Move to restrict IVF treatments could hurt many women

LONDON - The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF treatments in the UK, is to place restrictions on the number of embryos that can be implanted in women. Instead of the current two embryos, officials are planning to implant just one because of fears that IVF treatments would lead to a surge in multiple births.

The Observer reported that only those women who do not respond to treatment and older women would be eligible to receive more than one embryo. Some 30,000 women undergo IVF treatment annually in the country.

Critics said the new rules would halve the chance of successful conception in women. HFEA is also thought to be on the verge of instructing doctors to cut the incidence of multiple births through IVF from the prevailing 25 percent to around 10 percent.

The new policy is supposed to receive backing from fertility organizations like "Tamba, the Infertility Network UK, the Multiple Births Foundation and the British Fertility Society," the Observer reported.

The BBC though reports that the HFEA has denied reports it was about to bring these restrictions in place. It said the decision was yet to be made and if it is to be made then a public consultation would be launched first.

Recent Research Says Single-Embryo Transfer IVF as Effective as Multiple Embryo Transfers

An increasing amount of research, including a study published in the March 22 edition of the journal Lancet, suggests that implanting one embryo for in vitro fertilization treatment is as likely to result in pregnancy as implanting multiple embryos, but some physicians say that most IVF patients are not interested in single-embryo transfer, the Boston Globe reports. According to the Globe, the likelihood of multiple births, premature birth and low birthweight increase with the number of embryos implanted during an IVF procedure. The Lancet study, led by Bart Fauser of Utrecht University, compared a group of women under age 38 who underwent a single-embryo transfer and a milder ovarian stimulation with a group of women who underwent multiple embryo transfers and standard ovarian stimulation. The multiple embryo group had a higher pregnancy rate after one or two IVF cycles, but the rate of the two was the same after one year.

Read full news at Recent Research Says Single-Embryo Transfer IVF as Effective as Multiple Embryo Transfers

Fat content of dairy foods influences fertility

Question: Women sometimes have trouble conceiving because of problems with ovulation. Might the foods they eat - specifically, the fat content of dairy products, thought by some to affect ovulation - alter women's odds of becoming pregnant?

The study: It analyzed medical and diet data on 18,555 married women, most in their early 30s, who had no history of fertility problems and who had tried to conceive or had become pregnant. During an eight-year span, infertility caused by an ovulatory problem was diagnosed in 438 of the women. This type of infertility was 85 percent more likely among those who consumed two or more servings a week of low-fat dairy products (such as skim milk, yogurt, sherbet, cottage cheese) than among women whose low-fat dairy intake was less than a serving a week. By contrast, women who consumed at least one serving a week of a high-fat dairy product (whole milk, ice cream, cheese) were 27 percent less likely to have ovulation-related infertility. Analysis of specific foods indicated that eating ice cream at least twice a week lowered the risk of infertility by 38 percent; adding a serving a day of yogurt increased the risk by 11 percent.
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Who may be affected by these findings: Women trying to conceive. Fertility is generally questioned when couples have been trying to conceive unsuccessfully for a year. Problems with ovulation are the source of infertility among women about a third of the time.

Read full article at Fat content of dairy foods influences fertility