Many women suffer from baby blues after giving birth. Some even develop full-blown postpartum depression in the weeks that follow. Monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme responsible for the breakdown of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, plays an important role in this condition. In comparison to healthy women, women who experience postpartum depression present strongly elevated levels of […]

A new study in women suggests that experiencing one or more stressful events the day before eating a single high-fat meal can slow the body’s metabolism, potentially contributing to weight gain. Researchers questioned study participants about the previous day’s stressors before giving them a meal consisting of 930 calories and 60 grams of fat. The […]

A large international study finds that the age at which girls reach puberty – marked by the timing of their first menstrual period – is decided by a small subset of genes they inherit from one parent. For the study, published in the journal Nature, scientists from 166 research centers worldwide analyzed data on over 180,000 […]

Approximately 3% of infertile women in the US undergo IVF in an attempt to get pregnant. But for some, such treatment can result in severe side effects. Now, a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation details a new, safer technique that has been found to successfully boost ovulation in women undergoing IVF, […]

A University of Florida study has found that the regular use of some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and death in postmenopausal women. The study was published this week in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. The researchers found that regular use of the NSAID naproxen, the active ingredient in medications such […]

MicroCHIPS, an IT start-up company with links to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is developing a radical new contraceptive – a tiny microchip implanted under the skin that can be operated wirelessly by remote control. In the 1990s, Robert S. Langer – the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and reportedly […]

Researchers have discovered a “viable” new target for the treatment of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. The molecule, known as alpha-v-beta-6, could also be used to identify those women with HER2-positive breast cancer who have a higher risk of developing secondary tumors. The researchers found they could stop cancer cells invading, which these could do […]

In a world first, researchers in Australia have discovered an electrical switch in the uterus that does not seem to work properly in overweight pregnant women and may help explain the high rates of cesarean delivery in this group. The study, led by Helena Parkington, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & […]

Results from the first study of the clinical application of next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) in screening embryos for genetic disease prior to implantation in patients undergoing in-vitro fertilisation treatments show that it is an effective reliable method of selecting the best embryos to transfer, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics […]