When I adopted a pair of twins, one of the first things that struck me was how many doctor's appointments they needed to go to. As we took them to all of their baby well-checks, I realised that these appointments were designed to find and address issues early before they caused other problems. Fortunately, our family paediatrician found a few critical problems that we were able to resolve head-on, and it was immensely helpful. Check out this blog for information about health care, preventative care, and helping your child to enjoy a better life. I know that some of these tips helped me, and I know that they can help you too.
While most men and women who are one day planning to have children never anticipate finding themselves seeking out the assistance of an infertility center, for many couples and individuals around the country, this is exactly what happens. Infertility, or an inability to conceive and/or carry a child to term is an increasingly discussed problem across the globe. Because of this fact, doctors and researchers are often seeking out newer and more effective ways of treating and addressing infertility problems and helping couples and individuals to conceive and successfully carry a healthy baby to term. Get to know some of the new innovations in infertility treatment that are currently being researched and developed so that you can stay up-to-date if you are concerned that you may one day need medical assistance with infertility problems.
Cancer Drug Could Reverse Infertility In Women
One of the latest and most interesting breakthroughs in infertility treatments was actually discovered by doctors administering cancer treatments to patients suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma. A drug combination referred to as ABVD is often used to treat this particular form of cancer and has long been recognized as a cancer treatment that does not cause infertility in patients.
This benefit in and of itself is one of the drug combination's many benefits to patients, however recent studies performed on the ovarian tissue of female patients undergoing ABVD treatments also found that women who go through this treatment actually have more eggs (oovum) in their ovaries than women of the same age who have not gone through the treatment, even up to 10 times more eggs.
Upon seeing this, doctors posited that these particular cancer drugs in the body cause a reaction that stimulates the stem cells in the ovaries to generate new follicles with each new follicle leading to the development of a new egg. This could be good news for women struggling with infertility, especially those over 40, who may have fewer viable eggs for in vitro and other fertility treatments. While more research needs to be done, these initial findings may give hope to millions of women around the world that want to have a baby later in life.
Using Polar Bodies to Create Viable Embryos
In a woman's ovaries, there is a type of tissue known as a polar body. It contains all of the same genetic material that is found in the eggs in the ovaries but has previously shown little to no usefulness in infertility treatments.
However, recent research and studies have shown that doctors can actually cultivate and collect polar bodies and use a technique known as the spindle transfer technique to take the genetic material of the polar body and transfer it into the egg cell of a donor egg (that has been stripped of its nucleus and own genetic material) to create a viable egg for in vitro fertilization.
The spindle transfer technique has previously been studies with egg cell genetic material transfer in rhesus monkeys, but this is the first time that physicians have attempted to use polar bodies in the transfer process with human cells. These polar body-based eggs were fertilized with sperm to test for viability and these newly created oocytes (eggs) showed that they could develop into viable embryos. Of course, these embryos have not yet been implanted to carry a pregnancy through to term yet as more testing and research is needed first. However, the process shows great promise for women struggling with infertility issues due to age or a mitochondrial issue that causes numerous defects and health problems for embryos.
Keeping these new developments in infertility treatments in mind, you can see how the treatment process may be changing for the better and how doctors may be able to assist you in conceiving a child in the future if you struggle with infertility.
Share15 December 2016
