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In Vitro Fertility Goddess
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Tuesday 30 September 2008
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Scientists have made another significant breakthrough which has the potential to offer treatment for hundreds of thousands of couples who suffer from so-called unexplained infertility.
A team from Oxford University have for the first time been able to explain and film why some embryos don't implant in the womb.
The researchers discovered two distinct proteins which play a key role in the embryo's latching to the womb. What they found is that once the embryo comes into contact with the womb, chemical signals are sent which allow the embryo's cells to invade the womb and then make connection with the mother's blood supply to form the placenta.
Professor Helen J. Mardon who led the study says that with "many women, attachment and implantation doesn't happen and this is a major cause of infertility. The embryo and womb lining talk to each other, molecularly speaking, which allows them to interact. When the embryo lands on the surface of the uterus wall, it triggers a cascade of signals in both the embryo and uterus. The resulting changes allow the embryo to invade the lining."
The two proteins involved in the crucial latching process belong to the family of Rho GTPases proteins and are called Rac1 and RhoA. Professor Mardon described how they both work: "The first stimulates cells in the womb lining to move and allow the embryo to invade and implant properly while the second inhibits this. We believe this controlled balance of the two proteins is critical for successful implantation of the embryo."
Professor Mardon concluded that if the balance between these two proteins is altered, the cells of the womb lining won't move aside to allow for implantation.
Now that the process behind implantation and its potential failure have been discovered, it could lead to the development of drugs that help embryos implant properly.
It's basically a guide to overcoming infertility naturally, containing useful, well researched, practical and genuine tips to improve the chances of improving implantation and achieving a natural pregnancy. It also includes the equally good eBook Preventing Miscarriage » For more on these eBooks click here » . . . . . . . . 
In the meantine, if you are looking for some immediate answers and solutions to suspected implantation failure, I highly recommend you have a look at The Fertility Plan »
I have a problem with the prenatal testing they send you for as an older mother. As if, as an older mother you don't have enough to worry about.
For example, are these memory problems due to pregnancy hormones or Alzheimers and should I be booking myself into Pine Needles Retirement Village the year my child starts at High School.
Not only is a potential joyous pregnancy marred with this testing and its possible results but one of the tests, amniocentesis, carries its own risk: it can be a cause of miscarriage! Prior to the amnio, they give you a Nuchal Translucency Test, which is special ultrasound to test for chances of Downs syndrome. If this test shows you are high risk, an amniocentesis follows, whereby they shove a needle through the stomach into the sac to extract amniotic fluid to test. Neither test has anywhere near a 100% accuracy so interpret the results according to whether you're an optimist or a pessimist.
I'm convinced that half the time you see the older mother celebrities frowning in their Versace maternity wear it's not, as the tabloids would have us believe, due to not being able to take movie roles or embark on world tours, but their impending prenatal testing results.
Who's to say that these people are not as shallow as they seem and have real worries like the rest of us?
Everyone assumed, for instance, that when Liz Hurley was pregnant the photos of her looking miserable were due to not fitting into her skimpy dresses but what if she was simply concerned that her baby would be a retarded billionaire? And if there's one thing the world doesn't need, it's another mentally deficient uber wealthy person. God knows we've got enough of them as it is.
Which begs the question, why are these people reproducing anyway? Haven't they got other more important pursuits like shopping and creating lead roles for themselves in movies they're producing because nobody else will hire them?
It hardly seems fair…
If there is one thing I wish I could have experienced, it's a pregnancy without bleeding.
I know this sounds selfish, as there are plenty of women who would simply like to experience a pregnancy. At least I can say I've been pregnant, a total of four times and, although I've only ended up with one child I have ended up with a greatly enriched vocabulary of words to describe red, pink and brown.
Three pregnancies ended in miscarriage in the first trimester and during the one successful (although at times dodgy) one, I experienced two lots of bleeding, in the first and third trimesters. Now if there's one thing to take the joy away from pregnancy it's to discover that you have bled or are bleeding. All of a sudden you go from dreamily checking Baby Goods catalogues to fanatically checking your underpants every hour.
