BACKGROUND Pregnancy-related (PR) deaths are often a result of direct obstetric complications occurring at childbirth. METHODS AND FINDINGS To estimate the burden of and characterize risk factors for PR mortality, we evaluated deaths that occurred between 2003 and 2008 among women of childbearing age (15 to 49 years) using Health and Demographic Surveillance System data in rural western Kenya...

The unequivocal role of progesterone in a variety of events like ovulation, mammary gland development, establishment and maintenance of pregnancy etc are well established. Also the data are accumulating on its role in male reproductive events. In vertebrates and humans, the biological activity of progesterone is mediated by two progesterone receptor proteins PR-A and PR-B, that arise from the s...

Whether and how gestational protein restriction (PR) affects placental development and function remain unknown. To test the hypothesis that PR can affect trophoblast differentiation in mid-and late pregnancy, rats were fed a 20% or an isocaloric 6% protein diet from Day 1 to 14 or 18 of pregnancy and effects of PR on trophoblast differentiation were determined by changes in expressions of marke...

BACKGROUND The present study aimed to analyze the prognostic value of sperm morphology , total motile sperm count (TMSC) and the number of motile sperm inseminated (NMSI) on the outcome of intrauterine insemination (IUI). MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross sectional study was carried out 445 women undergoing 820 IUI cycles. All of the patients underwent controlled ovarian hyper stimulation with...

To further our understanding of progesterone (P) as an endocrine mammogen, a PR(lacz) knockin mouse was generated in which the endogenous progesterone receptor (PR) promoter directly regulated lacZ reporter expression. The PR(lacz) mouse revealed PR promoter activity was restricted to the epithelial compartment during the prenatal and postnatal stages of mammary gland development. At puberty, P...

Objective: Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) are pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in the mother-embryo interaction during blastocyst adhesion and invasion into the endometrium. IL-1β is also considered as a first signal delivered from blastocyst to the endometrium to influence uterus receptivity. The aim of the present prospective, non-randomized study was to explore whethe...

Operant responding on a progressive ratio (PR) schedule for intravenous cocaine as well as sucrose reinforcement was examined in female rats throughout the reproductive process. Self-administration sessions began before mating, and continued throughout pregnancy and until lactational Day 8; following parturition, litters were present with dams during operant sessions. Physiological changes asso...

BACKGROUND Pregnancy at early age is the most significant modifiable factor which consistently decreases lifetime breast cancer risk. However, the underlying mechanisms haven't been conclusively identified. Studies in mice suggest a reduction in progesterone-receptor (PR) sensitive epithelial cells as well as a downregulation of the Wnt signaling pathway as being one of the main mechanisms for ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the addition of estradiol to luteal progesterone supplementation in GnRH antagonist cycles for infertile patients undergoing IVF/ICSI. METHODS One hundred and ten infertile patients, aged 28 to 39 years, were recruited for this prospective randomized study. They were randomly assigned to receive vaginal progesterone gel (Crinone) along with 4 mg estradiol v...

BACKGROUND Elective single embryo transfer (eSET) in a selected group of patients (i.e. young patients with at least one good quality embryo) reduces the number of multiple pregnancies in an IVF programme. However, the reduced overall multiple pregnancy rate (PR) is still unacceptably high. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted comparing eSET and double embryo transfer (D...