5 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Obesity plays an adverse role at every stage of conception and pregnancy and mounting evidence implicates relative hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, and reduced menstrual cycle hormone secretion as likely contributors to the subfertility phenotype and possible contributors to complications of pregnancy and the developmental origin of adult diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This study will be the first comprehensive investigation to tie together the patterns of hyperinsulinemia, hyperlipidemia and inflammation, characteristic of obesity and obesity-caused relative hypogonadotropic hypogonadotropism and its potential adverse reproductive outcomes. The investigators findings will be used to inform a subsequent clinical intervention to optimize reproductive outcomes for obese women and their offspring.
This is a study to determine whether a low calorie diet using meal replacement shakes compared to current counseling about diet, followed by 3 cycles of clomiphene citrate (if needed) will result in: 1) improvements in ability to ovulate and achieve pregnancy either spontaneously or during 3 clomiphene citrate cycles 2) greater weight loss with reductions in waist and hip circumferences and improvements in hormones that are involved in allowing pregnancy to occur and hormones that are involved in metabolism, such as insulin and glucose (sugar) 3) improvements in other health conditions such as blood pressure, and emotional and physical well-being. Women eligible to participate will be between the ages of 18-35 with a BMI (ratio of weight in kg divided by height in m2) of ≥ 35≤45 kg/m2 who are seeking help for anovulatory infertility including women with a diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
Worldwide, 1 in 12 couples experience difficulty in getting pregnant and seek the help of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF-egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body), ovarian stimulation (medications are used to stimulate egg development) and intra-cytoplasmic injection (ICSI-single sperm is injected directly into the egg). Regardless of the ART procedure being performed, the newly fertilized embryo must still implant into the mothers endometrium (inner lining of uterus). This implantation process in humans is surprisingly inefficient and accounts for up to 50% of ART failures. Intrauterine infusion of hCG prior to embryo transfer has recently been shown to increase pregnancy rates but the cellular mechanism for this increase is unknown. Successful implantation requires the newly fertilized embryo and the endometrium develop in a synchronized manner. This coordinated development is accomplished, in part, by proteins secreted by the embryo which circulate throughout the maternal bloodstream and alert the maternal body organs (i.e. ovary, endometrium, breast, ect) that fertilization has occurred. One of the earliest of these secreted proteins is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is the molecule detected in over-the-counter pregnancy tests. From previous studies, we know that hCG production by the embryo alerts the ovary to continue producing progesterone, a hormone required for pregnancy. However, very little is known about the direct effect of hCG on the endometrium during early pregnancy in humans. Using animal models, hCG has been shown to induce specific changes in the endometrium, suggesting that embryo-derived hCG may be "priming" the endometrium in anticipation of implantation. The goal of this research study is to examine the direct effect of hCG on the human endometrium and see if this "priming effect" is also present in humans. Findings from this research may reveal whether pre-treatment with hCG can enhance ART outcomes, especially pregnancy rates.
This study seeks to determine if patients with a history of failed fresh embryo transfer(s) will have increased success rates with embryo cryopreservation and subsequent thawed embryo transfer when compared to fresh embryo transfer.
The objective of the study is to evaluate the agreement in measurement of sperm concentration in human semen between lay users with TRAK and a recognized reference method. The study will also include the measurement of matched samples by TRAK when tested by healthcare professionals trained in use of the TRAK device.