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Female Infertility Blog

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Sperm Collide Along Liquid Maze on Way to Fertilize Egg

Posted 19 days ago by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, May 8 – Sperm cells navigate the complex fluid-filled channels of the female reproductive tract by crawling along walls and swimming around corners, a new study reveals. And although millions of sperm cells are ejaculated, the few that actually reach an egg collide frequently along the way. This new insight on how sperm travel could help scientists develop new treatments for infertile couples, say British researchers who injected the cells into hair-thin microchannels, or mini-mazes, to identify which sperm are the fastest swimmers and why. "In basic terms, how do we find the 'Usain Bolt' among the millions of sperm in an ejaculate," study author Dr. Jackson Kirkman-Brown, lead in reproductive biology at the University of Birmingham and science lead at the Birmingham Women's Fertility Centre, said in a news release. "Sperm cell following walls is one of those cases when a ... Read more

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Birth Defect Rates Vary Depending on Fertility Treatment: Study

Posted 7 May 2012 by Drugs.com

SATURDAY, May 5 – Birth defects are more common after certain infertility treatments, but whether the cause is the assisted reproduction techniques themselves or the underlying biology preventing conception isn't clear, Australian researchers say. "While treatments appear quite safe, we cannot ignore that there are significant risks that require urgent investigation with additional ongoing studies," said lead researcher Michael Davies, an associate professor at the Robinson Institute of the University of Adelaide. For the study, published online May 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Davies and colleagues collected data on more than 6,100 births achieved using assisted reproductive technology in South Australia. The investigators compared these births with a registry of more than 300,000 births, looking for the risk of birth defects associated with infertility treatments ... Read more

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More College-Educated Women Having Children

Posted 4 May 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, May 4 – An increasing number of college-educated American women in their late 30s and 40s are having children, a new study shows. The findings may represent a turnaround from previous decades, when the trend was for college-educated women to have fewer children, the researchers noted. They analyzed long-term national data and found that childlessness among college-educated women peaked in the late 1990s, when about 30 percent had no children. Between 1998 and 2008, the proportion of women in this group who did not have children fell by about 5 percent. "We may be seeing the beginning of a new trend," study co-author Bruce Weinberg, an economics professor at Ohio State University, said in a university news release. "One of the major economic stories of the second half of the 20th century was that highly educated women were working more and having fewer children. It is too early ... Read more

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Few Young Women With Cancer Take Steps to Preserve Fertility

Posted 26 Mar 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 26 – Very few young women with cancer take measures to preserve their fertility while undergoing cancer treatment, a new study says. The findings suggest that reproductive-age women with cancer need more information about fertility preservation methods such as egg or embryo freezing, said Dr. Mitchell Rosen, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues. The researchers surveyed 1,041 women aged 18 to 40 who were diagnosed with cancer between 1993 and 2007. Of those women, 918 received cancer therapies (chemotherapy, pelvic radiation, pelvic surgery, or bone marrow transplant) that could harm their fertility. Sixty-one percent of the women received counseling from their doctors or other health care providers on the risks that cancer treatment posed to their fertility, but only 4 percent of the women actually took steps to preserve their fertility. The ... Read more

Related support groups: Cancer, Female Infertility

Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis Linked to Fertility Woes, Miscarriage

Posted 16 Feb 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Feb. 16 – Women with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus often have fewer children than they'd hoped for, according to a new study. These autoimmune diseases, which typically develop during women's reproductive years, cause fertility problems and miscarriage, researchers said. Lupus causes the body's immune system to attack healthy tissues and organs. Rheumatoid arthritis leads to painful joint inflammation. For the study, researchers asked 578 women with rheumatoid arthritis and 114 women with lupus about their reproductive health, and divided them into three groups according to how their condition affected their desire and ability to have children. Group A included women who had fewer children than planned. Group B was comprised of women who had number of children they had planned for, and women in Group C were no longer interested in having children due to ... Read more

U.S. Twin Births Soar: CDC

Posted 4 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4 – The birth rate for twins in the United States has jumped by 76 percent since 1980, government health officials reported Wednesday. Most of the increase appears linked to new fertility treatments that make it easier for older women to conceive, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The growth in twin birth rate has occurred in all age groups, although the largest growth has been among older mothers," said study lead author Joyce A. Martin, an epidemiologist in the Division of Vital Statistics, Reproductive Statistics Branch at CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. One reason for the increase is that mothers have been a little older, Martin said, "and women in their 30s are more likely to have a multiple birth." However, only about one-third of the rise in twin births is attributable to the mother's age, Martin ... Read more

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Research With Worms May Shed Light on Women's Fertility

Posted 6 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Dec. 6 – Different molecular mechanisms may regulate the aging of the human body and the aging of the reproductive system, new research with worms suggests. The findings may help explain why a woman's fertility begins to decline after age 35 but other cells in her body don't show major signs of aging until decades later, study author Coleen Murphy of Princeton University said in a news release from the American Society for Cell Biology. Murphy and her colleagues studied the roundworms, called C. elegans, to compare the types of genes that affect lifespan and the types that keep immature egg cells (oocytes) healthy. The findings were scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, in Denver. The researchers found that both body aging and reproductive aging in C. elegans involve the insulin regulation pathway, but there are ... Read more

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Ovarian Tumors May Develop Years After Fertility Therapy

