BMC Women's Health

BACKGROUND: People with polycystic ovary syndrome suffer from many symptoms and are at risk of developing diseases such as hypertension and diabetes in the future. Therefore, the importance of self-care doubles. It is mainly to modify the lifestyle, especially following the principles of healthy eating. The purpose of this study is to review artificial intelligence-based systems for providing management recommendations, especially food recommendations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study started by searching three databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, from inception until 6 June 2023...

BACKGROUND: Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous neoplasms that arise from the uterus affecting over 75% of women. However, there is a disparity with Black women having an increased prevalence of nearly 80%. Black women also experience increased symptom burden, including younger age at the time of diagnosis and increased number and volume of fibroids. Less is known about other ethnoracially diverse women such as Latinas and the potential cultural impacts on fibroid burden and treatment...

INTRODUCTION: HIV/AIDS poses a significant health challenge in sub-Saharan African countries, with a disproportionate impact on women of reproductive age. The disparities in knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to family planning among women living with HIV can be intricate and multi-faceted. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, and associated factors regarding family planning among the women living with HIV at the University of Gondar specialized hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia...

BACKGROUND: Early childbearing disrupts girls' otherwise healthy growth into adulthood and adversely affects their education, livelihood, and health. Individual, sociocultural, economic, environmental, and health service-related factors contribute to childbearing among young females. In India, caste affects health outcomes despite several affirmative policies aimed at improving the health and welfare of the backward castes/tribes. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence about the impact of caste on early childbearing, more specifically, regarding the trajectory of inter-caste disparities in early childbearing...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effect of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) on the clinical outcomes and maternal and infant safety of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) procedures in young women aged ≤ 35 years. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed to analyze the clinical data of 4,203 infertile women aged ≤ 35 years who underwent fresh embryo transfer (ET) in IVF/ICSI cycles...

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BACKGROUND: Maternal satisfaction during delivery services is considered an important indicator of the quality of healthcare in a hospital setting and determines the uptake of services during subsequent pregnancies. However, there is limited information on the magnitude of women's satisfaction during delivery services in the study area. Thus, this study aimed to assess factors associated with maternal satisfaction with delivery services among women who gave birth at public hospitals in Guji Zone, Southern Ethiopia...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Although infertility as a significant cause of marital crises is prevalent almost equally in men and women, infertile women are under more pressure and distress than infertile men. Therefore, this study was conducted aiming to compare anxiety, depression, and stress between couples with male and female infertility. METHODS: In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, 40 couples (n = 80) with male infertility and 40 couples (n = 80) with female infertility were referred to the infertility clinic of Al-Zahra Educational and Medical Center, Rasht, Iran...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a potentially disabling and often irreversible consequence of breast cancer treatment, caused by the mechanical incompetence of the lymphatic system, resulting in reduced drainage capacity and functional overload due to an excessive volume of interstitial fluid surpassing the system's transport capacity in the arm. We wanted to determine the impact and explore the differences in independent risk factors for the occurrence of BCRL; incidence of BCRL over a five-year period at the Institute of Oncology Vojvodina in Sremska Kamenica and to answer the research question regarding the influence of the prehabilitation program on the overall incidence of BCRL during the observed five-year period...

OBJECTIVE: Although oxidative stress is a recognized factor of inflammation, the correlation between oxidative balance score (OBS), a biomarker indicating the balance of oxidation and antioxidant, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an immune system disease that tends to occur in women, remains unexplored. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential association between OBS and RA in women. METHODS: Observational surveys were performed by employing information extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the period 2007-2018...

OBJECTIVE: Vaginal microbiota evaluation is a methodology widely used in China to diagnose various vaginal inflammatory diseases. Although vaginal microbiota evaluation has many advantages, it is time-consuming and requires highly skilled and experienced operators. Here, we investigated a six-index functional test that analyzed pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ), leukocyte esterase (LEU), sialidase (SNA), β-glucuronidase (GUS), and acetylglucossidase (NAG), and determined its diagnostic value by comparing it with morphological tests of vaginal microbiota...

BACKGROUND: The evidence regarding the association of reproductive factors with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is limited. AIMS: To investigate the relationship of reproductive factors with the risk of CVDs, as well as all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. METHODS: This study included 16,404 adults with reproductive factors from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and followed up until 31 December 2019. Logistic models and restricted cubic spline models were used to assess the association of reproductive factors with CVDs...

BACKGROUND: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has previously been associated with several comorbidities that may have shared genetic, epigenetic, developmental or environmental origins. PCOS may be influenced by prenatal androgen excess, poor intrauterine or childhood environmental factors, childhood obesity and learned health risk behaviors. We analyzed the association between PCOS and several relevant comorbidities while adjusting for early-life biological and socioeconomic conditions, also investigating the extent to which the association is affected by familial risk factors...

BACKGROUND: Observational studies have revealed that metabolic disorders are closely related to the development of preeclampsia (PE). However, there is still a research gap on the causal role of metabolites in promoting or preventing PE. We aimed to systematically explore the causal association between circulating metabolites and PE. METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 486 blood metabolites (7,824 participants) were extracted as instrumental variables (P < 1 × 10- 5 ), GWAS summary statistics for PE were obtained from FinnGen consortium (7,212 cases and 194,266 controls) as outcome, and a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) when coexisting with vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN). METHODS: We analyzed the clinical data of 212 patients diagnosed with CIN, including 50 patients with concurrent VAIN. The groups were compared to identify distinct clinical features and independent risk factors for the co-occurrence of CIN and VAIN, using logistic regression analysis...

INTRODUCTION: Non-invasive biofeedback of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is required for continuous training in home care. Therefore, we considered self-performed ultrasound (US) in adult women with a handheld US device applied to the bladder. However, US images are difficult to read and require assistance when using US at home. In this study, we aimed to develop an algorithm for the automatic evaluation of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction using self-performed bladder US videos to verify whether it is possible to automatically determine PFM contraction from US videos...

BACKGROUND: Women's pelvic health is a globally important subject, included in international and United Kingdom health policies, emphasising the importance of improving information and access to pelvic health services. Consequences of pelvic symptoms are intimate, personal, and varied, often causing embarrassment and shame, affecting women's quality of life and wellbeing. AIM: To understand the experience of seeking healthcare for stigmatised pelvic health symptoms by synthesising all types of published primary research and mapping the results to behavioural theory, to identify potential targets for intervention...

INTRODUCTION: Decisions made at the household level have great impact on the welfare of the individual, the local community, as well as the welfare of the nation. Women's independent decision on reproductive health increases women's access to health information and utilization of reproductive services. This has great impact on maternal and child health outcomes. However, women in developing or low-income countries often have limited autonomy and control over their household decisions...

BACKGROUND: More than 2 billion women are experiencing the menopausal transition in China, and some of these women have hypertension. Limited studies has focused on perimenopausal syndrome and hypertension in a specific population, so we aimed to investigate the prevalence of perimenopausal syndrome and hypertension and to analyse their relationships and risk factors in perimenopausal women in South China. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 3553 women aged 40 to 60 years from South China...

BACKGROUND: Daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective HIV prevention option for those who are most vulnerable to HIV infection, especially young women (YW). Objection by or lack of support from male sexual partners has been shown to impact YW's ability to take PrEP consistently. We explored the views of YW, and male partners and male peers of YW in Siaya County, Western Kenya, to illustrate how men influence, and can support, YW in using PrEP. METHODS: We used Photovoice to capture the views of YW ages 18-24 who were currently or previously enrolled in the DREAMS program and with current or previous experience taking PrEP...