Screening Technique Improves In Vitro Odds

Scientists develop one-minute questionnaire

(NEWSER) - British scientists have developed a one-minute test they swear is a highly reliable predictor of whether a couple can conceive a child with in vitro fertilization, the Telegraph reports. What's more, it's a questionnaire—no blood or tissue sampling required. It's already available for free here and will soon be out as a smartphone app. More»

(NEWSER) - Some couples are unable to conceive because the woman's eggs screen his sperm for DNA quality and give it a thumbs down, the Independent reports. Scientists in Britain and the US have spotted this "lock-and-key" mechanism in which eggs "read" sperm's DNA, most of which is tightly packed inside. If tests are developed, this research could help couples understand their infertility and ensure the success of vitro fertilizations. More»

In-vitro pregnancies of older women show no rise in complications

(NEWSER) - Women in their 50s who receive donated eggs have just as healthy pregnancies as their younger counterparts who do the same, a new study shows. In the largest analysis to date, researchers found that 101 women age 50 and older who used in-vitro fertilization had no more complications than women under 42 who used IVF, reports LiveScience . More»

Study links blood type A to higher egg count, better eggs

(NEWSER) - Women with type O blood may have more difficulty conceiving a child as they get older, a new study suggests. Researchers tested a group of 560 women seeking fertility treatment whose average age was slightly under 35, and found that those with type O blood had fewer and poorer-quality eggs than other women. Type A women, meanwhile, had more and better quality eggs, the Daily Telegraph reports. More»

Author recounts her use of 'selective reduction'

(NEWSER) - At age 43, Bettina Paige turned to fertility treatments to get pregnant to provide a sibling for her young son. It worked, too well. When the doctor used the word she didn't want to hear—twins—Paige, faced with the possibility that "we’d have to leave our beloved neighborhood for a place with cheaper rents," decided to use her "contingency plan" of selective reduction. "I’d never thought—or felt—through actually using it," she writes in a possibly wrenching, possibly infuriating account for Elle . "I didn’t even know how the procedure was done. Now I was horrified at the idea of terminating one of the fetuses growing inside me by injecting potassium chloride into his or her heart." More»