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Fertility Drugs Raise Cancer Risk
Taking medications to enhance fertility appears to increase the chance of developing uterine cancer in particular, as well as some other forms of the disease, according to a very large, long, recently completed study. Drugs that stimulate ovulation have been used for more than three decades to help women who have difficulty conceiving, who are undergoing in vitro fertilization, or who are donating or selling their eggs. But the drugs’ effect on health has never been clarified. (Read more about Fertility Drugs Raise Cancer Risk)
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Discovery Links Pre-Eclampsia to Diet
Women with the condition pre-eclampsia have been found with red blood cells containing unusually high levels of a compound found in unpasteurized food, according to research published in the journal Reproductive Sciences. The findings are important because they hint at the possibility of this compound, known as "ergothioneine", being an indicator of pre-eclampsia. Further down the line, researchers hope the compound will help them understand the currently unknown cause of the condition.
(Read more about Discovery Links Pre-Eclampsia to Diet)
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Using Frozen Embryos Increases Pregnancy Chances
The regular use of carefully chosen frozen embryos left over from fertility treatments dramatically increases the pregnancy success rate among infertile couples, a British clinic has found.
The new regimen holds the promise of sharply reducing the time a couple has to wait for a baby, and of alleviating the risk to women of repeated cycles of side-effect-ridden fertility drugs, which can lead to polycystic ovary syndrome. (Read more about Using Frozen Embryos Increases Pregnancy Chances)
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Unicellular Test Lets Doctors Weed Out Mutated Embryos
A technique that allows doctors to find dangerous "microdeletions" in human embryo chromosomes can be used to reject embryos prone to developing cancer and other diseases in later life and to implant only healthy embryos, according to a recent study. Up till now, gene assays could detect only pinpoint mutations, but the new technique allows for finding much larger chromosomal flaws and deletions. (Read more about Unicellular Test Lets Doctors Weed Out Mutated Embryos)
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Protein Boosts Sex Hormones, Suggesting Infertility Therapy
Giving a special hormone to infertile women can dramatically increase their production of sex hormones, which may lead to a new infertility treatment for women with low sex hormone levels, a recent study demonstrated.
The work, which was led by Waljit Dhillo of the Department of Investigative Medicine at Imperial College London, was presented at a meeting of the Society for Endocrinology BES. (Read more about Protein Boosts Sex Hormones, Suggesting Infertility Therapy)
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Obesity Gene Also Codes for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
The gene that codes for susceptibility to obesity also predisposes a woman to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a common cause of infertility, a recent study discovered.
The study, done by Tom Barber and his colleagues from the Oxford Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, of the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, was presented at the annual Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Britain. (Read more about Obesity Gene Also Codes for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome)
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Scientists Clone Vital Sperm Protein
A protein vital for male fertility has been cloned, produced and purified, a recent study reported. The findings may open up new pathways in male fertility treatment and methods of male contraception.
The study, published in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction, recounted how researchers identified the binder of sperm protein (BSP), which is essential for sperm maturation, and then used genetic engineering techniques to produce it in significant quantities. (Read more about Scientists Clone Vital Sperm Protein)
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Infertility Treatment Jeopardize Pregnant Women's Health
Having three or more miscarriages and undergoing hormone treatment for infertility increase pregnant women’s risk for pre-eclampsia, a condition of high blood pressure during pregnancy, a recent investigation shows.
In the study, which was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health examined data on over 20,000 first-time mothers from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Their baseline for normalcy was the pre-eclampsia rate among first-time mothers who had never miscarried nor undergone fertility treatment, which was 5.2 percent. (Read more about Infertility Treatment Jeopardize Pregnant Women's Health)
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Sperm Quality Worsens With Obesity
Obese men are three times more likely than normal-weight men to have low sperm counts and to have sperm that don't "swim upstream," a recent study showed.
"There is a strong relationship between overweight and obesity and altered sperm parameters," wrote Ahmad O. Hammoud and his colleagues at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. They published their work in the journal Fertility and Sterility. They say studies in the future should examine this relationship over time, and also study whether losing weight improves sperm quality. (Read more about Sperm Quality Worsens With Obesity)
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Eating Less Extends Fertility
Eating less and more healthily may be just the ticket for women to add years to their fertile lives - as well as boosting their sex drive and sexual satisfaction, which are part and parcel of fertility. This is true if a study done recently with mice can be extrapolated to humans. In the research, performed by a team led by Kaisa Selesniemi of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, adult female mice were fed less, and it was found that the aging process in their ovaries was slowed. This led to an extension of their fertility by a considerable number of months, which would translate into many years for women. (Read more about Eating Less Extends Fertility)
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