A new study shows that the genesis of a new human being is accompanied by fireworks. The amazing fireworks display that the egg puts on using zinc atoms when the egg is fertilized is shown in the video below. In an article published in Nature Chemistry, Dr. Theresa Woodruff and her team discovered that the […]
The CDC has updated its recommendation regarding steps to prevent Ebola infection via contaminated semen through intercourse. They recommend that male survivors consistently use condoms during sex to avoid the spread of Ebola because persistent virus has been detected in semen for a much longer than expected time period post infection. Ebola virus was detected […]
Unexplained infertility is the diagnosis that women (and men) get when everything looks normal but they can’t conceive. A recent study published in Nature this month may go a long way to explaining some of this unexplained infertility. Dr. Gavin Wright and his team at the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain have identified a […]
A recent study by researcher Courtney Lynch, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center showed that sustained levels of stress was associated with a longer time to conception. The study was performed by conducting questionnaires regarding perceived stress, testing for biomarkers of stress in saliva samples and charting the […]
I read a really interesting HuffPost article about a variety of infertility causes that you might not be aware of by Jena Pincott called, “Surprising Reasons You’re Not Getting Pregnant Right Away”. It’s a fun read and I have talked about some of these issues before here – Laptop Lap Dance Dangerous to Sperm Bisphenol […]
Would anyone read an article about mitochondrial transfer? Not so much. But a screaming headline about human babies that have three parents? – now that gets everyone’s attention. Reality as usual, is more nuanced than the headlines. So before all the hyperventilation starts, let’s get the science part straight. Mitochondrial DNA. We inherit our mitochondrial […]
The big news item yesterday was the announcement that Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University and his colleagues produced embryonic stem cells from a human clone they produced. Their study, Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, was published in Cell. How they made a […]
Recently, I received this question from a blog reader, ” I want to ask you about testicular stem cell transplantation– is it true or hoax?”. The short answer is, “No, it is not a hoax, but it is not a clinical treatment yet either”. I found this review article, “Restoring Fertility in Sterile Childhood Cancer […]
IVF practitioners have long recognized that extremely high estrogen levels from ovarian stimulation cycles can result in a syndrome called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome or (OHSS) which, if severe, can cause serious complications. Rarely, OHSS has caused patient deaths. In these high E2 cycles, the resulting embryos are often frozen and transferred in a later cycle […]
Selecting the best sperm for ICSI is not a big deal if most of the sperm are normal. Where it becomes more tricky is when you are hard pressed to find a normal appearing sperm in the sample. Some defects like sperm with two heads, huge heads, two tails, kinked tails are easy to detect […]
