“Menstrual disorders” and “infertility”

Young Xiao Li is a senior executive of a foreign company, has a stable income, but also has a happy family, but one thing that bothered her is that nearly 3 years after marriage with her husband, the couple has been very good feelings, but it has been unable to conceive. After careful questioning, she learned that since she joined the workforce, her menstruation has been irregular, often not coming for 2-3 months, or even once in six months. Xiao Li came to the hospital, after testing the basic endocrine and gynecological ultrasound and other corresponding examination diagnosed as “polycystic ovary syndrome”, how exactly is this? Menstruation is an important physiological phenomenon for women in their reproductive years. The occurrence of normal menstruation is based on the cyclical shedding and bleeding of the endometrium after ovulation, along with the cyclical changes of ovarian hormones. Normal menstruation is cyclic in nature, with a cycle of 21-35 days, averaging 28 days. The average duration of menstruation is 4-6 days and the volume of each period is 20-60 ml. Menstrual disorders are common in gynecology and are usually caused by abnormal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis or abnormal target cell effects. Clinical menstrual disorders associated with infertility can be divided into two categories: anovulatory menstrual disorders and ovulatory menstrual disorders. Anovulatory menstrual disorders: 1. Transient anovulation: can be caused by exertion, stress, miscarriage, surgery, disease, etc. Normal ovulation can often be restored after correction of the causative factors. 2. 2. Persistent anovulation: 25-35% of infertility patients are suffering from ovulation disorders due to the following common causes, often 1) Polycystic ovary syndrome: due to the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The main clinical manifestations are scanty menstruation or amenorrhea, infertility, obesity, and hyperandrogenic manifestations. 2) Hyperprolactinemia: Most of them are caused by pituitary prolactinoma. The clinical manifestations are mainly low menstruation, scanty menstruation or even amenorrhea, infertility, breast overflow, headache, blurred eyes and visual disturbance. 3) Premature ovarian failure and ovarian hypofunction: can be caused by genetic factors, autoimmune diseases, medical injury (radiotherapy, chemotherapy) or idiopathic causes, manifesting as menstrual disorders or early menopause. 4) Hypogonadotropic amenorrhea: caused by various functional and organic diseases of the central nervous system and hypothalamus, such as mental stress, weight loss, exercise amenorrhea, pharmacological amenorrhea, pituitary tumors, etc. 5) Luteinized follicle non-rupture syndrome: common in patients with endometriosis 6) Congenital gonadal dysgenesis II. Ovulatory menstrual disorders: occurring mostly in women of reproductive age, its main types: Luteal insufficiency: follicle development and ovulation in the menstrual cycle, but insufficient luteal phase progesterone secretion or premature luteal decline. It usually manifests as shortened menstrual cycle, infertility or miscarriage in early pregnancy. After nearly half a year of gynecological endocrine adjustment, and preferably ovulation induction and follicle monitoring interventions, Li finally got her wish and became a “mother-to-be” a year later.