IVF-Lite gives hope to older women who have trouble getting pregnant

It's widely known that as women age, their chances of becoming pregnant decrease. Women older than 38, in particular, often have fewer and lower quality eggs and don't respond as well as younger women to conventional efforts to produce eggs for in vitro fertilization — or IVF.

But plenty of women in this age group want to become pregnant. And they do have options.

Conventional IVF is one of these options, but it involves large doses of hormones and can cost Rs 150,000 or more per cycle for older women, with poor results. Many IVF programs turn them down anyway. Some women choose to use donor eggs, but many want to become pregnant with their own eggs. The best solution for such patients is IVF-Lite.

IVF-Lite aims to use smaller numbers of higher quality eggs. It requires fewer fertility drugs than conventional IVF, producing the best quality eggs possible and reducing the cost of drugs from an average of Rs. 100,000 to just Rs.20,000. The procedure is minimally invasive, so women experience little to no pain afterward. And it doesn't involve huge hormonal swings or ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a complication involving swelling of the ovaries that about one out of 10 conventional IVF patients experience because of certain fertility medications.

The success of IVF-Lite is enhanced by a new method of embryo freezing called vitrification, or essentially "flash-freezing," which avoids the damage caused by ice forming inside the cell during slow freezing. It is also enhanced by specialized air purification systems that give the eggs the best environment in which to develop.

Think of this simple parable: If you are sitting under an apple tree and wish to eat the most ripe and ready apples, you have a choice. You can chop down the tree and look at every apple on the fallen tree to see which ones were ready. Or you can simply try to shake the lower branches and eat the one or two that have fallen. That is the idea of IVF-Lite. It may not work for everyone, but for many patients, especially older women, it will remove much of the aggravation and cost associated with conventional IVF. Our team at Deccan Fertility Clinic (www.testtubebabyclinic.com) specializes in IVF-Lite & Vitrification at the most affordable rates across the Indian sub-continent. Deccan Fertility Clinic is India's first budget IVF Center, located at Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai.

Data Demonstrate ViaMetrics-E Improves Implantation Rates In Single Embryo Transfer IVF Cycles, A Growing Trend In Infertility Treatment

Researchers from Molecular Biometrics, Inc. presented new data this week demonstrating that the company's ViaMetrics-E procedure more accurately predicts implantation rates in single embryo transfer (SET) cycles for patients undergoing infertility treatment. ViaMetrics-E is a rapid, non-invasive procedure used to enhance in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes by identifying viable embryos having the greatest reproductive potential. These research findings were presented this week at the 26th annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Rome.

ViaMetrics-E is now available commercially in select countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim. The company expects to launch the product in other countries in Europe and Asia later this year. Molecular Biometrics is currently working to complete the necessary regulatory requirements to market the product in the U.S.

"Single embryo transfer is a significant and growing trend in infertility treatment in many countries, designed to help reduce the number of multiple births, and the costs and complications associated with them. Providing infertility specialists with greater confidence in identifying the best embryo(s) for transfer clearly supports this growing worldwide clinical focus," said James T. Posillico, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Molecular Biometrics. "ViaMetrics-E, when used in conjunction with morphology -- the standard visual assessment of embryos -- gives infertility specialists a valuable new tool to more accurately predict implantation rates while reducing the potential of multiple births. Molecular Biometrics believes this is beneficial for patients, infertility specialists and the healthcare system overall."

Data described in a podium presentation delivered by Denny Sakkas, Ph.D., Adjunct Associate Professor, Yale University School of Medicine, Director of the Embryology Laboratory at Yale Fertility Center, and Molecular Biometrics' Chief Scientific Officer, indicate that differences in ViaMetrics-E Viability Scores could have an impact on which embryo to transfer in a patient's individual IVF cycle, and increase the potential for a successful pregnancy. Each Viability Score reflects the "health" or reproductive potential of the developing embryo.

