background: our study compares the efficacy of the combined contraceptive vaginal ring to oral contraceptive pills (ocps) for hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (hpo) axis suppression in egg donor in vitro fertilization (ivf) cycles. methods: our retrospective cohort study includes patients from the center for assisted reproduction (care) in bedford, texas undergoing ivf cycles as egg donors from j...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Although underutilized, the vaginal contraceptive ring has several advantages over other contraceptive methods that could benefit adolescents. We examined factors that may influence willingness to try the vaginal ring including: sexual and contraceptive history, genital comfort, and vaginal ring characteristics. DESIGN Cross sectional SETTING Midwestern adolescent health cli...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy, tolerability, and acceptance of a vaginal ring delivering the equivalent of 50 or 100 microg per day of estradiol (E2), compared with placebo, for relief of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms and urogenital symptoms in postmenopausal women. METHODS Women with moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (seven or more per day or 56 per week average) received 13 w...

A polysyloxane vaginal ring containing 1g of natural progesterone was developed as luteal supplementation for women treated with IVF-embryo transfer and for agonadal women participating in an oocyte donation programme. The ring provides continuous release of progesterone (10-20 nmol/l) for 90 days. The efficacy of this form of progesterone supplementation was evaluated in two multicentre prospe...

Progesterone supplementation is universally used and has been shown to be beneficial in supplementation of the luteal phase in IVF. There are multiple options and the most commonly used include intramuscular and vaginal progesterone. A progesterone vaginal ring is a novel system for luteal support with advantages of controlled release with less frequent dosing. This review examines options for ...

Following the successful development of long-acting steroid-releasing vaginal ring devices for the treatment of menopausal symptoms and contraception, there is now considerable interest in applying similar devices to the controlled release of microbicides against HIV. In this review article, the vaginal ring concept is first considered within the wider context of the early advances in controlle...

When developing novel microbicide products for the prevention of HIV infection, the preclinical safety program must evaluate not only the active pharmaceutical ingredient but also the product itself. To that end, we applied several relatively standard toxicology study methodologies to female sheep, incorporating an assessment of the pharmacokinetics, safety, tolerability, and local toxicity of ...

Up to half of all postmenopausal women will experience changes in the genitourinary tract induced by the hypoestrogenic state, collectively known as vaginal atrophy. Vaginally administered local estrogen therapy (LET) is the standard of care for symptoms of vaginal atrophy that do not respond to nonhormonal interventions. Several LET formulations are available, and choice of therapy is based la...

BACKGROUND Understanding contraception from the perspective of the user may help to improve compliance. The aim of this project was to determine the factors that influence the noncompliance in young women that use combined hormonal contraceptives (pill, patch or vaginal ring). METHODS A nationwide cross-sectional multicenter epidemiology study. Physicians [obstetricians/gynecologists]) record...

We investigated the presence, density and bacterial composition of contraceptive vaginal ring biomass and its association with the vaginal microbiome. Of 415 rings worn by 120 Rwandese women for three weeks, the biomass density was assessed with crystal violet and the bacterial composition of biomass eluates was assessed with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The biomass was visual...