BACKGROUND Levator trauma is common in parous women. We have recently found a relationship with age at first vaginal delivery in women seen before and after childbirth. AIMS To examine women presenting with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders for such an association. METHODS Eight hundred and one women were prospectively seen for an interview, clinical examination (including for levator inte...

Never or curtailed lactation has been associated with an increased risk for incident hypertension, but the effect of exclusive breastfeeding is unknown. The authors conducted an observational cohort study of 55,636 parous women in the US Nurses' Health Study II. From 1991 to 2005, participants reported 8,861 cases of incident hypertension during 660,880 person-years of follow-up. Never or curta...

The article explores the determinants of fertility behaviour after an induced abortion in Finland. The purpose of the study is to determine whether there are socio-demographic factors associated with the risk of having repeat abortions. The data were collected from the Registry of Induced Abortions and from the Medical Birth Registry in 2000–2008. The study population consists of the 63,763 wom...

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...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between pre-symptom onset live births and functional outcome in women with inflammatory polyarthritis (IP). METHODS 1872 women with no subsequent pregnancies were registered with the Norfolk Arthritis Register between 1990 and 2004 and followed-up for a median of 5 years. Functional disability over time was assessed by Health Assessment Questionnaire ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to test a hypothesis that a history of having a macrosomic infant (≥ 4000 g) is associated with the risk of diabetes. METHODS Data on the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective diabetes cohort were analyzed, which is a population-based cohort study on diabetes. The survey of diabetes was performed at baseline and at the 5-year follow-up. A hist...

OBJECTIVE To assess the first year's use with the GyneFix intra-uterine device. This has been used in Liverpool since early 1997. It is offered mainly to nulliparous women wishing to use an effective non-hormonal method and parous women who have had pain with, or expulsion of, a framed device previously. It is also used as emergency contraception. DESIGN Retrospective study, by means of casen...

The objective of this study was to determine whether thyroid disorders or treatment of such disorders affects the risk of breast cancer. Subjects aged 35-64 years were participants in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study, a population-based, case-control study of invasive breast cancer that was carried out at five ...

OBJECTIVE Contemporary childbearing is associated with greater gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention than in previous decades, potentially leading to a more pronounced effect of childbearing on women's long-term obesity risk. Previous work on the association of childbearing with women's long-term obesity risk mostly examined births in the 1970s and 1980s and produced mixed res...