STUDY QUESTION What is the percentage of overtreatment, i.e. fertility treatment started too early, in couples with unexplained infertility who were eligible for tailored expectant management? SUMMARY ANSWER Overtreatment occurred in 36% of couples with unexplained infertility who were eligible for an expectant management of at least 6 months. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Prognostic models in repr...

BACKGROUND Timed intercourse (TI), which is the usual control treatment in trials of intrauterine insemination (IUI), is not a typical coital activity and could impair fertility. This review summarizes the trials of IUI of male partner's prepared semen among subfertile couples according to whether the control group had TI or expectant management. METHODS A search of relevant databases and bib...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the relative benefits and harms of different management options for first-trimester miscarriage. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register searches (1966 to July 2004), including references of retrieved articles. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION Randomized trials assigning women with first-trimester missed or incomplete miscarriage to surgical, me...

BACKGROUND Approximately 15% of clinically recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage. The probabilities for successful outcome between expectant treatment and dilatation and curettage for management of many first-trimester incomplete spontaneous abortions are comparable. The goal of this study was to assess patient preferences for expectant treatment compared with dilatation and curettage, and ...

Miller et al. ( 1 ) found that among men with lower-risk prostate cancer, 55% may have been overtreated (most of them by radiation therapy), whereas 45% underwent “ appropriate ” expectant management or androgen deprivation therapy. It is indeed noteworthy that so many of the lower-risk cases were treated by curative therapy rather than expectant management or androgen deprivation therapy. Howe...

BACKGROUND Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a commonly used treatment in subfertile couples. We assessed patients' preferences for IUI relative to expectant management. METHODS Forty subfertile couples were offered scenarios in which the treatment-independent pregnancy chance was varied against a fixed pregnancy chance after IUI without or with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) of 8...

The effect of treatment with danazol was evaluated with respect to expectant management after laparoscopic conservative surgery. All patients conservatively operated at laparoscopy for stage III-IV endometriosis from July 1994 to October 1996 were requested to enter the study. Patients who underwent surgery for recurrent endometriosis were excluded from the study, as well as patients who had ta...