Wednesday, January 23, 2013

In Vitro News

. A new study has shown that babies conceived by IVF using frozen embryos may be born later and weigh more than babies born from fresh embryos. This is good. And it's significant, because premature birth is linked with all sorts of issues. So if an embryo can survive the thaw, the odds of which are not in its favor, it seems to have an edge.

. Britain has seen a rise in the number of women choosing selective reduction in order to give birth to fewer children in a multiple pregnancy. One in three selective reductions involved pregnancies resulting from IVF. Of the 85 women opting for a selective reduction in 2010:

* 51 reduced twins to a single baby
* 20 reduced triplets to twins
* 9 expecting triplets chose to give birth to one child
* 5 women gave birth to twins following pregnancy with 4-5 fetuses

 Officials are issuing a renewed call for restrictions on the number of embryos transferred to the uterus during IVF.

. A UK study suggests that the number of embryos to transfer—one or two—depends on the mother’s age. At all ages, patients should avoid the transfer of three or more in order to prevent adverse effects on both mother and child, according to this research. Two seems to be the optimum number for women over forty.

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