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(wz) Levels of the male sex hormone testosterone in infant boys who are conceived using an assisted fertility technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are significantly lower than in their naturally conceived counterparts, according to Danish researchers.
ICSI is the main method used to overcome male infertility. With ICSI, a single sperm is injected directly into a single egg. If successful fertilization occurs, the embryo is then placed into the female to undergo development as usual.
There has been concern for the health of children conceived by assisted reproduction technologies, Dr. Anders Juul and colleagues at Copenhagen University Hospital note in their study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The researchers investigated whether the impaired testicular function of the father might be inherited by boys conceived by ICSI.
The study involved 125 boys conceived by ICSI, 120 conceived by in vitro fertilization, sometimes called “test tube” fertilization, and 933 naturally conceived boys. Standard growth measurements were taken at birth and at 3 months, and blood samples were also taken from more than half of the infants at 3 months. more…

From: »Reuters« (US)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 08:00 by Werner Zapf and is filed under Industry, Media, r & d. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.