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Nordic IVF outcomes improving - is the same true for the UK?
Conclusion This study found an improvement in health outcomes around the time of birth for babies conceived using artificial reproductive technology (IVF, ICSI and frozen embryo transfer) over the last 20 years in four Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland). The study sample was large and the methods robust. This means we can be relatively confident these results paint an accurate picture of what is going on in these countries. But two questions remain: are similar results found in the UK, and what is behind the improvement? On the first question, it is difficult to say without having direct UK data....
Source: NHS News Feed - January 21, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

Could 'DNA editing' lead to designer babies?
Conclusion This laboratory research using sperm and egg cells from mice demonstrates the use of a system to produce targeted alterations in the DNA – a process the media like to call “genetic editing”. The editing happened just before the genetic material of the egg and sperm cell fuse together. The system makes use of an enzyme (Cas9) capable of cutting bonds within DNA, and a “guide” molecule targeting it to the correct genetic location. So far, the techniques have only been tested in animals, and for “editing out” a small number of genes. However, though this is very early stage research, the results do...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Genetics/stem cells Medical practice Source Type: news

Freeze-Drying of Mammalian Sperm
Long-term preservation of mammalian sperm at suprazero temperatures is desired to save storage and space costs as well as to facilitate transport of preserved samples. This can be accomplished by the freeze-drying of sperm samples. Although freeze-drying results in immotile and membrane-compromised sperm, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can be used to introduce such an immotile sperm into an oocyte and thus start the fertilization process. So far, it has been shown that improved freeze-drying protocols preserve chromosomal integrity and oocyte-activating factor(s) at 4 °C for several years and at ambient temper...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Biotechnology - December 2, 2014 Category: Biotechnology Source Type: news

Sperm analysis parameters as an indication for ICSI instead of IVF: Benefit still unclear
(Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care) The currently available studies allow no conclusions about the type of sperm characteristics in which assisted reproduction using ICSI can be superior to IVF. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - November 7, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news

Assisted Reproductive Techniques
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) encompass fertility treatments, which involve manipulations of both oocyte and sperm in vitro. This chapter provides a brief overview of ART, including indications for treatment, ovarian reserve testing, selection of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) protocols, laboratory techniques of ART including in vitro fertilization (IVF), and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), embryo transfer techniques, and luteal phase support. This chapter also discusses potential complications of ART, namely ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and multiple gestations, and the perinatal ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Cell Biology - May 1, 2014 Category: Cytology Source Type: news

Genetics of Male Fertility
Early in embryogenesis, cells that are destined to become germ cells take on a different destiny from other cells in the embryo. The germ cells are not programmed to perform “vital” functions but to perpetuate the species through the transfer of genetic materials to the next generation. To fulfill their destiny, male germ cells undergo meiosis and extensive morphogenesis that transforms the round-shaped cells into freely motile sperm propelled by a beating flagellum to seek out their missing half. Apparently, extra genes and additional regulatory mechanisms are required to achieve all these unique features, and...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Cell Biology - May 1, 2014 Category: Cytology Source Type: news

Jo donated eggs for IVF then needed help herself to become a mother
Jo Stretton gave away her eggs aged 30 to have 'a part of me out there', but five years later discovered she couldn't conceive. She used ICSI, similar to IVF, to have Finlay, two, and Sullivan, four months (both pictured). (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - March 5, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Risks of infertility treatments 'overhyped'
Conclusion The study raises concerns about the link between different types of fertility treatment and poorer outcomes at birth. However, it is uncertain whether the higher risk is down to infertility treatment, underlying health problems associated with infertility, or a combination of both. As the authors point out, the study did not control for the underlying cause of fertility problems. Although the risks appear higher, the overall risk of these problems is still low. And although the study excluded multiple births, it had no information on whether the single babies born after fertility treatment were the result of mul...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 9, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

Study 'casts doubt' on the need for a Y chromosome
Conclusion This is interesting research furthering our understanding of reproductive biology. It demonstrates that even with complete lack of the Y chromosome the addition of two genes, Sry and Eif2s3y, enabled the mice to develop testes and then to produce sperm – albeit in low numbers and with structural abnormalities. It is very unlikely that these mice would have been able to father any offspring if allowed to mate naturally. However, IVF techniques demonstrated that the sperm cells they produced were able to fertilise an egg, and apparently go on to produce live and healthy, fertile offspring. However, mice are no...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 22, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Genetics/stem cells Source Type: news

The amazing story of IVF: 35 years and five million babies later
The birth of Louise Brown in 1978 was the start of a revolution in fertility treatment – and there's more to comeThere's an old bell jar that sits on top of a cupboard at a Cambridgeshire fertility clinic where history was made; it was in a dish inside this jar that the world's first IVF baby spent the hours after her conception. With the success of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), scientist Robert Edwards and his gynaecologist colleague Patrick Steptoe had changed the future for infertile couples around the world.Louise Brown, that first IVF baby, is 35 this month and what was then a revolutionary scientific advance has be...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 12, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Kate Brian Tags: The Guardian Children Fertility problems Medical research Society Features Science Source Type: news

Test tube children develop mentally normal (EurekAlert, 10 July 2013)
A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) compares the mental health of all children born in Denmark from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2003 in three groups according to how they were conceived: naturally; with medical assistance via hormone treatments for induced ovulation or intrauterine insemination; via IVF/ICSI. Full article (Source: Society for Endocrinology)
Source: Society for Endocrinology - July 11, 2013 Category: Endocrinology Source Type: news

Low IQ and autism risk from fertility treatment for men with poor sperm
A Swedish study found the extra risk in babies born after ICSI treatment, where a sperm is injected into the egg to compensate for low sperm count or poor quality sperm. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - July 3, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

IVF poses minimal risk of autism and low IQ
Conclusion This large cohort study showed that compared with spontaneous conception, IVF treatment (all techniques combined) was not associated with autistic disorder but was associated with a small, borderline significant increase in the risk of mental retardation. For specific IVF procedures, IVF with ICSI was associated with a small increase in the risk of ASD and mental retardation compared with IVF that did not involve ICSI. This study benefits from a large sample size and robust data collection methods, and did well to address an issue few other studies have looked at. But it's worth noting that there may be other u...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 3, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Neurology Mental health Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

CSI Has Benefits in Unexplained Infertility: Meta-AnalysisCSI Has Benefits in Unexplained Infertility: Meta-Analysis
For couples with well-defined unexplained infertility, the routine use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for some or all oocytes offers several benefits, a meta-analysis indicates. Reuters Health Information (Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines)
Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines - June 28, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Ob/Gyn & Women ' s Health News Source Type: news

Picking the Best Sperm With ICSIPicking the Best Sperm With ICSI
Hyaluronan binding is a tool used in intracytoplasmic sperm injection to help select better sperm and reduce pregnancy loss. Medscape Ob/Gyn (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)
Source: Medscape Today Headlines - April 10, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Ob/Gyn & Women ' s Health Viewpoint Source Type: news