Cervical dilatation is a key event for successful vaginal delivery of young ones that occur just before parturition. Failure of cervical dilatation due to alterations in cervical ripening mechanism or insufficient uterine contraction poses problems in delivery of fetus. Cervical ripening is a multifactorial process which is an outcome of hormonal regulation, inflammatory process and enzymatic b...

Obesity in adults and children is increasingly becoming a major health problem worldwide. However, the precise biological mechanisms governing this disease have not been fully elucidated. Obesity involves the complex interaction of a wide range of environmental and genetic factors. Additionally, there is now a growing body of evidence suggesting that alterations in metabolic environment during ...

Blood testis barrier (BTB) is one of the tightest blood-barriers controlling the entry of substances into the intratubular fluid. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is an epidemic metabolic disease concurrent with falling fertility rates, which provokes severe detrimental BTB alterations. It induces testicular alterations, disrupting the metabolic cooperation between the cellular constituents of BTB, with ...

Neuropathic, metabolic, hormonal, nutritional and immunological factors contribute to the development of sarcopenia. This loss of muscle mass associated with ageing, is a main cause of muscle weakness, but the loss of muscle strength typically exceeds that of muscle size, with a resulting decrease in force per unit of muscle cross-sectional area. Recent evidence suggests that, in addition to a ...

Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by chronic relapsing oral-genital ulcers and uveitis. Multiple systemic associations including articular, gastrointestinal, cardiopulmonary, neurologic, and vascular involvement are also observed in BD. Although the etiopathogenesis of the disease remains unknown, increased neutrophil functions such as chemotaxis...

Obesity in adults and children is increasingly becoming a major health problemworldwide. However, the precise biological mechanisms governing this disease have not been fully elucidated. Obesity involves the complex interaction of a wide range of environmental and genetic factors. Additionally, there is now a growing body of evidence suggesting that alterations in metabolic environment during i...

OBJECTIVE It was to assess the main characteristics of patients undergoing pituitary tumor surgery. METHOD Eighty-seven patients (44 men; 44.8±13 years old) were included. RESULTS The main symptoms were visual alterations (87.3%), headache (70.1%), diminished libido (34.4%), galactorrhea (22.9%) and hair loss (19.5%). The axes affected were gonadotropic (72.6%), thyrotropic (48.4%) and cort...

Hormonal contraception has recently drawn the attention of both national and international Health Organizations mainly because of new data on the risk of venous and arterial thrombosis. This has, fortunately, not led to a 'pill scare' as happened in 1996 when controversy arose with respect to the thrombotic risk of third versus second -generation pills. This time, evidence on the thrombotic ris...

BACKGROUND Irregular bleeding is one of the most common side effects of hormonal contraception and a key reason for the discontinuation of hormonal methods. STUDY DESIGN A qualitative study in which 12 young women volunteered to be interviewed in depth, along with six focus group discussions (23 participants). The study had two main research objectives: to document and investigate what young ...

Publication of the article by Skovlund et al. ‘Association of hormonal contraception with depression’ [1] has produced a strong media reaction in several countries, with recent headlines like those in the German magazines Gala ‘Finally proven: the Pill causes depression’ and Brigitte ‘Danish scientists show the Pill increases the risk of depression in young women by 80%’. Although the article’s...