Couple have baby boy after being first to conceive using 'fertility sat nav'

A delighted couple revealed last week they were the first to conceive with an IVF alternative dubbed the 'fertility sat nav'.
Marie and Mirco Martinelli believed they would never be able to have children after suffering three miscarriages in just two years.
They signed up for IVF but were told there was a two-year waiting list for treatment.
So they took part in a trial for DuoFertility, a ground-breaking temperature measuring device that promised pregnancy within 12 months.
They began using the £495 device in January 2009 and were delighted when Marie became pregnant after just seven months.
Baby Alec was born on March 20 this year and is the first baby to be born through the device - which claims to be statistically as good as IVF.
Secretary Marie, 29, who lives in Italy with Mirco, 37, and little Alec, now seven months, said she was "so happy" they had used the device.
She said: 'I was very worried and sad when I kept having miscarriages. The whole world was pregnant and had babies and I struggled to get pregnant and couldn't stay pregnant.
'DuoFertility stopped me thinking of myself as having a problem, and suddenly I was able to sleep more normally and feel a great deal calmer.
'Where the product calculates your fertile days after a few months, it was impossible for me to have been able to do that properly without proper scientific approaches, because my cycle was different all the time.
'In the past I had tried ovulation tests, but if you have to use them for a long time it becomes very expensive.'
Dutch Marie - who met Italian Mirco in Italy in Summer 2002 - suffered her first miscarriage after six weeks of pregnancy in March 2005.
n May 2005, the couple visited a fertility clinic, which broke the news that Marie had abnormal hormone levels.
They lost another baby at 13 weeks in February 2006 and another at 11 weeks in September the same year, before deciding to take a break from trying.
In May 2008 Marie and Mirco married in Italy and decided their only option was to use fertility treatment - but lost hope when they were told of the lengthy waiting list for IVF.
Shortly after, Marie noticed an advert for DuoFertility - a small patch the size of a coin which takes 20,000 temperature readings every night to pinpoint the exact moment of ovulation.
She began using the product in January 2009 and was delighted when she fell pregnant just months later.
Alec was born in Italy at 1.54am on March 20 after a gruelling 19 hour labour.
Marie added: 'When they showed me Alec I couldn't believe he was my son. I remember he was so warm and soft.
'Micro was full of joy and happiness and also could not believe that this was his son. Still now we can't believe that this little person is our baby.
'When they brought me back to my room and laid Alec at my breast I was so proud. Finally, my little boy.'
DuoFerility was developed by scientists and fertility experts at Cambridge Temperature Concepts in 2008.
The non-invasive device comprises of a tiny patch thermometer - the size of a £1 coin - that is worn under the arm.
It promises to alert a woman to the moment her temperature rises half a degree as a result of ovulation.
A small wireless hand-held reader processes data from the patch to tell the wearer whether she has ovulated in the last two days and whether she is likely to in the next six.
Women are most fertile on the day of the temperature spike and on the few days before - meaning chances of conception are massively increased by trying on those days.
Information from the reader can be loaded onto a computer, which allows couples - and experts in Cambridge - to analyse the monthly fertility cycle.
Dr Shamus Husheer, who invented the device said the company was "delighted" with their success and the birth of baby Alec.
He said: 'What we now know as a result of our work, is that for certain causes of infertility, DuoFertility is as effective as IVF.
'Clearly there are some infertility issues where the use of the device is unable to aid pregnancy such as a complete lack of sperm, however for a range of common causes such as moderate male factors, cycle irregularity, secondary or unexplained infertility, our monitoring device is achieving great results.'

Pregnant IVF women more at risk of death

Researchers believe the increased threat may come from the body rejecting donated eggs or underlying health problems that may come to the fore during artificial conception.
They want increased vigilance so that the exact nature of the risk can be calculated.
"Women should be counselled and made aware of the risks they are taking and deaths should be properly reported," Professor Didi Braat at Radboud University in the Netherlands told the Sunday Times.
Prof Braat looked at the deaths between 1984 and 2008 in the Netherlands but believes they will apply to any developed country.
She found 17 women who died in pregnancy who had had IVF treatment – a death rate of 42.5 for every 100,000 pregnancies.
The death rate is 12.1 in every 100,000 for women who conceived naturally.
The rising age of mothers may be increasing the number of complications. Last year nearly 27,000 women over 40 gave birth, a rise of 50 per cent in a decade.
The research was published in the journal Human Reproduction.

