Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Male preconception health remains a critically under-addressed area of family planning. While research suggests air pollution may harm semen quality, downstream impacts on pregnancy, particularly for more vulnerable infertility …

BACKGROUND: Disparities in the incidence, management, and outcomes of ectopic pregnancy have been documented among marginalised patients; however, there are few data on ectopic pregnancy in women with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: To compare th…

BACKGROUND: Fertility treatments have been associated with an increased risk of congenital anomalies. Most studies have compared births conceived through fertility treatment with unassisted conceptions; consequently, these estimates reflect…

BACKGROUND: Uterine fibroids, a common gynaecologic condition, are often underdiagnosed, potentially biasing results in epidemiologic studies due to measurement error. OBJECTIVES: To examine how varying sensitivity in detecting uterine fib…

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of reproductive or pregnancy events, such as severe maternal morbidity (SMM), may reveal a predisposition to chronic disease and premature mortality. However, most studies have examined these exposures without con…

Adenomyosis was first described in the mid-19th century and recognised as a separate disease entity in the mid-20th century. Nonetheless, its aetiology remains poorly understood. The disease is characterised by the presence of endometrial g…

BACKGROUND: Adenomyosis can confer life-altering symptoms such as pelvic pain. Yet, the epidemiologic study of this uterine condition lags other gynaecologic conditions. This includes the investigation of intrauterine exposures that could d…

BACKGROUND: The use of fertility indicators to predict ovulation has largely been studied for contraceptive purposes, while less so as fertility-promoting tools. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between fertility indicators and fe…

BACKGROUND: Women with endometriosis may have an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Research has focused on infertility clinic populations limiting generalisability. Few studies report differences by endometriosis severity. OBJE…

BACKGROUND: Retrospective studies suggest that menstrual cycle length may be a risk marker of adverse pregnancy outcomes, but this evidence is susceptible to recall bias. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prospective association between menstrual…

BACKGROUND: Intravaginal washing, practised by a significant proportion of women globally, is associated with acquisition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis (BV). A single prior st…

BACKGROUND: Experiences typically considered private, such as, miscarriages and preterm births are being discussed publicly on social media and Internet discussion websites. These data can provide timely illustrations of how individuals dis…

BACKGROUND: There is variability between women for days of menstrual bleeding, cycle lengths, follicular phase lengths, and luteal phase lengths, related to age and parity. OBJECTIVE: To describe total cycle length; anovulatory cycles; fol…

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of infertility in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations is unknown. The objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of infertility and impaired fecundity in the AI/AN population and other rac…

BACKGROUND: Caffeine, alcohol, smoking and physical activity are known to alter sex steroid synthesis, which may affect hormone-dependent gynaecologic disease risk, such as endometriosis; however, few studies have assessed life style factor…

BackgroundResearch has shown an association between assisted reproductive technology (ART) and adverse birth outcomes. We identified whether birth outcomes of ART-conceived pregnancies vary across states with different maternal characterist…

BACKGROUND: Fertility counselling and treatment can help women achieve their desired family size; however, disparities exist in the utilisation of this care. METHODS: This study examines the persistence of a racial disparity in visiting a …

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie successful human reproduction and development is an ambitious goal, given the many unique methodological challenges surrounding such study. These challenges are well understood by reproductive and …

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of women are utilizing fertility treatments, but little is known about their relation to autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHODS: To determine the association between maternal fertility therapy use and ris…

Studies in both human and animal species have suggested that oxidative stress may be associated with health outcomes, including the risk of infertility in both males and females. Sex hormones have been shown to have antioxidant properties. …

MikolajczykPrevious research has described variability in menstrual cycle lengths within and across women, though less attention has focused on characterising patterns of bleeding. While clinical definitions for menstrual bleeding are often…

Epidemiological investigations of health effects related to chronic low-level exposures or other circumstances often face the difficult task of dealing with levels of biomarkers that are hard to detect and/or quantify. In these cases instru…

Pooling of biological specimens has been utilised as a cost-efficient sampling strategy, but cost is not the unique limiting factor in biomarker development and evaluation. We examine the effect of different sampling strategies of biospecim…