Free Access Articles
Insights from clinical experience in treating IVF poor responders
‘Poor responders’ is a term used to describe a subpopulation of IVF patients who do not respond well to ovarian stimulation with gonadotrophins. While there is no standard definition of a poor responder, these patients tend to be of advanced maternal age (≥40 years), have a history of poor ovarian response with conventional stimulation protocols, and/or have low ovarian reserve. Despite the heterogeneity of this patient group, there are characteristics and needs common to many poor responders that can be addressed through a holistic approach.Ovarian reserve screening before contraception?
Women are increasingly delaying conception to later years. Hormonal contraception induces artificial cyclicity, which does not, like natural cyclicity, reflect normal, physiological ovarian behaviour. Therefore, long-term users of hormonal contraceptives, in particular, fail to derive potential diagnostic benefits from changes in menstrual cyclicity, which usually alerts patients and physicians to developing ovarian pathology. Timely diagnosis of ovarian problems is further hampered, as anti-Müllerian hormone is suppressed by hormonal contraceptives, making the accurate assessment of functional ovarian reserve more difficult.Avoiding currently unavoidable conflicts of interest in medical publishing by transparent peer review
The medical literature frequently addresses potential conflicts of interest, involving scientists and authors. Conflicts involving editorial offices of medical journals, have, however, only rarely been subject to discussion. The biggest opportunity for editorial conflicts presents during peer review. This commentary, therefore, argues in favour of changes in peer review. Improved and more transparent peer review will quite automatically avoid most potential conflicts of interest in medical publishing, including those currently widely considered unavoidable.Why are reproductive cancers more common in nulliparous women?
It has been known for decades that nulliparity is associated with an increased risk for certain reproductive malignancies, including breast, ovarian and uterine cancers. A recent commentary in The Lancet summarized the available evidence based on data in nulliparous women and concluded that the risk of nulliparity was related to the increased number of ovulatory cycles, and so might be preventable by utilization of oral contraceptives. That communication described significant differences in age-dependent cancer mortality in nulliparous nuns, as well as in parous controls, between breast, ovarian and uterine cancers.Hype or hope? Ethical and practical considerations with clinical research in women with diminished ovarian reserve
This communication suggests that investigations of treatments for women with diminished functional ovarian reserve (DOR) call for specific practical and ethical considerations, as women with DOR, because of limited remaining reproductive life spans, appropriately feel under time constraints. Another medical journal recently published an opinion piece on the use of dehydroepiandrosterone in women with DOR, raising important questions about what approaches should be taken to develop best available evidence in such patients.