With my first pregnancy I was somewhat ignorant about the potential ramifications of bleeding and in fact didn't initially have a clue that I was pregnant because I had this dark brown blood spotting at five weeks and thought it was the beginnings of a weird period. When, like mine, your periods are totally irregular, you have no idea about these things, it all becomes an accepted part of nature's flaws.
When the spotting seemed to stop, I bought a pregnancy test and tried it. The double lines were there and that was all the proof I needed that I was indeed pregnant. For all I knew brown bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy was normal and I didn't give it a second thought. However, just as I'd informed family and friends of my condition, the spotting returned, heavier, and like a brownish red discharge. At 6 weeks pregnancy I should have started to worry but kept trying to ignore it, even plugging it with tampons with the misguided idea it would go away.
Of course it didn't and I miscarried at 6 weeks and 5 days. Naturally, the second time around I was more alert to what was happening as the awful sense of déjà vu crept up on me again. The worse bit was, even with all the awareness in the world, there's not an ounce of empowerment. You feel utterly helpless, like you're observing the build up of a cyclone that could have fatal results or could turn into a low pressure system and fizzle out, without being able to do anything or extricate yourself from it in any way.
When I look back, each miscarriage and ‘threatened miscarriage' had some differences in the way they manifested. The first two miscarriages began with the brown spotting and yet the ‘threatened miscarriage' (although technically they're all ‘threatened miscarriages' until they actually happen), the one which went on to a successful pregnancy, was bright red to start with and then eventually became a kind of tea rose and then russet brown. All of this meant I was becoming fully conversant with the red spectrum of the Dulux chart. Really, I thought, books and doctor's surgeries should carry a type of ‘bleeding chart' with all the possible colours so we can identify them with greater accuracy.
The last miscarriage came on suddenly, starting with faint pinkish-but-not-fuchsia spotting and in twenty-four hours was in full swing.
All of this was very scary but the substantial crimson haemorrhaging I experienced in my third trimester was terrifying. To have gotten that far and to think that something was terribly wrong all of a sudden adds a new dimension to ‘fear in pregnancy', although of course heavy bleeding while pregnant is alarming at any stage.
After all of this doom and gloom, there are some slightly more cheery statistics out there, in that only 50% of women who bleed in the first trimester go on to miscarry. And as I said at the start, it's better to have been pregnant and bled than not been pregnant at all.
During my bleeding pregnancy, my husband bought me this Pregancy Pampering Kit while he was on a business trip to the US. I must say was fantastic! It's by no means a cure, but certainly gave me much needed papmpering and more importantly helped me keep my mind off it which I am convinced was instrumental in helping me pull through this terrible ordeal. Unfortunately, it's only available to US residents but the company assures me that they are looking to expand to other countries soon.
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So you are finally pregnant after however many heart-wrenching soul-and-budget-destroying tries at IVF.
Is it time to relax? To cut loose, feel normal again, to let your soon-to-be-luxuriant-thanks-to-pregnancy-hormones-hair down? Time to join all the other smug pregnants shopping at Egg and flaunting their bellies at every snatched opportunity?
By all means feel free to try but there are those of us, who, after so much worry and hopelessness, find it hard to stop worrying and rid ourselves of the nagging spectre of doom. After the euphoria of the positive pregnancy test wears off a feeling of anxiety, even fear can replace it.
Oh my God, how am I going to cope with twins/triplets/quads? What if after all this I miscarry? Will my baby/s be normal? Why am I thinking this stuff?
Maybe part of the reason lies with the fact that an IVF pregnancy is illuminated at every step of the way. There's barely a minute when you aren't being tested for something and monitored for something else long before you even conceive and beyond, until the end of the first trimester.
