Gym fanatics risk fertility problems

Researchers found that exercising daily or to the point of exhaustion made fertility problems three times more likely.
While experts agree that a certain amount of physical exercise has obvious health benefits, it is believed that too much saps the body of the energy it needs for a successful pregnancy. The findings were made by Norwegian University of Science and Technology after a study of 3,000 women.
Although it is known that some elite female athletes have problems starting a family, other women who push themselves to the limit also appear to be affected.
In a survey, the women were questioned about the frequency, duration and intensity of their fitness regimes between 1984 and 1986. In a follow-up 10 years later, they were asked about their pregnancies.
Sigridur Lara Gudmundsdottir, who led the study, said: "Among all these women, we found two groups who experienced an increased risk of infertility. There were those who trained almost every day, and there were those who trained until they were completely exhausted. Those who did both had the highest risk of infertility."
Even after taking other factors such as age, weight, marital status and smoking into account, figures showed those who trained the hardest were three times more likely to have fertility problems than those who exercised moderately.
Younger women appeared to be more vulnerable to the risk. Among the under-30s who exercised the most, a quarter were unable to conceive during their first year of trying, compared to the national average of roughly seven per cent.
However, the negative effects of a punishing routine did not appear to be permanent. "The vast majority of women in the study had children in the end," Gudmundsdottir said.
"And those who trained the hardest in the middle of the 1980s were actually among those who had the most children in the 1990s," she added.
It was not known whether this was because the women had simply changed their activity levels or because their hormone profile improved with time. There was no evidence of impaired fertility through moderate amounts of exercise.
Gudmundsdottir advised that women who want babies should still maintain their fitness - but "ease off a bit" and avoid extremes. "We believe it is likely that physical activity at a very high or very low level has a negative effect on fertility, while moderate activity is beneficial," she said.

New Measurement of Telomere DNA Could Help Identify Most Viable Embryos for IVF

Scientists from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, are the first to directly measure a specific region of DNA in human embryos. The length of this region could be a quality marker for embryonic development.

Researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School and University Hospital, Coventry, have measured telomeres, regions of repetitive DNA at the ends of a chromosome which protect it from deterioration. Telomeres shorten each time a cell divides and when telomere length becomes critically short, the cells die.

The research, published in Molecular Human Reproduction Journal, suggests that telomere length is shortest in the early stages of an embryo's development, at around two days, and then lengthens just before implantation in the womb at five days. This lengthening may be essential for normal development, because short telomeres may not be enough to survive the many rounds of cell division that take place as embryos grow.

Lead authors Professor Geraldine Hartshorne, from the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School, and Sarah Turner, from University Hospital , Coventry, said this discovery could have implications for IVF treatment. Professor Hartshorne said: "It has already been shown that artificially shortened telomeres cause problems in animal embryos. Human embryos are highly variable, and many of them cannot develop normally. We think that telomere length might one day be used to help diagnose which are the most viable embryos. We also know that telomeres shorten with oxidative stress, so telomere length might also provide a measure of the stressfulness of the culture systems that we use in IVF and their impact on embryos."

The research project used oocytes and embryos donated by patients undergoing IVF treatment. Only material that could not be used for the patients' own treatment was accessed for research. Sarah Turner said: These results have given us plenty of new questions as well as answers. We now need to find out why telomere length is relatively short in early development. Our next steps are looking at single sperm and eggs to work out where the telomere length in early embryos is coming from. "

Meet the frozen sperm siblings born 15 years after their father was left infertile from cancer

As a family photograph, it is hardly out of the ordinary - two-year-old Mariella hugs her baby brother Herbie.

Yet for parents Ian and Alison Morris, it is a reminder that these are the children they never thought they could have.

Mariella and seven-month-old Herbie were born using Mr Morris's frozen sperm, stored for an astonishing 13 years after cancer treatment left him infertile.

Following his successful battle against the disease, the couple had several unsuccessful attempts at starting a family using IVF and were close to giving up in despair.

But one final try, in February 2007, worked and Mariella was born the following October.

Incredibly, the couple then had a second success last year with Herbie, by which time Mr Morris's sperm had been frozen for 15 years.

Mrs Morris, 37, said: 'I thought I'd never be a mum so to have our two miracle frozen babies really is the most wonderful thing.'

Mr Morris, 49, a design engineer, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in March 1994, three years after the couple married.

His wife, a buyer for a television shopping channel, said: 'We were just so shocked. The level of cancer in cells in his body was so high that the doctors said they were amazed he was still standing.'

Fortunately, Mr Morris's brother Barry was the perfect match for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Before the treatment, which involved chemotherapy, doctors warned him to have his sperm frozen as he would be left infertile.

After Mr Morris's recovery, the couple, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, decided to try for a family in 2002.

Mrs Morris said: 'We had been really hopeful when we had our first try at IVF as we knew there was nothing wrong with me, and we were using the frozen sperm. So when it didn't work we were devastated.'

A second and third attempt failed before they went to specialist clinic Care Fertility in Nottingham for a last try.

Mrs Morris said: 'We only had two embryos of good enough quality so we knew we didn't have much of a chance. So when I did a pregnancy test and saw the positive blue line, I just couldn't believe my eyes.

'I went for a scan at six weeks... when I saw the tiny heartbeat on the screen I just burst into tears.'

The record for a live birth from frozen sperm is 21 years, in Manchester in 2002.

Chemicals in old furniture can make it harder to get pregnant

Exposure to chemicals found in household objects such as furniture, carpets and electronic equipment increases the time taken to become pregnant, according to a study published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Professor Kim Harley and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) School of Public Health found that women with a higher blood concentration of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which have been used as flame retardants since the 1970s, took 'significantly' longer to conceive. It is the first study in humans to examine the association between PBDEs and fertility.

The researchers interviewed 223 pregnant women living in a predominantly Mexican-immigrant, low-income community in northern California. They were asked how long it had taken for them to conceive and blood samples were collected. 'For every tenfold increase in PBDEs in the blood, we saw a 30 per cent to 50 per cent decrease in the odds of becoming pregnant in any given month,' said Professor Harley. The researchers controlled for other factors, such as pesticide exposure, which could potentially affect fertility.

PBDEs were commonly used in the US after the implementation of new fire safety standards four decades ago. Production of certain types of PBDE ceased in 2004, but the chemicals are still found in older products. Previous studies showed that 97 per cent of Americans have detectable levels of these chemicals in their blood, with Californians having higher than average levels due to strict flammability laws. Overall, the levels found in the new study were below the national average.

Household items are considered a major source of PDBE exposure. After leaching out, the chemicals can be inhaled with house dust and stored in the body's fat cells. The chemicals are also found in some foods, such as dairy products and high-fat meat. It is unclear how PDBEs may impair fertility, but one possibility is that they alter the level of the thyroid hormone, which is believed to play an important role in fertility. They have previously been associated with reproductive and hormonal defects in animals.

Industry spokesman John Kyte responded to the study by saying that the findings are limited to PBDEs no longer in use, the environmental levels of which are expected to decline over time. However, Professor Harley maintained that although several PDBEs are banned, exposure is likely to continue for many years. She also described the need for research into newer flame retardants: 'We know less about the health effects of these new chemicals than we do about PBDEs'. This is not the first time that chemicals found in household materials have been linked to reproductive problems. In January 2009 scientists found a link between perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and fertility, and in May last year household chemicals were reported to disrupt the sexual development of male fetuses.