Women Catch Infections Easily During Ovulation

by Thilaka Ravi on  January 04, 2012 at 11:56 AM Women Health News
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Women are vulnerable during ovulation and catch infections easily, new research finds.

The new research report in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology () suggests that a woman's ovarian cycle plays an important role in her susceptibility to infection. Specifically, researchers from Spain and Austria found that women are most susceptible to infection, such as Candida albicans or other sexually transmitted diseases, during ovulation than at any other time during the reproductive cycle. This natural "dip" in immunity may be to allow spermatozoa to survive the threat of an immune response so it may fertilize an egg successfully.

"This could be an explanation why during ovulation females have more risk of being infected with sexual transmitted diseases like HIV or HPV," said Miguel Relloso, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Laboratorio de Inmunobiología Molecular at the Hospital Gregorio Maraņón and Complutense University in Madrid, Spain.

Using mice, Relloso and colleagues found that the sex hormone, estradiol, increased susceptibility to systemic candidiasis (fungal infection). To monitor the effect of estradiol treatment on infection, researchers used in vivo and ex vivo fungal infection models. Ovariectomized mice were treated with estradiol and subsequently pulsed with C. albicans. Estradiol-treated mice were more susceptible to the fungal infection and had lower Th17 immune response. The researchers identified dendritic cells as a target cells of estradiol and showed that estradiol treated dendritic cells were inefficient at triggering the Th17 immune response to C. albicans antigens.

"The next time you hear a woman say that she's sick of men," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, "you can add this to her list as another reason. This adaption which allows male sperm to survive long enough to fertilize an egg, may also open the door for other types of infection."



Source-Eurekalert

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Ovulation is a natural phenomenon that forms part of the female reproductive cycle. Hence, problems with ovulating not only make conception difficult, but also cause unneeded physical and psychological difficulties to women. To understand how ovulation works, signs of ovulation, and the basis of an ovulation calendar, take our quiz.
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