IFNE and infection: A major strength of this work was that the data generated on ex vivo IFN-ε expression and associated hormonal responses (cohort 1), with the exception of the cell line and primary uterine epithelial cell work (cohort 2), were taken from a tightly controlled clinical study with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure we could account for many confounding factors, such as infections, medications, and exogenous hormonal influences, that many other studies based on FRT samples have not done.