Research from Belgium has shown that if governments legislate to restrict the numbers of embryos transferred during fertility treatment, but combine it with a policy of reimbursing six cycles of assisted reproduction technology (ART), there is no detrimental impact on pregnancy and delivery rates. However, there is a greatly reduced risk of multiple births, which […]
Category: Fertility
Casual employment is linked to women being childless by the age of 35
Women who have worked in temporary jobs are less likely to have had their first child by the age of 35, according to research published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. The study shows that the longer women spent in casual employment, the more likely they were to be childless when […]
Length of human pregnancies can vary naturally by as much as five weeks
The length of a human pregnancy can vary naturally by as much as five weeks, according to research published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. Normally, women are given a date for the likely delivery of their baby that is calculated as 280 days after the onset of their last menstrual […]
Slim women have a greater risk of developing endometriosis than obese women
Women with a lean body shape have a greater risk of developing endometriosis than women who are morbidly obese, according to the largest prospective study to investigate the link. The study, which is published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1], found that the risk of endometriosis was 39% lower in morbidly […]
Foetal exposure to excessive stress hormones in the womb linked to adult mood disorders
London, UK: Exposure of the developing foetus to excessive levels of stress hormones in the womb can cause mood disorders in later life and now, for the first time, researchers have found a mechanism that may underpin this process, according to research presented at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London. The […]
Fertility after ectopic pregnancy: first randomised trial finds reassuring evidence on the effect of different treatments
The first randomised trial to compare treatments for ectopic pregnancies has found no significant differences in subsequent fertility between medical treatment and conservative surgery on one hand, and conservative or radical surgery on the other. The study, which is published in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1], compared three ways of treating an […]
Children born after infertility treatment are more likely to suffer from asthma
Asthma is more common among children born after infertility treatment than among children who have been planned and conceived naturally, according to findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. The study found that at the age of five, children born to sub-fertile parents – […]
Semen concentration and quality fell in French men between 1989 and 2005
New research shows that the concentration of sperm in men’s semen has been in steady decline between 1989 and 2005 in France. In addition, there has been a decrease in the number of normally formed sperm. The study is published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. The study is important because, […]
Mothers’ age at menopause may predict daughters’ ovarian reserve
A mother’s age at menopause may predict her daughter’s fertility in terms of the numbers of eggs remaining in her ovaries, according to the new research published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. By assessing ovarian reserve with two accepted methods – levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and antral follicle count […]
Women whose first pregnancy was ectopic have fewer children and a high risk of another ectopic pregnancy
Women whose first pregnancy is ectopic are likely to have fewer children in the following 20-30 years than women whose first pregnancy ends in a delivery, miscarriage or abortion, according to results from a study of nearly 3,000 women in Denmark. In addition, these women have a five-fold increased risk of a subsequent ectopic pregnancy. […]