BACKGROUND Misoprostol has been extensively researched for its use in obstetrics and has proved to be a very effective cervical softening agent before termination of pregnancy. The beneficial effects on cervical ripening may make misoprostol a desirable agent for helping cervical dilatation on non pregnant women also. The objective is to study the efficacy of preoperative vaginal application of...

Studies of the induction of mammary tumors by 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene in a rat model show that human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration reduces tumor incidence in a manner comparable to that of a completed pregnancy. On the basis of their studies, Russo and Russo (Cancer Epidemiol., Biomarkers & Prev., 3: 353-364, 1994) have proposed that hCG treatment of young nulliparous women...

Purpose: To investigate the interrater reliability of inter-rectus distance (IRD) measured from ultrasound images acquired at rest and during a head-lift task in parous women and to establish the standard error of measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable change (MDC) between two raters. Methods: Two physiotherapists independently acquired ultrasound images of the anterior abdominal wall from 17...

AIM To determine whether induced abortion (IA) increases breast cancer (BC) risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS A population-based case-control study was performed from Dec, 2000 to November, 2004 in Shanghai, China, where IA could be verified through the family planning network and client medical records. Structured questionnaires were completed by 1,517 cases with primary invasive epithelial breast...

PURPOSE Nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) is considered a potential source for discovering breast cancer biomarkers. However, the success rate of obtaining NAF was reported to vary from 48% to 77%, and mechanisms for its secretion are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary, demographic, reproductive, hormonal, and anthropometric factors that are associated with the...

It is widely thought that pregnancy reduces breast cancer risk, but this lacks consideration of breast cancer subtypes. While a full term pregnancy reduces risk for estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and luminal breast cancers, parity is associated with increased risk of basal-like breast cancer (BBC) subtype. Basal-like subtypes represent less than 10% of breast cancers and are highly aggressive...

OBJECTIVES To describe referred pain patterns provoked from intra-pelvic structures in women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) persisting after childbirth with the purpose to improve diagnostics and give implications for treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this descriptive and comparative study 36 parous women with CPP were recruited from a physiotherapy department waiting list and by advertisem...

We used data from a cross-sectional study of 107 premenopausal women to evaluate the relation of age, menarcheal age, parity, and age at first live birth with plasma estrogen and androgen levels in premenopausal women. Fasting blood specimens were collected on each of days 5-7, 12-15, and 21-23 of menstrual cycles of the participants and pooled to create follicular, midcycle, and luteal phase s...

Eleven general practitioners examined the medical records of all women on their lists born in 1950 (617 patients) and 1935 (533 patients) to determine the prevalence of childlessness and specialist consultations about infertility. Eighty eight (14.3%) of the women born in 1950 and 41 (7.7%) of those born in 1935 were childless. Sixty eight women born in 1950 (11.0%) and 17 born in 1935 (3.2%) w...

Gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15) is universally present in the apocrine metaplastic epithelium of cystic breast disease and breast cancer, but it is rarely found in normal breast epithelium. Therefore GCDFP-15 detected in nipple aspirates of breast fluid (NAF) could serve as a biochemical marker of the presence and possibly extent of apocrine metaplasia within the breast. GCDFP-...