Category: Fertility

An in vitro fertilization technique that can avoid multiple births appears to be effective for women older than 35, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.More than half the women in a retrospective study became pregnant after undergoing the procedure, called a single blastocyst transfer, which transferred just one embryo into the womb.

Starting and bringing up a family can cost parents dearly, however, some reproductive events work out costing a great deal more than others, according to an article published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Biological Sciences.Previous studies have demonstrated that having sons can reduce the lifespan of the mother - this higher cost can also be passed on to her other children.

For years researchers in neurology have believed that people with Huntington’s disease have more children than the general population because of behavioral changes associated with the disease that lead to sexual promiscuity. In a new Tufts University study, three biologists have challenged that notion by suggesting that people with Huntington’s have more children because they are healthier — not more promiscuous — during their peak reproductive years.

Men who have lower-pitched voices have more children than do men with high-pitched voices, researchers have found. And their study suggests that for reproductive-minded women, mate selection favours men with low-pitched voices.The study, published in Biology Letters, offers insight into the evolution of the human voice as well as how we choose our mates.

A slightly greater number of males than females are born worldwide every year. In recent decades, although there are still more baby boys born than girls, there has been an apparent decline in the ratio of male to female newborns in several industrialized countries, including Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found nearly 350 genes related to female fertility. Their research may open the door to much wider study in the poorly understood field of infertility.”This study gives us a way to begin to understand the causes of female infertility,” said Dr. Diego Castrillon, assistant professor of pathology and senior author of a study appearing in the September issue of the journal Genetics.

Join Saks Fifth Avenue and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) Oct. 18 - 21 for the KEY TO THE CURE shopping weekend at Saks Fifth Avenue in Westshore Plaza, Tampa. During the four-day event, Saks Fifth Avenue will donate two percent of all sales for research of women’s reproductive cancers at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. A Kickoff Party will get the weekend started. On Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

A number of couples in Israel were told their fetuses screened positive for Gaucher’s disease and decided to terminate their pregnancies. Gaucher’s disease ranges from mild and very treatable to severe. An article in the September 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) puts forward a number of questions regarding the appropriateness of some types of genetic screenings.

The 14th World Congress on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and the 3rd World Congress on In Vitro Maturation (IVM) will be held in Montreal from September 15 to 19, 2007. These two events will unite the main experts in these fields for a five-day meeting in Montreal that could lead to potentially enormous scientific and human impacts.Researchers from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) will be among the leading speakers at the event.

Most of us have never heard of immune infertility, yet it prevents many prospective parents from conceiving. Immune infertility is one of 80 autoimmune disorders, a group that includes better known diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and Type 1 Diabetes. This reproductive disorder affects both men and women, causing their immune systems to wage war on sperm.