ARC^® News

To Maximize Fertility, Men Should Minimize Bacon Consumption

If you and your partner have decided to seek medical assistance to help get pregnant, your doctor may have handed you a list of “lifestyle” instructions to follow to enhance the success of your treatment using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

Now, along with not smoking, drinking less and maintaining a healthy weight, comes word that men should step away from the bacon to maximize their fertility.

Newsweek featured infertility treatments in its Health Insight section this week:

For Infertility Treatment, Options Abound

IVF Nutrients May Influence Gender Selection In Embyros, Reports Medical Daily

Medical Daily reported March 19th, “Chinese scientists believe that certain undisclosed nutrients given to embryos during in vitro fertilization may favor the development of male fetuses over female. The study is significant because it could possibly lead to a new technique for gender selection. However, experts are more concerned about what other changes that aren’t as obvious as sex these gender-specific nutrients may bring about.” Read more here…

Endometriosis.org reports, “With an estimated 176 million women in the world affected by the painful consequences of endometriosis, it is shameful how little commitment there is to invest in basic research so that the life altering realities of endometriosis can be prevented in the next generation of women. On International Women’s Day (#IWD2015) we’ve asked 19 health care professionals, who have dedicated their professional careers to increasing the understanding of endometriosis, to give their take on what needs to happen to care better for women with endometriosis today – and what we can do to improve their lives tomorrow.” Read more here…

Access to Fertility Treatment Varies Across the Globe

Wanting to have a baby is a uniquely universal desire. Yet, the way fertility is viewed and treated around the world varies considerably. From access to assisted reproductive technology (ART), to widely different costs and legal barriers, couples in different countries often face widely different attitudes and strategies on their way to the same goal.

Approximately one hundred countries use ART with 1.6 million cycles and 400,000 babies born each year for a worldwide total of nearly 5 million births, according to the International Committee Monitoring the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART).

For every country, however, a variety of complex, intertwining factors of culture and religion, economics, education, ethics and supply of specialists and facilities affects what fertility treatment is available, according to a survey by the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) This translates to relatively few fertility centers in the Middle East, South East Asia and Latin America, while Japan and India have built hundreds of new facilities to meet the global demand for cross border reproductive care (CBRC).

Single or multiple embryo transfers – a tough decision

One quickly learns that fertility medicine is a field that offers many different treatment options, and each one of them requires choices. Keeping track of these choices, as well as understanding the pros and cons, is crucial, but challenging. When a woman chooses to use in vitro fertilization (IVF), one of the biggest decisions involved is the number of embryos to transfer for potential pregnancy. Both single and multiple embryo transfers come with potential risks and advantages. More embryos are more likely to result in successful implantation, but they are also more likely to result in a multiple pregnancy, which can lead to health complications as well as increased financial burdens.

In 2013, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), issued guidelines for the number of embryos to be transferred based on:

1. The patients’ age
2. Likelihood to achieve successful implantation
3. The development of the embryos (the number of days since the embryo has been fertilized in vitro.)

From Medical Daily,  “How old is too old to give birth? The answer to this question would have been obvious 30 years ago, but recent advancements in fertility treatments mean that in 2015, a woman’s biological clock can be permanently put on hold. Thanks to science, a 55- or even 65-year-old woman can do what was once unthinkable: become pregnant and give birth to a healthy child. However, just because a woman of this age can physically become pregnant, is the decision to do so ethical?”

Read the rest of the article here…

From OBG Management

Update on fertility
Egg freezing is no longer deemed “experimental.” Here are current protocols, fertility expectations, and safety outcomes as well as ethical considerations for oocyte cryopreservation.

Read more here….

OBG Manag. 2015;27(2):32-34,36-39
Mary E. Abusief, MD  and G. David Adamson, MD

From IVF to three-parent babies to…

Women’s Health Magazine reports,

“Old-fashioned baby-making is definitely more fun. But for many couples struggling with infertility, high-tech treatments are the only way to get sperm and egg together.

Couples now have surrogacy, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and perhaps soon, three-parent IVF, as viable baby-making strategies. The British Parliament recently approved the use of three-parent technology. Granted, three-parent IVF has to pass some red tape before it becomes available in the U.S., but experts believe that it may soon be an option for couples stateside.”

Read more here…

PGD and PGS = healthy pregnancies and healthy babies

As reproductive science advances, fertility scientists, embryologists and doctors are constantly developing new techniques to help families have healthy pregnancies and healthy children. Recent technologies that offer promise include preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in which a day 5 embryo (blastocyst) is tested for a specific known genetic abnormality, and preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) in which a blastocyst is screened to determine if the chromosomes are normal. PGD is used to increase our ability to prevent specific, known disease, often in couples who are not infertile but carry a risk of passing on genetic disorders, while PGS is generally used in infertile patients or those with recurrent pregnancy loss to identify the most normal appearing blastocysts for transfer back into the uterus.