Probiotics in Female Reproductive Health: Paradigms, Prospects and Challenges

Feminine reproductive health is crucial for her well-being as well as reproduction, and health of neonates. Certain microbes not only impede conception and birth of healthy baby, but can also affect maternal-fetal health, and may severely perturb the feminine reproductive health. Among the alternative strategies to prevent microbial pathogenesis, the probiotics and their metabolites have emerged as potent biotherapeutics. The probiotics have potential for preventing various genitourinary infections and consequently reduce the fetal and neonatal infections. Efforts are now underway to better understand the elemental role of human microbial communities in health and disease. While the population structure and mechanisms of human symbionts are only now being unveiled, potential health attributes are suggested by manipulating and modulating microbial functional ecology with the use of probiotics. This article reviews promising paradigms and prospects of probiotics and probiotic-metabolites in reproductive health of women. The purpose is to provide impetus to facilitate the applications of research outcomes in this important area of research into medical practice.