Archive for category 'Fertility'. Page 1 of 4

  • 27th
    Mar
    2012     Can diet and weight really affect men's fertility?

    Can diet and weight really affect men's fertility?

    If you’re planning a pregnancy it makes sense to ensure you’re as healthy as possible, and for men even more so as two new studies have shown that both diet and weight can affect sperm quality.

    An international study found that heavy men are more likely than those with normal weights to have low sperm counts or even be producing sperm at all.

    And how much overweight a man is really counts – results found that overweight men were 11 per cent more likely to have a low sperm cou...

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  • 20th
    Feb
    2012

    Will multiple birth rate cut affect your chances of IVF success?

    News that the HFEA has ordered both private and NHS infertility clinics to cut their multiple birth rate even further may make you think that this automatically means your chances of a successful pregnancy are further reduced too.

    Current guidelines for IVF multiple births limit the number to no more than 15%. But from October this year, the limit is being cut further to just 10%. To comply, fertility clinics have already adopted a Single Embryo Transfer (SET) policy, where only one good qualit...

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  • 13th
    Feb
    2012

    Baby born from sperm frozen 25 years ago

    It’s well known that sperm can be frozen and thawed in later years for use in infertility treatment, but now a baby has been born using sperm that was frozen almost 25 years ago.

    It’s thought that this is the oldest ‘frozen’ sperm ever to be used successfully in Britain. In this case the baby’s father, Richard Potts, had frozen his sperm when he was just 21, after a diagnosis of testicular cancer. Doctors warned the necessary treatment could leave him infertile, so...

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  • 6th
    Feb
    2012

    Can sunshine or acupuncture really boost your pregnancy chances?

    There’s been a lot in the media lately about whether something as simple as a daily dose of sunshine or even acupuncture can really help you get pregnant.

    A new analysis of previous studies into the effects of acupuncture on women going through IVF has concluded that the evidence is still unclear.

    Chinese researchers pooled the results of 24 previous clinical trials, all of which were small-scale, and which all used different acupuncture methods.

    Whilst some of the women who received ac...

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  • 19th
    Dec
    2011

    Having children in your 40s - what's the reality?

    Celebrity magazines are full of stories about older stars who’ve easily had children later in life. But what’s the reality behind the headline?

    Having children in your 40s isn’t impossible. But statistically, it’s unlikely to happen naturally. Purely because once you’re in your 40s, your egg quality simply isn’t good enough anymore. And more often than not, if you do get pregnant it’s more likely to result in complications or end in miscarriage than a h...

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  • 22nd
    Nov
    2011

    IVF Success - Why it's important for men to be healthy too

    A woman’s fertility is known to be linked to health factors including weight and lifestyle, but now a new study has shown just how important it is for men to be healthy too if they’re about to undergo infertility treatment with their partner.

    Researchers in Brazil found that the motility and concentration of a man’s sperm can be affected by diet and weight.

    In their study of 250 men, whose partners were all undergoing Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment – ...

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  • 21st
    Oct
    2011

    Do we finally have the answer to recurrent miscarriages?

    New research may have revealed why some women have recurrent miscarriages and others  can’t get pregnant at all.

    Scientists have identified a protein – SGK1 – which if the levels in the body are too high causes infertility, and if too low can cause miscarriage.

    The team from Imperial College London took samples from over 100 women and those with unexplained infertility had high levels of SGK1, whilst those who miscarried had low levels.

    The discovery of this protein is ...

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  • 17th
    Aug
    2011

    How long can you wait to have a baby?

    Scientists at St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities in Scotland have made further advances in helping identify how much time a woman has before her fertility starts to decline.

    By studying samples from over 3,000 women, researchers were able to identify what a ‘normal’ range of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is in a healthy woman and how it declines with age. AMH is measured as a way of seeing how active the ovaries are and what reserves of eggs a woman has remaining.

    Using ...

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  • 5th
    Jul
    2011

    Fertility in your 40s

    Fertility and pregnancy in women over 40 has been in the media again recently, with case studies of women in this age group who had fallen pregnant naturally and questioning whether age is truly the defining factor when it comes to fertility. Are older women spending money needlessly on IVF?

    It was a confusing message – on the one hand were a one or two women featured, who had no trouble getting pregnant at 40 and above. But on the other hand, there were women in the same article who had ...

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  • 22nd
    Jun
    2011

    So what is the best age to conceive?

    What’s the best age to have a baby? According to a new survey of over 3,000 women, the majority think that 29 is the ideal time to start a family because it’s when they will feel secure enough in terms of their relationship and their finances to have a baby.

    This comes as no surprise. Women are putting off having children until the ‘right time’ whether it’s due to career commitment or relationships. But what we should all remember is that a woman’s natural fe...

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