Due Soon: Three-Parent Babies?

Sets new record; previous was 13 years

(NEWSER) - Thanks to IVF, a baby conceived 20 years ago was just recently born. The baby boy sets a new record for the longest-frozen human embryo to result in a live birth, the Telegraph reports. The previous record was 13 years. The chain of events for this baby’s birth began in 1990, when a couple who had already completed their family anonymously donated the rest of their frozen embryos to other couples. More»

Are discount clinics a good idea?

(NEWSER) - Fertility treatment doesn't come cheap—IVF typically costs $15,000. But a new wave of clinics hope to ease the expense, reports Newsweek . In St. Louis, for instance, a new facility offers a range of treatments for about $7,500. The goal is equal access, say supporters. "A woman’s right to have a chance to try to have a child should be available to all,” one doc says. More»

(NEWSER) - A British fertility clinic implanted the wrong embryo into a woman who aborted it as soon as she found out, dashing another couple's hopes of having their second baby, reports the Telegraph. When a lab assistant informed the couple, they "held each other and sobbed," said the woman. “I remember thinking: ‘That’s our last hope gone—we will never have another child.’" A rash of recent mistakes has resulted in calls for more regulation of the fertility industry. More»

Study finds no negative effects compared with fresh

(NEWSER) - When it comes to in vitro fertilization, frozen might be better than fresh, a new study shows. Infants born after being implanted in mothers' wombs as frozen embryos were no more likely than those from fresh stock to be born with congenital defects, the BBC reports; but they were also significantly heavier, and less likely to be born prematurely. More»

Research shows dropoff of up to 15%

(NEWSER) - Aspirin and other similar painkillers may ward off skin cancer, according to new research. About 20 years of skin cancer data in Denmark show that people who had taken NSAIDs—nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers—were 15% less likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 13% less likely to have malignant melanoma, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»