View clinical trials related to Reproductive Sterility.
Filter by:During two none subsequent natural menstrual cycles healthy female participants will be subjected every second day to blood sampling and 3D-ultrasound examinations. Together with four other key hormones the concentration of AMH (anti-Muellerian Hormone) will be measured in the serum.
In assisted reproductive treatment (ART), it is necessary to follow closely the stimulation cycles of patients undergoing these treatments in order to monitor the number and size of developing follicles. Oestradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) are products of steroidogenesis and the concentrations of both hormones increase with the diameter of the growing follicle and accurate and reliable methods to measure E2 and P are essential to assess treatment response and support clinical decision. Measurement of both hormones, as well as monitoring of follicle growth through ultrasound measurements, is an important part of ovarian stimulation, requiring patients to undergo multiple blood draws. It is often a physically and emotionally painful process and the most convenient solution to this problem is the measurement of hormone concentration in other biological fluids. Salivary diagnostic tests are a less invasive, inexpensive and stress-free alternative to measurements of hormone concentration in other biological fluids. The current study pretends to evaluate the correlation between salivary ELISA assays and serum determination of progesterone and oestradiol concentrations IVF patients. In addition, secondary objectives include the measurement of diurnal variability of salivary hormone levels and patient experience with saliva collection as users.
The investigators plan to retrospectively analyze clinical data from 14,189 fresh ICSI cycles in Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya from January 2016 to December 2017.The investigators will regard total progressive sperm number of 2 x 10^6 after pretreatment as the boundary value, and will divide total progressive sperm number of 2 x 10^6 after pretreatment into 2 x 10^6 or higher and < 2 x 10^6 groups, and will further divide < 2 x 10^6 group into: = 0, (0,10^6], (10^6, 2 x 10^6) three groups. Propensity score matching will be used to balance the baseline data between four groups. The matching variables are age, female BMI, AFC, AMH and ICSI.
Corticosteroids have been indicated to treat men with ASAs. Although many studies have confirmed the clinical therapeutic significance of corticosteroids in the treatment of men with ASAs, other studies have not found a therapeutic significance for corticosteroids in the treatment of men with ASAs. Moreover, although some reports have shown high fertilization and conception rates in couples when husbands did not have ASAs, other reports have shown that ASAs do not have a negative effect on fertilization and conception rates. These contradictory results have left the therapeutic effect of corticosteroids in men with ASA in continuing controversy. This controversy is also extended to include the usefulness of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the treatment of patients with ASAs. In this regard, although some studies have shown that the pregnancy rate following in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracellular sperm injection (ICSI) were similar in men with or without ASA or did not associate with ASA, others reported the superiority of ICSI over IVF and intrauterine insemination over natural intercourse in men with ASAs. It is possible that some patients with ASAs also have an additional problem(s) related to sperm binding to the oolemma and fusion into the ovum as well as sperm head decondensation. The latter condition may negatively influence or mask the clinical significance of corticosteroids on pregnancy rates in patients with ASAs. Some patients might not have benefited from corticosteroids and conventional IVF treatments due to the impaired sperm fusogenic capacity in addition to ASAs. Human sperm penetration assay (SPA), of the hamster oocyte free from zona pellucida, is a sensitive tool that can address such potential impairment of sperm binding with the oolemma and fusion into the oocyte as well as sperm head decondensation. Males with poor SPA results benefit from ICSI whereas those with good SPA results can still benefit from conventional IVF. The present study was therefore conducted to address the therapeutic usefulness of a corticosteroid named prednisolone in the treatment of immunologically infertile men undergoing IVF or ICSI determined by SPA.