Introduction ‘’Melatonin protects the mouse testis against heat-induced damage’’ (Zhang et al, 2020) is the review paper at this week’s ESHRE Twitter journal club. In a nutshell (no pun intended) the authors found that pre-treatment with melatonin attenuated heat-induced apoptosis…
Sperm counts have fallen by 50%–60% in developed nations since 1973. The underlying causes are a matter of both active research and heated debate, but worsening diet quality & increasing obesity could, to some extent, explain these trends. Despite ICSI…
It seems a long time since the middle of March, when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) & the European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology (ESHRE) formally advised fertility patients against becoming pregnant as a ‘precautionary measure’ for their own safety during…
Thirty-three patients at Belfast’s Regional Fertility Clinic have had their stimulation injections stopped and their treatment postponed due to concerns surrounding COVID-19. In the UK, clinics are encouraging patients to have telephone or Skype initial and follow-up consultations, as an…
What is Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH)? In the first trimester a growing fetus has two ducts, Mullerian (female) & Wolffian (male) that develop into reproductive organs depending on which chromosomes are present i.e. XY Male & XX Female. The male fetus…
What is Recurrent Implantation Failure? Recurrent Implantation Failure (RIF) is defined as the : Failure to get pregnant after > 3 embryo transfers with high quality embryos or the transfer of ≥ 10 embryos in multiple transfers Failure to achieve…
An employment tribunal has ruled that a woman was unfairly discriminated against after successful IVF treatment. The employee had taken time off work to undergo fertility treatment, but was not allowed to return to work after she told her employer…
Unlike the majority of healthcare in the UK, fertility treatment is not routinely ‘free at the point of use’. Just under 70 % of the UK’s IVF clinics are privately owned and almost all of the NHS units offer self-funded…
Fertility clinics are not all the same, which is why IVF success rates vary so greatly. In the UK, the latest live birth rate for the under 35‘s (per cycle started), ranges from 14% to 63%. Therefore, to give yourself…
Diet & female fertility: doctor, what should I eat (Chiu et al, 2018), is an excellent paper that reviewed the available research (171 references) on dietary factors affecting human fecundity (the capacity to produce offspring). They concluded: Although much work remains, current evidence…
Navigating donor conception (eggs, sperm, embryos) is a highly individual process and it is difficult to know when & how to tell a child that they are donor conceived. My first experience of donor conception (DC) was in the early…
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has indicated that birth rates have fallen for the third year in a row. There were 657,076 live births in England and Wales in 2018, a decrease of 3.2% since 2017 and a 9.9%…
IVF success rates vary greatly between fertility clinics. In the UK, it is a statutory duty to report all IVF cycle outcomes. In the US, it’s a regulatory obligation. Clinics in the UK inform the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority…
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