Posted 27 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 27 – Women who undergo ovarian stimulation to produce extra eggs for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are at increased risk for a type of growth known as "borderline ovarian tumors," new research suggests. Borderline ovarian tumors are typically not aggressive, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Even if the tumor does spread, the vast majority of women survive borderline ovarian tumors. Even so, treating borderline ovarian tumors can require extensive surgery, explained lead researcher Flora van Leeuwen, head of the epidemiology department in The Netherlands Cancer Institute. For the study, researchers examined data from over 19,000 infertile women in the Netherlands who underwent ovarian stimulation prior to IVF and about 6,000 infertile women who did not undergo IVF. After 15 years of follow-up, the women who underwent ovarian stimulation were four times more ... Read more

Related support groups: Female Infertility, Ovarian Cancer, Follicle Stimulation

Rules Help When Talking About Infertility

Posted 6 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 6 – When couples have difficulty getting pregnant, the amount of information they share with family and friends may depend on who feels more stigmatized by the problem, a new study finds. Researchers interviewed 50 infertile couples and assessed their support networks. They found that when the woman was concerned about people's reactions, the couple were more open with family and friends. But if the man felt he would be blamed, the couple were less open with others. These differences may have to do with protecting the husband's public image and responding to societal pressure to pursue motherhood, according to study author Keli Ryan Steuber, an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. "It aligns with the idea that couples do more work to maintain the husband's public persona," Steuber said in a university news release. "For women, it may be ... Read more

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No Proof That Aspirin Aids Conception, Review Shows

Posted 11 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Aug. 11 – There's no strong evidence that taking aspirin while undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) improves a woman's chances of becoming pregnant, researchers say. Routine use of aspirin during IVF treatment is controversial. Proponents believe that aspirin may improve blood flow to the womb and ovaries, but there are concerns that taking aspirin may cause pregnancy complications or miscarriage. To investigate the issue, researchers reviewed data from 13 clinical trials that included a total of 2,653 women undergoing IVF. Many of the women were taking a 100-milligram dose of aspirin per day. One large study did suggest there was some benefit to taking aspirin while having IVF treatment, but the overall conclusion of the review was that there was no evidence that aspirin improved the likelihood of getting pregnant, the researchers said. The review appears in the August ... Read more

Eating Disorders Can Harm Women's Fertility

Posted 4 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Aug. 4 – Women with the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia may take a bit longer to get pregnant than other women, a new study has found. U.K. researchers asked 11,088 pregnant women to complete questionnaires at 12 and 18 weeks of gestation. Of those women, 171 (1.5 percent) had anorexia at some point in their lives, 199 (1.8 percent) had bulimia, and another 82 (0.7 percent) had experienced both conditions. A larger proportion of the women with the eating disorders took more than six months to conceive compared to those with no history of eating disorders (39.5 percent vs 25 percent). However, women with eating disorders weren't more likely to take longer than 12 months to conceive, the investigators found. Women with anorexia or bulimia were more than twice as likely to have received treatment or help to get pregnant, 6.2 percent vs. 2.7 percent. The study also found ... Read more

Related support groups: Female Infertility, Anorexia, Bulimia, Anorexia nervosa

Can Weight-Loss Surgery Reverse Common Cause of Infertility?

Posted 15 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, June 15 – Weight-loss surgery may reverse a common cause of infertility in women, a small, new study suggests. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal imbalance that affects up to 10 percent of women of child-bearing age. An estimated one-third to one-half of women with PCOS are overweight or obese, according to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). Researchers at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City reviewed records on 566 morbidly obese women who had gastric bypass surgery. Morbid obesity is having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more. The women in the study had an average BMI of 52 and lost substantial weight after surgery. Researchers contacted 20 women between the ages of 22 and 42. Of those, 14 were fertile prior to surgery and had no interest in having more children, while six women had been diagnosed with ... Read more

Related support groups: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Female Infertility

Caffeine May Interfere With Fertility in Women

Posted 26 May 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, May 26 – Caffeine, a known stimulant, has been shown to cause rapid heart rate, nausea, anxiety and depression. Now, new research reveals that caffeine consumption may make it harder for a woman to get pregnant. By analyzing fallopian tubes in mice, researchers found that caffeine interferes with muscle contractions that help eggs travel from the ovaries through the fallopian tubes and into the womb – a process critical for a successful pregnancy. "Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant," Sean Ward, professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, said in a journal news release. "This provides an intriguing explanation as to why women with high caffeine consumption often take longer to conceive than women who do not consume caffeine," ... Read more

Gene Variation May Explain Some Female Infertility Cases

Posted 17 May 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, May 17 – A gene variation that causes faulty cholesterol regulation also appears to affect production of the pregnancy hormone progesterone and may be a reason why some women can't get pregnant, researchers say. The Johns Hopkins University team looked at more than 200 infertile women who were undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and identified nine who had the variation of the scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SCARB1) gene. All nine women had low levels of progesterone, which plays a critical role in sustaining pregnancy in its earliest stages. These low levels of progesterone persisted even though the women were supplemented with progesterone as part of the IVF process. None of the women became pregnant after undergoing IVF. This variation in the SCARB1 gene could be present in 8 percent to 13 percent of the population, according to study leader Dr. Annabelle Rodriguez, ... Read more

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Number of Eggs Retrieved Helps Predict IVF Success: Study

Posted 11 May 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 11 – Retrieving about 15 eggs from a woman's ovaries in a single in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle offers the best chance of achieving a live birth while avoiding complications from fertility medications, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed more than 400,000 IVF cycles in the United Kingdom between 1991 and 2008 and found a strong association between live birth rates and the number of eggs retrieved in one cycle. The live birth rate rose with an increasing number of eggs up to about 15, leveled off between 15 and 20 eggs, and declined steadily beyond 20 eggs. The study appears online in the journal Human Reproduction. "Our data show that around 15 eggs may be the best number to aim for in an IVF cycle in order to maximize the chances of a live birth while minimizing the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which is associated with a high number ... Read more

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