An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an idea is unique enough either as a stand alone invention or as a significant improvement over the work of others, it can be patented. A patent, if granted, gives the inventor a proprietary interest in the patent over a specific period of time, which can be licensed for financial gain.
Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. Signs and symptoms classically include abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, but fewer than 50 percent of affected women have both of these symptoms. The pain may be described as sharp, dull, or crampy. Pain may also spread to the shoulder if bleeding into the abdomen has occurred. Severe bleeding may result in a fast heart rate, fainting, or shock. With very rare exceptions, the fetus is unable to survive.
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone for the maternal recognition of pregnancy produced by trophoblast cells that are surrounding a growing embryo, which eventually forms the placenta after implantation. The presence of hCG is detected in some pregnancy tests. Some cancerous tumors produce this hormone; therefore, elevated levels measured when the patient is not pregnant may lead to a cancer diagnosis and, if high enough, paraneoplastic syndromes, however, it is not known whether this production is a contributing cause, or an effect of carcinogenesis. The pituitary analog of hCG, known as luteinizing hormone (LH), is produced in the pituitary gland of males and females of all ages.
A pregnancy test is used to determine whether a female is pregnant or not. The two primary methods are testing for the female pregnancy hormone in blood or urine using a pregnancy test kit, and scanning with ultrasonography. Testing blood for hCG results in the earliest detection of pregnancy. Almost all pregnant women will have a positive urine pregnancy test one week after the first day of a missed menstrual period.
Margaret Eloise Knight was an American inventor, notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor". She founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870, creating paper bags for groceries similar in form to the ones that would be used in later generations. Knight received dozens of patents in different fields, and became a symbol for women's empowerment.
Prenatal testing consists of prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis, which are aspects of prenatal care that focus on detecting problems with the pregnancy as early as possible. These may be anatomic and physiologic problems with the health of the zygote, embryo, or fetus, either before gestation even starts or as early in gestation as practicable. Screening can detect problems such as neural tube defects, chromosome abnormalities, and gene mutations that would lead to genetic disorders and birth defects, such as spina bifida, cleft palate, Down syndrome, Tay–Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and fragile X syndrome. Some tests are designed to discover problems which primarily affect the health of the mother, such as PAPP-A to detect pre-eclampsia or glucose tolerance tests to diagnose gestational diabetes. Screening can also detect anatomical defects such as hydrocephalus, anencephaly, heart defects, and amniotic band syndrome.
The rabbit test, or Friedman test, was an early pregnancy test developed in 1931 by Maurice Friedman and Maxwell Edward Lapham at the University of Pennsylvania.
The triple test, also called triple screen, the Kettering test or the Bart's test, is an investigation performed during pregnancy in the second trimester to classify a patient as either high-risk or low-risk for chromosomal abnormalities.
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is a medical condition that can occur in some women who take fertility medication to stimulate egg growth, and in other women in very rare cases. Most cases are mild, but rarely the condition is severe and can lead to serious illness or death.
False pregnancy is the appearance of clinical or subclinical signs and symptoms associated with pregnancy although the individual is not physically carrying a baby. The mistaken impression that one is pregnant includes signs and symptoms such as tender breasts with secretions, abdominal growth, delayed menstrual periods, and subjective feelings of a moving fetus. Examination, ultrasound, and pregnancy tests can be used to rule out false pregnancy.
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Unipath Ltd was a pharmaceutical company, subsidiary to Unilever and then Alere, specialising mainly in medical diagnostic kits related to women's reproductive health. It subsequently diversified its product range to include more specialised test kits, primarily for the clinical market, in areas other than women's reproductive healthcare.
Pre-conception counseling is a meeting with a health-care professional by a woman before attempting to become pregnant. It generally includes a pre-conception risk assessment for any potential complications of pregnancy as well as modifications of risk factors, such as increasing folic acid intake to reduce the risk of neural tube defects and counseling on smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, and medications that may compromise fetal development. Physicians, midwives and baby experts recommend that a woman visit them as soon as the woman is contemplating having a child, and optimally around 3 to 6 months before actual attempts are made to conceive. This time frame allows a woman to better prepare her body for successful conception (fertilization) and pregnancy, and allows her to reduce any health risks which are within her control. Agencies such as the March of Dimes have developed screening tools that healthcare providers can use with their patients. In addition, obstetricians or midwives have developed comprehensive check-lists and assessments for the woman who is planning to become pregnant.
Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001), is a United States Supreme Court decision that found Medical University of South Carolina's policy regarding involuntary drug testing of pregnant women to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the search in question was unreasonable.
The Lemelson Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) private foundation. It was started in 1993 by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. The foundation held total net assets of US$444,124,049 at the end of 2020 and US$484,432,021 at the end of 2021.
Pregnancy rate is the success rate for getting pregnant. It is the percentage of all attempts that leads to pregnancy, with attempts generally referring to menstrual cycles where insemination or any artificial equivalent is used, which may be simple artificial insemination (AI) or AI with additional in vitro fertilization (IVF).
A conception device is a medical device which is used to assist in the achievement of a pregnancy, often, but not always, by means other than sexual intercourse. This article deals exclusively with conception devices for human reproduction.
Fertility testing is the process by which fertility is assessed, both generally and also to find the "fertile window" in the menstrual cycle. General health affects fertility, and STI testing is an important related field.
Amos Grunebaum is an American obstetrician and gynecologist. He serves as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Zucker School of Medicine, as Professor Emeritus at the medical school Weill Cornell Medicine, and as a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine and high-risk pregnancies. He is also the founder of Babymed.com, which is a website for pregnant women and those trying to conceive, the site is up since 2000.
The frog test is a pregnancy testing method relying on frogs to show the pregnancy status of women. Provided that immunological pregnancy tests were not yet developed before 1960s, women living a century ago relied on urine-based pregnancy tests using different animals, ranging from mice to frogs. Nowadays, the advancement in medical technology has enabled women to accurately check their pregnancy status by using 'pee-on-a-stick' pregnancy test kits at home. Before these accessible and convenient test kits were invented, scientists strived to discover a way in spotting pregnancy-related hormones by a natural, simple test, where animals were often included as clinical tools to facilitate the process. The frog test or frog pregnancy test is one of the past prevalent pregnancy scanning methods.
