[Contraception: the point].
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Riboflavin and vitamin B6 status of mothers from a low-income group were assessed by erythrocyte glutathione reductase activation and erythrocyte aspartate aminotransferase activation tests respectively, at different stages of lactation. Levels of these vitamins in milk were also measured. The majority of the women had biochemical evidence of vitamins B2 and B6 deficiency. There was a bizarre reduction in erythrocyte glutathione reductase activation from 6 to 30 d post partum. Levels of riboflavin in milk were in general satisfactory, but vitamin B6 levels were lower than the values reported from developed countries. Clear-cut correlations between the enzymatic indices of vitamin status evaluation and milk levels of the corresponding vitamins were not apparent.
Temperature distributions over the breasts of five healthy, young female volunteers using non-pharmaceutical contraceptives were studied over a menstrual cycle to identify "dynamic" temperature points related to E2-induced vascularity and "static" temperature points reflecting the body's core temperature. Corresponding thermometric measurements were analyzed. It was shown during a preliminary study that the DST between a "dynamic" and "static" point, so located, provides advance information on ovulation timing independent of physiologic disturbances and circadian and ambient temperature changes.
The upward shift in basal body temperature (BBT) observed in women of child-bearing age is often used as an indicator that ovulation has occurred and that a period of infertility has begun. In natural family planning programmes it is important to detect the BBT shift reliably and with a minimum of user uncertainty, against a background of physiologically induced temperature variations. The cumulative sum (CUSUM) test is adapted to the problem of detecting BBT shift and applied to 137 BBT charts obtained from 21 women using natural family planning. Results show successful detection of the shift in all cases. Shifts occurred at gynaecologically appropriate times in the menstrual cycle.
Recent trends in family planning demonstrate an increasing interest in natural methods of birth regulation. In their present form, however, these methods are highly subjective and individualistic. A further trend in fertility programmes has been a very rapid development of technological methods to detect fertility in the female cycle, some of which could possibly benefit natural family planning users. One such technique--that of changing volumes of cervico-vaginal fluid (CVF), which is a mixture of cervical mucus and vaginal transudate--has been tested in a pilot study to ascertain its reliability to demarcate the fertile phase of the cycle. Results show that in all cycles tested, it is possible using the Rovumeter aspirator to detect the beginning of the fertile phase by rapidly increasing volumes of CVF; this volume reaches a peak approximately 1 day before ovulation detected by ultrasound and demonstrates an abrupt fall after ovulation and the onset of the infertile phase. From the results of this pilot study, we believe that, by the use of suitable algorithms and larger studies, it should be possible to develop a CVF volume method which could be offered as an objective alternative method for users of natural family planning and programmes.
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This monthly series was developed from the AOA Task Force on AIDS Writers' Workshop, held August 16 to 18, 1991, in New York. The workshop was sponsored by an education grant from Burroughs Wellcome. It will provide brief clinical updates and perspectives on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Readers may request tear sheets from the AOA editorial offices.
The fertile period of the human menstrual cycle consists of those days on which sexual intercourse can result in a pregnancy. Its duration is determined by the functional life span of the gametes within the female reproductive tract. Various mechanisms control gamete transport and survival in the reproductive tract of the human female. The ovarian hormones estradiol and progesterone have an important role in regulating these mechanisms. The nature of cervical mucus and its governing influences on sperm transport and survival following coitus are of prime importance in defining the fertile days of the menstrual cycle. Man's early concepts of the fertile period were often based on erroneous theories of the female reproductive cycle. It is only since the late 1920's that a true understanding of ovulation and the menstrual cycle has evolved. Current approaches in natural family planning to recognizing the fertile and infertile days of the menstrual cycle are discussed and evaluated.
All natural family planning (NFP) methods are based on the determitnation of a woman's fertile period so that a couple may abstain from sexual relations or use a mechanical means of birth control during that time. Researchers are seeking more accurate methods of predicting the onset of ovulation in order to increase the effectiveness of NFP. A new device developed by Dr. Gebhard F.B. Schumacher, a fertility specialist at the University of Chicago who serves on FHI's Technical Advisory Committee, and Dr. Stepen J. Usala, a former medical student at the University's Pritzker School of Medicine, holds the promise of providing a new, cheap, and relatively simple way of predicting ovulation. Called a volumetric vaginal aspirator, the instrument allows women to measure their own vaginal fluid on a daily basis. In early studies of 7 women carefully studied over 18 menstrual cycles, a striking 3 fold to 30-fold increase in the volume of vaginal fluid occurred a few days before ovulation. Results from 12 more women for a total of 26 cycles confirmed the earlier studies. Blood samples were taken in order to measure the levels of estrogen, known to increase prior to ovulation, and luteinizing hormone, which peaks sharply on the day of ovulation, in the women studied. These confirmed that ovulation typically had occurred after the fluid volume increase. In addition, participants recorded their basal body temperature (BBT) upon awakening. Although the BBT does not predict ovulation, it frequently increases by 1/2-1 degree Fahrenheit after ovulation thus serving as an indicator of the end of the fertile period. The prototype of the vaginal aspirator is a disposable plastic syring marked at .05 milliliter intervals so that fluid levels can be easily measured. After the manufacturing process for the aspirator is perfected so that the instrument can be mass produced, Dr. Schumacher hopes that largescale clinical trials will be initiated in the US and abroad. The larger studies and an endocrine study are needed in order for effective rules to be developed for applying the method in either birth control or fertility enhancement. The vaginal aspirator could be useful not only for preventing unplanned pregnancy but also for aiding couples experiencing infertility to pinpoint the time that conception is most likely to occur. As an aid in birth control, the aspirator should have a success rate similar to or better than that of a diaphragm, Dr. Schumacher believes. Although the women testing the vaginal aspirator were ablet to use it without assistance, Dr. Schumacer emphasizes that some patient education will be necessary if it becomes commercially available. Fertility awareness teachers could incorporate it into their courses. Research on the volumetric vaginal aspirator has been supported by FHI and by Mothers' Aid Research Fund of Chicago Lying-In Hospital.
Energy, protein, lactose and fat were studied in the milk of mothers who were using different types of contraceptives. One hundred and eleven mothers made up the following groups. C: control (barrier and natural methods, or sterilization), n = 22; combined pill: LDP (low dose pill (levonorgestrel 0.15 mg + ethinylestradiol 0.03 mg)), n = 12 and MDP (medium dose pill (levonorgestrel 0.25 mg + ethinylestradiol 0.05 mg)), n = 13; MP (minipill (norethindrone 0.35 mg)), n = 37; DMPA (injectable progesterone (depot medroxiprogesterone acetate 150 mg)), n = 17; and IUD (plastic or copper intrauterine device), n = 10. The mean stages of lactation were, respectively, 15, 17, 5, 9, 5 and 9 weeks. The mean duration of observation for the study groups ranged from 2 to 4 weeks. Milk samples were collected before and after initiation of treatment (mean = 20 days; range = 14-103 days). The stage of lactation and the interval of nursing before sampling were recorded so that statistical account could be taken of these uncontrollable sources of variability. When incorporated as covariates, they showed that no significant differences existed between the groups tested, either before or after treatment.