In this study, spent culture media from 439 embryos from 114 patients were analyzed. Results of this study showed that Day 5 embryos of similar morphology recorded a wide variation in Viability Scores. The data further show that Day 5 embryos with the best morphology within the cohort had the best Viability Scores in only 26% of the cases, indicating that, in 74% of cases, a different embryo may have been identified for transfer using ViaMetrics-E. The authors concluded that choosing embryos with the best metabolic profiles within a cohort, in addition to morphology, could have a significant impact on the identification of the best embryos for SET.

"Because only one embryo is transferred during a single embryo transfer, identifying the embryo with the greatest reproductive potential is critical," added Sakkas. "The non-invasive assessment of embryo culture using ViaMetrics-E technology can give clinicians greater confidence in identifying embryos with the highest potential for successful implementation, directly supporting the greater adoption of SET."

Results from two other studies presented at the ESHRE conference further demonstrated the role ViaMetrics-E might play in identifying the best embryo for single embryo transfer.

Data presented by Emre Seli, M.D., Associate Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Yale University School of Medicine and Chair of Molecular Biometrics' Scientific Advisory Board, compared the assessment of morphology, Viability Scores produced by ViaMetrics-E and a combination of morphology and Viability Scores in the evaluation of an embryo's reproductive potential (determined by an embryo's positive and negative fetal cardiac activity (FCA) at 12 weeks of gestation). Analysis of 209 spent embryo culture media samples collected following Day 5 SET cycles from five IVF centers in the U.S., Europe and Australia indicated that a ViaMetrics-E Viability Score more accurately predicts embryo implantation rates than does morphology alone. The authors concluded that metabolic assessment of an embryo could yield up to 15% better predictability than morphology alone.

Data presented by Lucy Botros, M.Sc., Molecular Biometrics, assessed the accuracy of ViaMetrics-E in predicting the implantation potential of individual embryos. In an international, multi-center study, 248 spent culture media samples from eight infertility centers in the U.S., Europe and Australia were collected following single embryo transfer on Day 2 (n=176) and Day 5 (n=72). The samples were then evaluated using pre-established algorithms. For both transfer days, as the Viability Score for samples increased -- indicating greater reproductive potential of an individual embryo -- so did the associated pregnancy rate (defined as fetal cardiac activity or FCA). The authors concluded that analysis of spent culture media using ViaMetrics-E can assist in the identification of embryos with the greatest reproductive potential.

Peanuts Forever!

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.

Bruce Lee Ping Pong

Air pollution can stop woman getting pregnant through IVF

Excessive exposure to air pollution might increase the chance of In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) failure, a new study has found.

A team of fertility experts tested more than 7,000 women undergoing IVF in various American hospitals and analysed the results over seven years - from 2000 to 2007, telegraph.co.uk reported.

Dr Duanping Liao, a professor of epidemiology at Penn State College of Medicine, Pennsylvania, who worked on the research, said: "Numerous studies have consistently shown a relationship between air pollution and human health, ranging from mortality, cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions.

"In the process of searching for the mechanisms responsible for the above associations, we, and others, have reported significant links between air pollution and inflammation and increased blood clotting.

"These intermediate factors are also associated with reproductive health."

Experts say that burning of fossil fuels and diesel are the main causes of nitrogen dioxide production.

The researchers worked out daily pollution concentrations for each patient during the entire IVF process and pregnancy.

Dr Liao added: "Since IVF is a well controlled and highly timed process, we have a much better handle on the assessment of the time of exposures to elevated air pollutants in relationship to fertilisation, pregnancy, and delivery.

"Therefore, the IVF population coupled with detailed assessment of air pollution exposures may provide us an ideal situation to investigate the potential health effects of air quality on human reproduction."

Golf shot of the century!

At the Master’s every year they have a practice round (every tournament does).

The 16th hole is a par three with water from the Tee box all the way to green.

The tradition during the practice round is for the pro’s to try and skip their ball

over the water onto the green.

The one’s who don’t try to skip their ball over the water get booed.

This is a clip of Vijay Singh skipping his ball over the water on Hole #16 during the practice round.