Background—Injectable hormonal contraception may increase women’s risk of HIV acquisition, and can affect biological risk factors in animal models of HIV. We established, for the first time, a model to investigate whether combined oral contraceptives (COC) alter SHIV susceptibility in macaques. Methods—Seven pigtail macaques were administered a monophasic levonorgestrel (LNG)/ ethinyl estradiol...

abstract background: most of the women suffer from vaginal atrophy and dryness, and therefore, efficient and safe treatment is needed to improve vaginal lubrication. vitamin d has several important functions which may be effective in proliferation and repair of the epithelial tissue. this study aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamin d vaginal suppositories on maturation index, ph, and dryness ...

The estrogenic efficacy of topical vaginal application of Pueraria mirifica extract (PM) on the restoration of vaginal atrophy, and the presence of any systemic side effects, were investigated in postmenopausal cynomolgus macaques. Twelve postmenopausal cynomolgus macaques, with complete cessation of menstruation for at least 5 years before start of this experiment, were divided into three grou...

BACKGROUND The pharmacokinetics of vaginal misoprostol as a dry tablet or as a tablet moistened with normal saline or with acetic acid were studied. METHODS For this study, 42 women requesting termination of pregnancy at gestational age of <12 weeks were recruited and received 400 µg vaginal misoprostol tablets. They were randomized into three groups: (i) dry tablets, (ii) tablets moistened w...

Lactobacillus species in the female genital tract are thought to act as a barrier to infection. Several studies have demonstrated that lactobacilli can adhere to vaginal epithelial cells. However, little is known about how the adherence of lactobacilli to vaginal epithelial cells affects the acidity, cell viability, or proliferation of the lactobacilli themselves or those of vaginal epithelial ...

OBJECTIVES To measure the effect of vaginal estrogen cream in the treatment of vaginal atrophy in menopausal Indian women. METHODS A total of 50 menopausal women aged between 40 and 80 years old with symptoms of vaginal atrophy were selected and treated with 0.5 g vaginal estrogen cream, twice weekly for 12 weeks. The women were followed-up monthly where symptom score, Genital Health Clinical...

BACKGROUND Vaginal atrophy is a common complication in menopause which does not improve with time and, if untreated, can affect the quality of life for women. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the vaginal cream of hyaluronic acid and conjugated estrogen (Premarin) in treatment of vaginal atrophy. METHODS This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial on 56 menop...

Little is known of the biological attributes conferring pathogenicity on the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Infection by this pathogen, as for bacterial pathogens, may rely upon environmental signals within the host niche to regulate the expression of virulence determinants. To determine if C. albicans responds to the pH of the host niche, we tested the virulence of strains wit...