Talk:Paper - Spinnbarkeit- A characteristic of cervical mucus

Cyclic changes in cervical mucus, and its practical importance

Hum Fertil. 1940 Feb;5(1):4-9.

Guttmacher AF, Shettles LB. Abstract PIP: Papers surveying the fate of spermatozoa in the various regions of the woman's reproductive tract and correlating the cycle of mucus with other cyclic sexual phenomena led to a study on some practical problems associated with variations in cervical mucus. Samples were aspirated fr om the normal external os of sterile, amenorrheic, pregnant, and menopau sal women. Stilbestrol therapy definitely affected the character of cervical mucus in sterile and menopausal women changing it from acid and impenetrable to alkaline and readily penetrable. Upon discontinuation o f stilbestrol, the mucus returned to an impenetrable acid. 14 cervical mucus specimens from pregnant women were observed. In all instances muc us was slightly penetrable but the pH varied from 4.5 to 7.5 making supe rfetation an unlikely possibility. 20 menopausal preestrogenic therapy patients had scant or moderate viscid or crumbly cervical mucus with a pH of 4.5. Mucus was impenetrable to semen in each case. Estrogen ther apy noticeably altered the mucus. These observations indicate that dete rmination of mucus responses will be more exact and simple than the vagi nal smear technique. PMID: 12305580

Cervical mucus; cyclic variations and their clinical significance

Obstet Gynecol Surv. 1949 Oct;4(5):614-23.

SHETTLES LB. PMID: 18142502

By L B Shettles Obstet gynco Suni , 4, 614-623, Oct 1949 Bibliography

20 Behaviour of the Vagina during the Menstrual Cycle and after Local Hormone Treatment (Das Verhaltcn der Scheide iiahrend des Zyklus und nacb ortlicher Hormonbehandlung )

By K W ScHULTZE and E Gischler ZbI Gynah , 70. 1189-1195, 1948 2 figs , 22 refs

The authors took vaginal and endometnal biopsy specimens from 41 normally menstruatmg women The vaginal specimens were taken from identical areas after the patients had been in hospital for a few da)rs In additaon, specimens were thken from 15 women with hormonal disturbances It is pointed out that the vagmal epithehum is found to vary in different parts of the same vagma when biopsies are taken simultaneously No correlation between appearances of vagmal and endometnal specimens could be found in either group of patients and the cychcal changes desenbed by Diercks (Arc/t Gynbh , 130, 46, 1927) could not be demonstrated It is pomted out that the hormonal changes dunng the menstrual cycle are probably too small to cause any changes in the vagmal epithehum

Changes could be demonstrated m pregnancy or when oestrogens had been apphed locally to the senile vagma In both instances the amounts of oestrogens involved were far in excess of those present dunng the menstrual cycle