The authors point out that available evidence suggests that obesity, cigarette smoking, and consumption of alcoholic beverages are associated with diminished female fertility as measured by a longer time-to-pregnancy (TTP) among couples trying to become pregnant or undergoing assisted reproductive technologies. They also note that while there are many studies associating stress with decreased fertility, [...]
One of our patients benefited from the use of PGD with array-CGH for recurrent pregnancy loss. We have been very pleased with the technology which now allows us to determine the number of copies for each of the 24 possible chromosomes. Please read the media posting. Recurrent Pregnancy Loss is frequently caused by a genetically [...]
The combination of COH (controlled ovarian hyperstimulation) and IUI has been a mainstay of infertility treatment for about 20-25 years. The idea is that if we cause multiple follicles to ovulate and place more sperm in the reproductive tract than would normally swim in on their own then we increase the efficiency of the cycle [...]
Genetic technologies invade every aspect of medicine. Here we find another example of a technology that could significantly assist us in identifying the embryo that will make a baby. The authors suggest measuring telomere length may be a measure of embryo health. If so, then this test may be a very valuable tool to access [...]
Iranian researchers studied the AMH level of 266 women, aged 20-49, and developed a statistical model to predict menopause. They presented this data at the ESHRE meeting in Rome. Click here for the press release. The authors acknowledge that they need more data to confirm their findings. Other experts suggest that AMH has not been [...]
ICSI is an incredibly important technique for male infertility treatment. It turns out that once the sperm is properly placed in the egg, the sperm and egg know what to do to transform into an embryo. The technique is powerful, because only a single sperm is necessary for each egg and the sperm does not [...]
Explaining the Trends: All the trends reflect a complex mix of demographic and behavioral factors. For example, the higher share of college-educated mothers stems both from their rising birth rates and from women’s increasing educational attainment. The rise in births to unmarried women reflects both their rising birth rates and the shrinking share of adults [...]
I recently posted a study suggesting that women may be more tempted to transfer extra embryos to increase success rates given the economic decline. So, if you were faced (or have been faced) with the decision of whether to transfer a single embryo versus a double embryo, which would you choose? I understand that the [...]
This study demonstrates that it is cost effective to use IVF with PGD to prevent the birth of a child with cystic fibrosis (CF). The cost benefit evaluates the medical costs not the human costs which are significant. Importantly, the benefit extends to at least a mother’s age of 40. IVF/PGD comes with what appears [...]
Semen Analysis (SA) The semen analysis fundamentally seeks to tell us 2 important facts: 1) do you have any sperm that are alive and 2) do the sperm have normal function? The basic analysis is great at the first task, indeed almost anyone with a microscope can determine if the sperm are alive. The answer [...]
August 1, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Huntington’s Disease is a debilitating fatal autosomal dominant disease that has its onset in mid-life after childbearing is usually complete. Thus, some people do not want to know if they carry the gene because they then know their medical fate. The Genetics & IVF Institute developed a non-disclosing PGD method to prevent these couples from [...]
May 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
In this blinded prospective study, the authors showed that rapid and reliable real-time PCR-based gender identification of preimplantation human embryos using a single blastomere can be performed within about 4 h after biopsy. We often want more information than this study determined but there are situations where this technique would be useful. The most obvious [...]
May 5, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Research from the 2010 Annual European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). The researchers studied triathletes and found a significant correlation with cycling time and intensity and poor sperm analyses – particularly sperm morphology. They believe more research is necessary however, they hypothesize that perhaps the heat or pressure on the testicles caused the [...]
June 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Deep phenotyping to predict live birth outcomes in IVF – the authors suggest that their mathematical model is 100x more accurate than using age to predict IVF outcomes. The authors took data from previous IVF cycles at Stanford and developed a model using complicated statistical tests. They tested the model on IVF cycles from a [...]
July 27, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Australia’s First IVF Baby Turns 30: she wants IVF to be taught as normal process in health education. She says that IVF-lings want to let everyone else know that they are normal people. Click her for the full story. This is a nice story from the perspective of an IVF conceived woman.
June 27, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Choosing a baby’s sex: the next great leap for parents A recent blog post from Australia discusses the very natural desire of parents to have a child of one sex or another. The sex of your child is random chance as far as anyone knows. So, should we all be hostages to the randomness of [...]
July 22, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
The authors review a large series of PGD procedures for gender selection. They did not find evidence of a particular preference for choosing one sex over another or for couples to produce one sex over another. They found that over 50% of couple who did not get any embryos of the desired sex still transferred [...]
April 19, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Ovarian cryopreservation is a technique for fertility preservation of cancer patients. About 13 live births resulted from this technique since about 1995 when the experimental technique began after research in sheep. This study involved the ovaries from 18 females with a mean age of 14.5 years for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 24.7 years for [...]
August 20, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
The SHG (Sonohysterogram, Saline Infusion Sonogram) is a valuable test for evaluating the endometrial cavity. Please refer to the main page for more details (Click Here). Here is the Powerpoint video, enjoy: Look this video slideshow to better appreciate the images that we are trying to achieve. The video is located on my account at [...]
July 3, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
This blog post is primarily to allow tagging for look up later. Pages on the blog cannot be tagged. We use ultrasound to evaluate the implantation receptivity of the tissue. The measurements are actually quite crude since we are measuring: Thickness – normal = 8-12 mm Appearance – normal = multi-line or triple line pattern [...]
July 3, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post