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. "

Now, a test to predict successful pregnancy

Scientists have developed a new test to predict which of a woman's eggs are likely to lead to a successful pregnancy.

At present, the only way of deciding which eggs to use in the IVF (In-vitro Fertilisation) process is to examine them through a microscope. This gives doctors little chance of picking up the kind of abnormalities that cause the procedure to fail.

In the ground-breaking trial, conducted by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the test accurately predicted whether a woman's egg was normal in 90 percent of cases.

The procedure involves removing waste cells, known as polar bodies, from the egg, which are produced shortly before and after fertilisation, to see if they have the correct number of chromosomes.

If the polar bodies have the correct number, so does the egg and this improves the chance of implanting in the womb and creating a successful pregnancy.

Scientists at the University of Bonn and the Sismer centre in Bologna tested polar bodies from 226 fertilised eggs from 41 women. Only one in four eggs from this group of women was normal.

The test can be completed within 12 to 13 hours, meaning it can fit into a normal cycle of IVF.

Folic acid intake in late pregnancy leads to asthma in child

Children whose mothers have taken folic acid supplements in late pregnancy are at greater risk of developing allergic asthma, researchers said.

According to a recent study by University of Adelaide’s Robinson Institute, supplemental folic acid in late pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma in children at the age of 3 to 5 years.

The timing of supplementation in pregnancy is important, one of the authors Michael Davies said, adding “folic acid supplements - recommended for pregnant women to prevent birth defects - appear to have “additional and unexpected” consequences in recent studies in mice and infants“.

“In our study, supplemental folic acid in late pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma in children, but there was no evidence to suggest any adverse effects if supplements were taken in early pregnancy,” he said.

The study involved more than 500 women whose maternal diet and supplements were assessed twice during their pregnancy, with follow—up on their child’s asthma status at 3.5 years and 5.5 years, American Journal of Epidemiology reported.

Asthma was reported in 11.6 per cent of children at 3.5 years and 11.8 per cent of children at 5.5 years. Nearly a third of these children reported persistent asthma.

Current public health guidelines recommend that women consume a supplemental dose of 400 micrograms of folic acid per day in the month preceding and during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Transsexual seeks further IVF treatment after miscarriage

Ruben Noe Coronado, a 26 year old transsexual man from Spain, and his partner Esperanza Ruiz are to undertake a second round of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment. Mr Coronado recently miscarried in the 18th week of pregnancy and lost the twins he was carrying.

Mr Coronado, born Estefania Coronado Jimenez, has been living as a man since the age of 18 when he decided to undergo gender reassignment before having his breasts surgically removed. However, Mr Coronado still has his female reproductive organs and interrupted his hormone treatments and delayed plans to have a full sex change, to become pregnant with his 43-year old partner who can no longer have children. The couple have spent years finding a IVF clinic that would treat them and finally had success with a clinic in Barcelona where they plan to have further treatment to become pregnant again.

It was discovered during a routine check-up the the twins had no heart beats and a scan showed that both of the babies had died. The doctors assessed that Mr Coronado's womb had not expanded enough for twins. They also emphasised that this was not related to testosterone injections the Mr Coronado usually administered as he had stopped taking the hormones to conceive and were no longer in his system.Mr Coronado said: 'We were devastated at losing our twins. Esperanza was desperate to be a mum and I was looking forward to being a dad'.

The couple has spent 16,000 Euros on IVF treatment but are eager to try again. Mr Coronado also said that: 'I want to help change people's prejudices, so more transsexual men can give birth in future'. Mr Coronado and Ms Ruiz are not the first transsexual couple in the public eye to have IVF treatment to become pregnant. Last year, a transsexual man in Oregon, US was photographed while pregnant with his daughter, who was then born in July 2008.