Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine
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In women, the androgens testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) play important physiologic roles in reproductive tissues, mood, cognition, the breast, bone, muscle, vasculature, and other systems. This article reviews the effects of androgens in women, as well as the indications and best-practice recommendations for the use of androgen therapy.
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Nonobstetric surgery during pregnancy should be avoided if possible, but when surgery is required, an obstetrician should be part of the perioperative team. In general, preoperative assessment is similar regardless of whether a woman is pregnant, but cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, and renal changes of pregnancy can increase surgical risk and must be taken into account. Special management considerations include pregnancy-associated laboratory changes, timing of surgery, anesthesia choice, intubation precautions, patient positioning, preoperative blood typing, intraoperative fetal monitoring, and venous thromboembolism prophylaxis.