Reproductive Health

Thrombocytopenia (TCP) is the second most common haematological finding in pregnancy next to anaemia. It carries a risk for both the mother and the fetus, associated with substantial maternal or neonatal morbidity and mortality. However, a specific therapy, if instituted promptly, improves the outcome for affected patients and their offspring. In patients in India, TCP during pregnancy is an underexplored condition.

Abnormalities of the umbilical cord are very common in pregnancy. These include marginal insertion, velamentous cord insertion, umbilical cord true knot, umbilical torsion, and many more.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy remain among the most significant causes of pregnancy-related complications. The research by the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) group revealed that non-pharmacological measures and intervention such as diet can be used to control blood pressure.

EMJ team had the pleasure of interviewing two specialists: Mausumi Das, Consultant Gynaecologist and a Subspecialist in Reproductive Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

EMJ team had the pleasure of interviewing two specialists: Signe Altmäe Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Granada, Spain, and Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolina Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Male factor aetiologies account for approximately 50% of infertility in couples, with azoospermia diagnosed in up to 15% of infertile males. The World Health Organization (WHO) semen analysis parameters are universally used and define azoospermia as an absence of spermatozoa identified in wet or centrifuged ejaculate samples.

Endometriosis is characterised by the presence of endometrium-like tissue on the pelvis and other organs. Progesterone resistance due to suppressed progesterone receptor (PGR) expression and action is a general feature of endometriosis and is a cause of endometriosis-associated chronic pelvic pain, infertility, inflammatory disorders, and cancer.

Improving maternal health has been a major concern worldwide. This is evident by maternal health being included in the Millennium Development Goals, with the goal of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015, and now the Sustainable Development Goals, with targets set to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.