Tag: hormones

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Menopausal women with high oestradiol levels at greater risk of strokes

brigitte

Women are less prone to cardiovascular disease then men; but this difference between the sexes becomes less marked after the menopause. This observation is behind a great deal of received wisdom, where oestrogen is assumed to have a beneficial effect on the heart and blood vessels. Today, new data seems to question these presuppositions. A study has been conducted by a team of Inserm researchers, directed by Pierre-Yves Scarabin (Inserm Unit 1018 “Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health Research”), on 6,000 women aged over 65; its results demonstrate, for the first time, that women with high levels of oestradiol in their blood are exposed to a greater risk of myocardial infarction or strokes.

The results are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Oestrogen hormones play a key role in sexual development and reproduction in women. Oestradiol is the most active hormone. Its blood levels are particularly high during the active reproductive period. After the menopause, the ovarian function ceases, leading to a significant drop in oestrogen levels in the blood (the adipose tissue then becomes the main source of oestrogen). However, low concentrations of these hormones do continue to circulate and may still exert biological actions.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Progestin may reduce pregnancy chances

brigitte

May 28 (UPI)

Progestin, a hormone used to treat infertility due to polycystic ovary syndrome, may reduce the odds of conception and giving birth, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Michael P. Diamond of Wayne State University in Detroit, Dr. Richard S. Legro of the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey and researchers at 16 institutions in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Cooperative Reproductive Medicine Network said polycystic ovary syndrome is a disorder in which the ovaries, and sometimes the adrenal glands, produce excess amounts of hormones.

Women with the disorder typically have menstrual irregularities and may have difficulty getting pregnant.

Infertility treatment for the condition typically involves ovulation induction — drug treatment to stimulate the release of an egg, but before ovulation induction, physicians often use a single course of progestin, which leads to a thickening in the lining of the uterus.

The idea behind the treatment is to simulate the bleeding that occurs at the beginning of the monthly menstrual cycle, Diamond explained.

However, women who skipped the progestin before receiving fertility drugs were four times more likely to conceive than were women given the hormone.

In addition, 20 percent of the women who did not receive progestin gave birth, compared with about 5 percent of the women who received progestin.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Male Equivalent of Menopause: MANopause

ASRM News and Research

The official term for manopause is andropause. Men with this condition suffer from lower-than-normal levels of testosterone.  According to various studies, this condition affects 20 to 30 percent of all men.  Unlike menopause, which usually runs its course in a few years, andropause can last for decades.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Use of Any Type of Hormones for Menopause Symptoms Raises Breast Cancer Risk, Study Suggests

ASRM News and Research

It is already known that taking pills that combine estrogen and progestin — the most common type of hormone therapy — can increase breast cancer risk. But women who no longer have a uterus can take estrogen alone, which was thought to be safe and possibly even slightly beneficial in terms of cancer risk.