Symptoms of natural menopause among Iranian women living in Tehran, Iran

Menopause is a step of a woman's life when hormonal changes cause menstruation to stop permanently. Menopausal symptoms can affect women's health and differ between different races and societies. The aim of this study was to survey the symptoms associated with menopause among Iranian women living in Tehran, Iran. In this cross sectional study which has been done between 2004 and 2005, women aged equal or more than 35 years old living in districts of Tehran were selected by multistage randomized cluster sampling. For each woman a questionnaire was completed. The data gained from each questionnaire was analyzed by using SPSS version 13. At time of study, 2462 women were naturally menopause. The mean age of natural menopause onset was 47.71 [SE=0.11] years. In 52.9% of cases, the onset of menopause was sudden. The symptoms associated with menopause were night sweats [61.2%], joint and muscle pain [59.9%], hot flashes [53.1%], fatigue [45.6%], decreased libido [33.9%], insomnia [33.7%], weight gain [30.1%], forgetfulness [24.9%] and urinary symptoms [17.4%]. This study showed that night sweats, joint and muscle pain and hot flashes are the most common symptoms associated with menopause

Effect of DEHP[Di-2ethyl hexyl-phthalate] on resumption of meiosis and in -virto maturation of mouse oocytes and development of resulting embryos

DEHP [di[2-ethylhexyl] phthalate]] is widely used in plastic industry and some reproductive toxicity has been shown with it. So, this study was designed to evaluate DEHP effects on resumption of meiosis and in vitro maturation of mouse oocytes as well as development of embryos resulted from them. Mice of 4-6 weeks old were administered daily doses of 50, 100, 200 microl of 2.56 micro M DEHP solution for 12 days. Immature mouse oocytes were recovered from all experimental groups and matured in MEM-alpha medium containing 5% FCS with and without 7.5 IU hCG and 100 mIU rFSH. IVF was performed T6 medium. Resumption of meiosis and in vitro maturation were significantly lower in all experimental groups in culture media without hormones compared to controls. Fertilization and embryo development were also significantly decreased in both culture media [with and without hormones]. This study showed the adverse effects of DEHP on in vitro maturation and embryo development in a dose dependent manner