clinical research
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The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility has a broad research organization. Each of our faculty members is involved in multiple research studies. In addition to lab studies, numerous clinical studies relate to various aspects of reproduction and infertility.
If you are a current Northwestern Medicine patient, and you think you would be eligible to participate in one of our studies, please contact your Northwestern Medicine clinician or one of our team members listed below to learn more.
Actively Recruiting
Developmental Origins of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Very Early Phenotypes During the Mini Puberty of Infancy and Beyond The National Institutes of Health have awarded a collaborative R01 research grant to Christina Boots, MD, and Laura Torchen, MD. The grant will enable Dr. Boots and Dr. Torchen to better understand how and why women are affected by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The study is enrolling pregnant women with PCOS and reproductively healthy women for comparison. Researchers will perform a hormonal and metabolic assessment on the pregnant participants in the second trimester. They will perform a similar assessment on their daughters during the "mini-puberty of infancy." If you have any questions, please let our research team know. Natural Versus Programmed Frozen Embryo Transfer (NatPro) NatPro is a two-arm, parallel-group, multi-center, randomized trial. Women undergoing frozen embryo transfer will be randomly chosen to get either a modified natural cycle (corpus luteum present) or a programmed cycle (corpus luteum absent). PROMISE Study: PROspective Mothers’ and Infants’ Social and Epidemiologic determinants of health To determine if nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and/or stress before a baby is conceived are associated with time to pregnancy or fertility outcomes, adverse pregnancy outcomes or adverse outcomes for babies. RESERVE Study: Ovarian Reserve and Association with Environment, Stress, Exposures, Residential Address, Social Vulnerability and Eating Patterns The major objective of the study is to broaden knowledge of the impact of stress, diet, environment and neighborhood disadvantage on the supply of eggs in the ovary. We hope that improved understanding of the factors impacting ovarian reserve will form the basis for future lifestyle interventions to improve reproductive health. Specifically, we plan to prospectively measure allostatic load among individuals undergoing planned fertility preservation with oocyte cryopreservation and correlate measures of ovarian reserve and ultimate oocyte yield with these measures. PREGnant: Pre-IVF treatment with GnRH antagonist in women with Endometriosis – A prospective double-blind placebo-controlled trial To find if live birth rates improve in infertile women with endometriosis who are getting in vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer when they are pretreated with an oral GnRH antagonist, compared to pretreatment with a placebo. Genomic Predictors of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (GPRPL) The goal of this study is to determine the genetic architecture of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and to discover genomic predictors of RPL. Prospective Cohort Assessing Novel Biomarkers of Early Pregnancy This research will take and store blood, urine and tissue samples from women who come to a physician with pregnancy diagnosed by a positive pregnancy test or by ultrasound imaging. This study aims to determine a better way to diagnose the location and/or viability (chance of survival) of a pregnancy, as compared to current clinical care. SPERMRPL: The genome integrity and epigenome of sperm from men with recurrent pregnancy loss The purpose of this study is to investigate the genomic integrity and epigenome of sperm of men with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss. The proposed research is relevant to public health because it addresses a major knowledge gap in our understanding of recurrent pregnancy loss by investigating male factor causes. This study will identify abnormalities in the quality of sperm and establish a new clinical paradigm to include diagnostic sperm testing of men with recurrent pregnancy loss. Reproductive Tissue Library This reproductive tissue library collects different reproductive tissue that would otherwise be discarded and/or blood samples. Scientists use these specimens to investigate the mechanisms of reproductive tissue by developing tissue cultures and other research works. We are currently working on projects looking at ovarian aging and endometriosis, among other studies. |
Learn more about our research activities via the Feinberg School of Medicine Obstetrics and Gynecology research section.
To Request an Appointment
Northwestern Medicine Fertility Center is now conveniently located in four locations: Chicago, Geneva, Highland Park, and Oakbrook Terrace. Visit our Locations & Appointments page for more information. |
