Category: Fertility

Ibuprofen taken in the first three months of pregnancy may harm the future fertility of baby girls

Pregnant women who take the pain killer ibuprofen in the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy may be reducing the store of eggs in the ovaries of their daughters. Researchers have found the first evidence in human ovarian tissue that exposure to ibuprofen during the crucial first three months of foetal development results in a […]

Mediterranean diet may help women receiving assisted reproduction treatment to achieve successful pregnancies

New research has found that women who follow a “Mediterranean” diet in the six months before assisted reproductive treatment have a significantly better chance of becoming pregnant and giving birth to a live baby than women who did not. Researchers asked women about their diet before they underwent in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment found that […]

Vitamin D linked with better live birth rates in women undergoing assisted reproduction treatment: researchers call for a randomised controlled trial to investigate

Researchers are calling for a randomised clinical trial to be carried out to investigate the potential role of vitamin D supplementation in improving live birth rates following assisted reproduction treatment (ART). This follows a review and meta-analysis published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals, that shows a […]

Underweight women are at greater risk of early menopause

Underweight women and women who were underweight as teenagers or in their mid-30s are at greater risk of experiencing an early menopause compared to lean or normal weight women, according to a study of nearly 80,000 women. In addition, underweight women who lost 20 pounds or more at least three times between the ages of […]

Asthma linked to increase in fertility treatment

Milan, Italy: Women with asthma are more likely to have fertility treatment before giving birth than non-asthmatic women, according to new research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress. Among 744 pregnant asthmatic women enrolled in the Management of Asthma During Pregnancy programme at the Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark, and who gave birth between […]

Screening for both genetic diseases and chromosomal defects with a single biopsy improves pregnancy rates

Couples who are undergoing pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in order to avoid transmission of inherited diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis, should also have their embryos screened for abnormal numbers of chromosomes at the same time, say Italian researchers. By doing this, only embryos that are free not only of the genetic […]

Starting menstrual periods at a young age and childlessness increase risk of premature and early menopause

Women who had their first menstrual period when they were aged 11 or younger have an increased risk of an early or premature menopause and if they remain childless the risk is increased even more, according to results from the first large scale, multi-national study to investigate the links between age at puberty and menopause […]

First results from the world’s oldest group of ICSI men show they have lower semen quantity and quality

First results from the world’s oldest group of young men conceived by means of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) fertility treatment because of their fathers’ infertility have shown that they have lower sperm quantity and quality than men who were spontaneously conceived. The study, which is published in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world’s leading […]

Deaths from ovarian cancer decline worldwide due to oral contraceptive use

Deaths from ovarian cancer fell worldwide between 2002 and 2012 and are predicted to continue to decline in the USA, European Union (EU) and, though to a smaller degree, in Japan by 2020, according to new research published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1]. The main reason is the use of oral […]

First randomised trial shows IVF culture media affect the outcomes of embryos and babies

Fertility experts call for full information on composition of culture media to be made available Fertility experts are calling on the companies who make the solutions in which embryos are cultured during in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to give a clear list of ingredients following publication of a trial that shows that the composition of these […]