The Effect of Hysterectomy on Women's Sexual Function: a Narrative Review.

BACKGROUND: Regarding the contradictions about positive and negative effects of hysterectomy on women's sexual functioning, this study was conducted to review the studies on the effect of hysterectomy on postoperative women's sexual function. METHOD: This study was a narrative review and performed in 5 steps: a) Determining the research questions, b) Search methods for identification of relevant studies, c) Choosing the studies, d) Classifying, sorting out, and summarizing the data, and e) reporting the results. FINDINGS: The review of the studies yielded 5 main categories of results as follows: The effect of hysterectomy on Sexual desire, the effect of hysterectomy on sexual arousal, the effect of hysterectomy on orgasm, the effect of hysterectomy on dyspareunia, and the effect of hysterectomy on sexual satisfaction. CONCLUSION: According to the studies reviewed in this study, most of the sexual disorders improve after hysterectomy for uterine benign diseases, and most of the patients who were sexually active before the surgery experienced the same or better sexual functioning after the surgery. An important solution for making these women ready to face with postoperative sexual complications is to train them on the basis of needs assessment in order that the patients undergoing hysterectomy be ready and capable of coping with the complications, and their sexual functioning improves after the surgery.

Experiences of Academic Members About their Professional Challenges: a Content Analysis Qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: University faculty members of different disciplines in any country, by giving better quality services, will further accelerate the development of their respective countries. This study aims to explore the experiences of faculty members about their professional challenges. AIM: In this qualitative study, which was conducted in 2013, fifteen faculty members in the departments of clinical and basic sciences of Mazandaran university of Medical Sciences in northern Iran were chosen for semi-structured in-depth interviews by purposive sampling method. All tape-recorded data were fully transcribed and content analysis was performed. RESULTS: AFTER IMMERSION AND DATA ANALYSIS, THREE MAIN THEMES WERE EMERGED INCLUDING: "Imbalances in academic members' tasks in different areas", "Weakness of evaluation and promotion system" and "Failure to provide the infrastructure educational facilities". The main themes and sub-themes are explained by the help of participants' direct quotations. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that it is better to take effective measures to improve the faculty members' situation and therefore increase their efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.

Uterine contractions' pattern in active phase of labor as a predictor of failure to progress.

BACKGROUND: Failure to progress remains a key indication for cesarean section which caused by different factors including uterine contractions. If it is diagnosed in the primary phase of labor, a better prognosis can thus be made. The purpose of this study was to find a possible correlation between pattern of uterine contraction and progression of labor. METHOD: During this study, 120 women referred for delivery to an educational hospital's maternity ward in the North of Iran in 2010 were included. Uterine contractions of mothers were recorded in dilatation of 4 to7 cm for an hour. In this way, F/R ratio which means the time that a contraction needs to return from its peak to baseline (Fall) divided to the time for a contraction to rise to its peak (Rise) was calculated. All of the participants were followed until delivery, vaginal delivery or caesarean section. RESULTS: Mean and standard deviation of fall to raise ratio was 1.54±0.26 in mothers with vaginal delivery versus 1.74±0.21 for others underwent caesarean section (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.005- 0.42, P < 0.001). Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values (positive and negative) of mentioned ratio were 68.32%, 70.01%, 69.55%, and 68.91%, respectively. CONCLUSION: By considering acceptable predictive value of uterine contractions' pattern in the active phase of labor, it could help to timely diagnosis of failure to progress and consequently suitable intervention which probably maintain better health of both mother and fetus.