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(cz) The use of a fertility technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which involves injecting a sperm directly into an egg, has increased dramatically in the United States since 1995, despite uncertainty about its effectiveness and risks, researchers say.
A study published in the July 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed data on fertility treatments from 1995 to 2004. The study included all in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles involving fresh embryos from non-donor eggs in women younger than 43.
The team found that while the proportion of patients receiving treatment for male factor infertility has remained stable, the percentage of IVF cycles that used intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) increased from 11 percent to 57.5 percent during the 10-year time span.
“Despite its added cost and uncertain efficacy and risk, the use of ICSI has been extended to include patients without documented male-factor infertility,” the study’s lead author Dr. Tarun Jain, assistant professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a prepared statement. more…

From: »Forbes«

(sz) Barbados continues to outstrip more developed countries in its ability to help women become fertile, thereby making this country an increasingly attractive destination for medical tourism.
The Barbados Fertility Centre (BFC) proved this in its latest statistics which show that women under 38 coming to this country for in vitro fertility (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment are achieving a pregnancy rate of 56.3 per cent – 14 per cent more than is being achieved in the United States and a whopping 34 per cent more than in Britain.
According to the centre, local statistics are compared to those from the Centre of Disease Control in the United States and Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and presented according to the age of the female, since this had a significant impact on the likely success of fertility treatment. more…

From: »Nation News« (The Nation Newspaper)

(wz) Unfruchtbarkeit hat viele Ursachen. Zu langsame Spermien, verklebte Eileiter oder Abwehrreaktionen des Immunsystems der Frau. Nicht immer kann die moderne Medizin helfen. Dann brauchen viele Paare psychologische Unterstützung.
Die Beziehung ist gefestigt, die berufliche Zukunft gesichert, die Wohnung groß genug, der Van bestellt, das Wunschkind kann kommen. Doch damit will es bei vielen deutschen Paaren nicht recht klappen: Schätzungsweise 1,5 bis zwei Millionen Paare sind zumindest zeitweise ungewollt kinderlos. Darunter versteht die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) Paare im fruchtbaren Alter, die trotz regelmäßiger sexueller Beziehung innerhalb eines Jahres kein Baby erwarten. Will sich der Nachwuchs partout nicht einstellen, droht der Traum vom Wunschkind zum Albtraum zu werden. Immer öfter suchen deshalb Paare Rat bei einem Facharzt.
Probleme mit der Fruchtbarkeit treffen beide Geschlechter gleichermaßen: “Die erkannten medizinischen Ursachen für den unerfüllten Kinderwunsch liegen zu 30 Prozent bei der Frau, zu 30 Prozent beim Mann und zu 30 Prozent bei beiden Partnern”, sagt Professor Eberhard Nieschlag, Direktor des Instituts für Reproduktionsmedizin an der Universität Münster. Was aber nicht bedeutet, dass betroffene Paare immer auf Nachwuchs verzichten müssen. more…

From:»Die Welt«

(cz) A recent study at Hamilton Health Sciences proves that sperm freezing and banking is an effective way to preserve fertility in adolescents and young adult (AYA) males with cancer.
Researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Care, McMaster Children’s Hospital and the Juravinski Cancer Centre, all members of the Hamilton Health Sciences family of health care facilities, joined forces to investigate the benefits of proactively preserving sperm prior to starting cancer treatment in order to allow male cancer patients the opportunity to father biological children in the future.
In AYA male cancer patients, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy may cause transient or permanent infertility by affecting either ejaculatory or erectile function or by impairing the generation of sperm. (“The effects of cancer and cancer treatments on male reproductive function” by Drs Magelssen, Brydoy and Fossa). more…

From: »SpiritIndia.com«

(sz) A national study reveals that the use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI — an assisted reproductive technology used to treat male-factor infertility — has increased dramatically in the United States since 1995, while the proportion of patients receiving treatment for male-factor infertility has remained stable.
“Despite its added cost and uncertain efficacy and risk, the use of ICSI has been extended to include patients without documented male-factor infertility,” said Dr. Tarun Jain, assistant professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead author of the study that appears in the July 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The research also compared the use of ICSI in states with and without mandated insurance coverage for infertility treatment.
States with mandated insurance coverage for infertility (Illinois, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) had a greater use of ICSI for reasons other than male-factor infertility when compared to states without mandated insurance coverage.
The researchers analyzed national data on assisted reproductive technology during a 10-year time span from 1995 to 2004. The study included all in vitro fertilization cycles involving fresh embryos from non-donor eggs in women younger than 43. more…

