests of inhibin when performing birth defect screening in pregnancy, it's one of the four tests in the " Quad Screen" . that is done for birth defect screening at 18 weeks of pregnancy. Inhibin has a very unique roll in our fertility: it's responsible for the...

When it comes to women in menopause, and what symptoms to expect and how long to anticipate they will last it's important to understand what phase you are in. The physicians of an important workshop in 2001 developed a formal list of the menopause transition phases. The physicians call these special phases the Stage of menopause you are in. Which 'Stage' is important to help you and your physician understand how symptomatic you are, how much bleeding there is, and how long this is going to continue. Specifically they rely on definite menstrual period descriptions and actual recommendations regarding the FSH levels.  There are Five Stages before the final period (FMP, Final Menstrual Period), and two after the Formal “Menopause.” The fie stages are labeled from -5 to -1 and after menopause the stages are +1 and +2. In 2011 a group met to fine tune the stages and their conference was called "ReSTAGE". ReSTAGE took information from the TREMIN study, the Melbou...