Firstly there's all the blood screening tests then the drug screening tests, the ultrasounds, then when your baby is barely more than a four cell genetic (and oh so cute - looks like DH when he first wakes up) cluster you get to see it on a screen and it gets a rating.
Meantime you are following its progress like you're the paparazzi and it's Paris Hilton.
You're obsessed with every detail, how many cells is it now, is it a Grade One or Two, how's it doing? Is it transfer-worthy? Is it implantation worthy? How's it doing? It's only eight cells and you're turning into an anxious parent mulling over its achievements.
On the day of the transfer, you're up at dawn, having not slept a wink. After the transfer you feel every little twinge, you don't want to drive or make any sudden movement in case you dislodge it. You become constipated for fear of it falling out when you go to the toilet.
You cross off not the days but the hours, the minutes, until the pregnancy test. No wonder, by the time you get it, you're exhausted. Then there is the scan to wait for before it becomes an official positive. You get to see the tiny pole beating. Then, if you're 35 or over you have the further abnormality testing to get through and another scan at the end of the first trimester.
Meantime the non-fertility challenged woman has had sex, merrily gone on her way probably drinking and generally obliviously enjoying herself. At some stage she realized her period was late and peed on a stick. Oh, OK, I ‘m pregnant. A couple of months later she rocks up at the obstetrician's office for her first appointment.
So it's little wonder the woman experiencing pregnancy after IVF may suffer higher anxiety levels than a non-fertility challenged woman and surprising that more of us don't end up sedated.
What do the statistics say? Is the IVF pregnancy less likely to succeed? Marginally.
There is a higher rate of miscarriage although this is largely due to IVF being prevalent amongst those over 35, where the rates of miscarriage are higher anyway.
There is a higher risk of premature birth but again this is so for multiple pregnancies or older women too. So there is nothing conclusive to say we should worry more but, I say, after all we've been through you can hardly blame us, can you?
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Wednesday 3 September, 2008
Source: University of Edinburgh
Pregnant women should stop using perfume as it could cause boys to suffer infertility or cancer in later life.
Researchers in Scotland studying rats found that the reproductive system of male foetuses could be damaged by chemicals found in common perfumes and scented creams.
Lead author Professor Richard Sharpe, principal investigator at the Medical Research Council's Human Sciences Unit in Edinburgh says the damage to the male foetus could lead to testicular cancer or infertility.
The most crucial time to avoid using perfumes would be in the 8 to 12 week of pregnancy, a period during which hormones in the foetus are activated and the male reproductive system is created.
Professor Sharpe told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper his research had discovered that the male programming window occurred far earlier in foetal development than was previously thought, before the reproductive organs fully develop.
He added: "Women could stop using body creams and perfumes. Although we do not have conclusive evidence that they do harm, there are components about which there are question marks; for example it could be certain combinations of chemicals."
Sarah Williams, IVFG Reporter
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Wednesday 3 September, 2008
Source: British Fertility Society
Experts from the British Fertility Society and the Association of Clinical Embryologists have called on fertility clinics to mainly use single embryos for women younger than 37 to reduce a rate of multiple births.
The call is aimed at helping Britain's fertility clinics to meet the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's three-year target to cut multiple pregnancy rates by more than half over the next three years. Currently, there were 11,262 children born through IVF treatment last year of whom 4,000 were twins.
Multiple pregnancies and births are the single biggest risk for women during fertility treatment because they increase the likelihood of premature birth miscarriage, long-term health problems for the child and can also endanger the mother's health.
Out of the more than 3.5 million babies born worldwide using assisted reproductive technology in the past 30 years, most since have been born to women aged between 30 and 39.
The move for single embryo implantation in Britain follows is not an isolated case as some European governments have already legislated to outlaw multiple implants reduce pregnancy risks.
The HFEA wants women younger than 37 who produce high quality embryos to only receive a single transfer during their first cycle and to freezed the other embryos for use later.
Sarah Williams, IVFG Reporter