From: »ScienceDaily«

(sz) A new study has found genetic screening for older women undergoing IVF may actually cut the chance of a successful pregnancy.
Pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) is widely used overseas and its popularity has grown in Australia with older couples desperate for a child.
Netherlands scientists found in a study of 408 women it does not reduce the risk of miscarriages and can lead to an increase.
The findings have been supported by the Australian IVF Clinic in Sydney, which has been reluctant to endorse PGS for fear it could harm the embryo. The technique involves taking a cell from an embryo and checking it for chromosome abnormalities. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph« (Australia)

(sz) Children born as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF) appear to be slightly taller than naturally conceived children, investigators in New Zealand report.
IVF has been used for nearly three decades, but most of the focus of research has been on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes rather than on school-age IVF children. That’s probably because as babies they have few apparent problems, Dr. Wayne S. Cutfield told Reuters Health. “They are thriving, healthy children as newborns,” he said.
To check up on older IVF kids, Cutfield, at the University of Auckland, and colleagues recruited healthy children aged 4 to 10 years who were born at full term. Their study included 69 children conceived by IVF using fresh embryos and 71 matched “controls” who were conceived in the normal way.
After factoring in parents’ heights, the IVF children were significantly taller than their peers, by about 3 centimeters or just over an inch, the investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. more…

From: »Reuters«

(wz) TOP fertility doctors want to lift the ban on parents choosing the sex of their baby – saying couples should have the right to pick “a pink one rather than a blue one”.
In evidence to MPs three senior fertility specialists insisted that allowing sex selection would not be a “slippery slope” towards designer babies, as few parents would want to choose.
Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director at Midland Fertility Services, in Walsall, one of the oldest IVF clinics in the country, said there was unlikely to be a rush by parents to create “a football team or a girls’ choir” – not least because the IVF process involved is expensive, uncomfortable and has a relatively low chance of success.
But she defended the right of some parents who wanted to choose – citing the case of a Scottish couple with four sons who lost their baby daughter in an accident and wanted another girl. more…

From: »The Daily Express« (UK)

(cz) Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) — in which doctors remove a cell from three-day-old embryos to look for genetic disease — appears to pose no harm to babies, Belgian researchers report.
The procedure, first introduced in 1990, analyzes fertilized eggs for genetic problems prior to implantation in the mother’s womb, as happens in in vitro fertilization (IVF). But experts have worried that the procedure might pose a long-term safety risk to offspring, the BBC reported.
In the study, researchers at Brussels’ Free University say that 563 of the 583 babies in the study that underwent PGD were born alive — a rate that matches that of conventional IVF or another fertility procedure called ICSI, where sperm is injected into the egg.
PGD babies also had comparable birth weights to infants who did not receive the procedure, and the rate of birth defects or malformations was also similar between PGD, IVF and ICSI children at two months and two years of age.
The findings were published at a meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics. more…

From: »Forbes (Health Highlights)«

(cz) Foetal medicine pioneer attacks unnecessary and expensive treatments
Britain’s leading foetal medicine expert has condemned the IVF industry, saying some private clinics are exploiting women desperate to get pregnant by offering them unproven and expensive treatments.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Professor Charles Rodeck, founder and head of the unit for foetal medicine at University College Hospital London, has expressed particular concern over some of the drugs and tests being offered to infertile couples.
‘The commercial world of IVF provision is a very competitive one, so some clinics try to keep a step ahead by offering more interventions than their competitors, even if they know those procedures might not work,’ he said.
Rodeck transformed the use of foetal medicine in Britain by initiating the use of ultrasound for foetal therapy and diagnosis of malformations in the late Seventies. He went on to set up the first foetal medicine unit in the early Eighties, as well as setting up clinics specialising in the care of young women.
‘Even though I have no evidence that the mothers or babies are being harmed by the extra hormones and steroids they are increasingly being given by these clinics, you can’t be sure what happens to a baby when you put unnecessary and unproven medicines into its mother’s body,’ he said. more…

From: »The Guardian / The Observer«