ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of infertility on sexual distress in women attending the infertility clinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study we evaluated sexual distress among 88 women who attended the infertility clinic in our institute between January and June 2015. All women who were experiencing primary or secondary infertility during the study sampling were included in the sudy. Sexual distress was measured using the Female sexual distress scale-revised (FSDS-R), a cross-validated patient-reported outcomes measure. Correlations of FSDS-R with patient characteristics and laboratory measurements were calculated using Spearman's rank correlation tests. RESULTS: With the exceptions of the age of couples and serum anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) levels, no predictor of high sexual distress was found in the univariate analysis when comparing groups with regard to the FSDS-R cut-off score. The mean age of the sexually distressed women (33.6±5.8 years vs. 29.3±5.1 years) and their partners (35.4±4.8 years vs. 31.6±4.2 years) was significantly higher than those of the non distressed women, according to a FSDS-R score over 11 (p<0.05). The serum level of AMH was significantly lower in infertile women with high total sexual distress scores (1.4 vs. 7.6 ng/mL (p<0.001)). CONCLUSION: In infertile women, age of woman, age of partner, and serum AMH levels are related with the hope of women to have a child despite an association with sexual distress. Serum AMH, which is perceived as necessary for fertility, had a significant inverse correlation with levels of sexual stress.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the transformation of brushite (dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, DCPD, CaHPO4·2H2O) powders at 36.5°C in DMEM (Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium) solutions. Two sets of brushite powders with different particle shapes were synthesized to use in the above DMEM study. The first of these brushite powders was prepared by using a method which consisted of stirring calcite (CaCO3) powders in a solution of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (NH4H2PO4) from 6 to 60min at room temperature. These powders were found to consist of dumbbells of water lily-shaped crystals. The second one of the brushite powders had the common flat-plate morphology. Both powders were separately tested in DMEM-immersion experiments. Monetite (DCPA, CaHPO4) powders were synthesized with a unique water lily morphology by heating the water lily-shaped brushite crystals at 200°C for 2h. Brushite powders were found to transform into octacalcium phosphate (OCP, Ca8(HPO4)2(PO4)4·5H2O) upon soaking in DMEM (Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium) solutions at 36.5°C over a period of 24h to 1week. Brushite powders were known to transform into apatite when immersed in synthetic (simulated) body fluid (SBF) solutions. This study found that DMEM solutions are able to convert brushite into OCP, instead of apatite.
