About the Authors

Inge Tency

inge.tency@ugent.be

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Hans Verstraelen

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Bart Saerens

Affiliation Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Bruno Verhasselt

Affiliation Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Mario Vaneechoutte

Affiliation Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Olivier Degomme

Affiliation International Centre for Reproductive Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Rita Verhelst

Contributed equally to this work with: Rita Verhelst, Marleen Temmerman

Affiliation International Centre for Reproductive Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Marleen Temmerman

Contributed equally to this work with: Rita Verhelst, Marleen Temmerman

Affiliations Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, International Centre for Reproductive Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Competing Interests

All authors have declared that no competing interests exists. BV serves as a PLOS ONE Academic editor. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Contributed to the interpretation of the data: HV BS BV RV. Revised the article: HV BV MV RV MT. Provided statistical support: OD. Read and approved the final manuscript: IT HV BS BV MV OD RV MT. Conceived and designed the experiments: HV MV RV MT IT. Performed the experiments: BS. Analyzed the data: IT. Wrote the paper: IT.