“Success Of Fertility Treatment May Approach Natural Birth Rate”

This is some very good news for persons struggling to have children and wishing to go the route of assisted reproductive technology.

According to Medical News Today, a groundbreaking study of about 250,000 women in the United States, finds that live birth rates by way of assisted reproductive technology, comparable to that of the natural fertility rate, can be achieved.

This technique also known as (ART) involves taking eggs from a woman’s ovaries, fertilising them with sperm and then returning them to the woman’s body.

For much more on this,  please click on the link below:-

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/247214.php

From the article

The research, led by Michigan State University's Barbara Luke and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlights what factors help or hinder getting pregnant using assisted reproductive technology, or ART. The results indicate that when there are favorable patient and embryo characteristics, live birth rates with ART can approach those of natural fertility. 

"This is good news for women who are trying to have a child," said Luke, a researcher in the College of Human Medicine's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

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STICKY EGGS AND FERTILITY

A new study published in the Journal Science, have discovered how eggs actually captures sperm in the fertilisation process.

The research identifies the sugar molecule that makes the egg sticky which plays an integral part in enabling the sperm and the egg to stick together. Apparently researchers across the world have been trying to figure out for years, what makes this process possible.

This study is believed to be able to help address some of the unexplained causes and infertility and sub-fertility and could also help in developing natural contraceptive agents.

For more on this subject, please visit the link below:-


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/233038.php

From the article:

"The international team, from the University of Missouri, the University of Hong Kong, Academia Sinica in Taiwan and Imperial College London, discovered that the sugar chain known as the sialyl-lewis-x sequence (SLeX) is highly abundant on the surface of the human egg. After experimenting with a range of synthesised sugars in the laboratory they went on to show that SLeX specifically binds sperm to an egg, and tested their findings using the outer coats of unfertilised 'non-living' human eggs.

"This exciting research is providing the first insights into the molecular events occurring at the very beginning of human life. The details we've discovered here fill in a huge gap in our knowledge of fertility and we hope they will ultimately help many of those people who currently cannot conceive," said Professor Anne Dell CBE FRS FMedSci from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, who led the team that discovered the SLeX sugars on the egg surface." 

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"NEW DOUBTS RAISED ABOUT COMMON FERTILITY TREATMENTS"

This speaks in particular to couples who have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, a diagnosis given to one in eight couples.

In a recent article in Shine from Yahoo, mention was made of a recent study published in British Medical Journal with findings which states that, when there was intervention for couples with cases of  unexplained infertility, the success rate for pregnancy, was not any better than for other couples with this diagnosis who just waited and see.

From the article:-

“The study, published in the British Medical Journal, compared two common treatments with the wait-and-see approach. Couples with unexplained infertility were randomly assigned to have ovarian stimulation with the drug, clomiphene citrate (otherwise known as Clomid) or to have intrauterine insemination (IUI) without ovarian stimulation drugs. A third group was encouraged to try to get pregnant but were not given any treatment. Researchers found no significant difference in pregnancy rates among the groups. Women who had no intervention had a live birth rate of 17 percent, the group taking Clomid had a birth rate of 14 percent, and the group having IUI alone had a birth rate of 23 percent. Though the rate is higher in the IUI group and lower in the Clomid group, the differences were not statistically significant.” 

The article also went on to mention that, although Clomid  is a popular drug, used to enhance fertility, it can reduce the chances of the sperm reaching the egg and can also reduce the chances of the uterus supporting implantation of the embryo.

Please follow the link below to read more:-

http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/health/finding-fertility-new-doubts-raised-about-common-fertility-treatments-230679/

image by: http://blogs.smarter.com/blogs/FE_PR_070403pregnancy.jpg 

CAN OUR OVARIIES MAKE NEW EGGS?

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hand

Psalm 127: 3 and 4

“HOPE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE"
 

This post caught my attention and so I feel I should share it. 

Can our ovaries make new eggs??

This maybe encouraging news for some of us who find those darn eggs so elusive.