_________________________________________________________________________________ Since the 1960s, oral contraceptives were administered in a traditional 21/7 regimen. In recent years, new regimens (24/4, 84/7, and Lybrel) have reported that shortening the HFI decreases the risk of ovulation and unintended pregnancy. Recent literature also suggests that these regimens are associated with breakt...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of a new flexible extended regimen of ethinylestradiol (EE) 20 μg/drospirenone (DRSP) 3 mg, which allows management of intracyclic (breakthrough) bleeding [flexible management of intracyclic (breakthrough) bleeding (MIB)], in comparison to conventional 28-day and fixed extended regimens. STUDY DESIGN In this Ph...

BACKGROUND The presence of aromatase and cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) expression was investigated in the endometrium of patients with idiopathic menorrhagia or adenomyosis. The effect of oral contraceptives administered in extended regimens on the endometrial expression of these enzymes was also investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS Aromatase expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in the end...

Recent studies have provided substantial evidence to highlight abnormalities in the structure of endometrial microvessels in users of progestogen-only contraception. Structural changes alone are unlikely to lead to breakthrough bleeding, but appear to be associated with a reduction in vessel integrity, and may reflect alterations in the control and growth of endometrial microvessels in those ex...

The levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) has proven to be the most effective medical treatment in reducing the amount of menstrual blood loss. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying menorrhagia and/or accounting for the therapeutic effect of the LNG-IUS are still obscure. In this study, we used immunohistochemistry to compare the distribution of sex steroid receptors and...

A 21-tablet oral contraceptive packet containing .5 mg dl-norgestrel and .03 mg estradiol was clinically tested in 1085 women of reproductive age for a total of 7323 cycles. There was 1 pregnancy which may have been due to incorrect tablet use. 98.2% of the cycles fell within a 28-day plus or minus 3-day pattern. 21% of the women had some breakthrough bleeding at some time, but it was confin...

Unscheduled vaginal bleeding—bleeding that occurs outside the normal menstrual period or the regular withdrawal bleed associated with the combined oral contraceptive pill—is a common reason for women of reproductive age to attend primary care. It is also referred to as intermenstrual bleeding. As well as intermenstrual bleeding, unscheduled bleeding also includes postcoital bleeding; it can be ...

Water flooding is a well-known secondary mechanism for improving oil recovery. Conventional approach to evaluate the performance of a water flooding process (e.g. breakthrough and post breakthrough behavior) is to establish a reliable geological reservoir model, upscale it, and then perform flow simulations. To evaluate the uncertainty in the breakthrough time or post breakthrough behavior, thi...

OBJECTIVE The objective was to assess endometrial chemokines in users of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) and correlate them with leucocyte populations, uterine natural killer cells (uNK) and mast cells (MCs). MATERIALS AND METHODS Endometrium was obtained from two groups of women who had been using LNG-IUS for 3 years or more: 11 amenorrhoeic women formed the non-bl...