reproductive health

The relative risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% in babies conceived using assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilisation, compared to newborns not using these techniques, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal. The absolute risk was 1.84% versus 1.15%. The research, which included more than seven million babies born in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, also shows that the increased risk is especially associated with multiple births, which are more common in assisted reproduction.
 

Canadian research analysing more than 863,000 births over almost a decade, including 806 surrogacy deliveries, concluded that the risk of severe maternal morbidity was 7.8% in gestational carriers, more than three times the risk of conception without assisted reproductive techniques and almost twice the risk in IVF pregnancies. The three most frequent complications were severe postpartum haemorrhage, severe pre-eclampsia and puerperal sepsis. The study is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A new technique developed at the Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC) has succeeded in assessing the health of mouse oocytes and embryos in a non-invasive way, according to a study published in PNAS. The method generates 3D images to visualise the metabolism of oocytes and embryos obtained by in vitro fertilisation and makes it possible to select those that are most likely to implant and develop, say the authors.

The ovarian cycle is regulated by internal circadian rhythms rather than external processes, says a study published in Science Advances. Using menstrual cycle data from some 3,000 women in Europe and North America, the authors add that the influence of the lunar cycle on women's menstrual cycle is weak, but significant.

A French study involving more than 100,000 women has found a link between long-term use of some progesterone hormone analogues - used for contraception or hormone replacement therapy - and an increased risk of developing meningioma, a generally benign type of brain tumour. The results are published in The BMJ. 

Sperm from older fathers are more likely to pass on new mutations that would cause congenital disorders to their babies, while other mutations are independent of paternal age, says a study published in Genome Biology and Evolution. The team analysed the frequency of ten FGFR3 gene variants in semen samples from anonymous donors aged 23-59 years in Austria. Two pathogenic mutations of this gene do occur more frequently in older fathers: those associated with achondroplasia and with thanatophoric dysplasia, a rare and very fatal disease. Other mutations have no correlation with paternal age and may occur in the testes before sexual maturation, according to the study.

At an informative meeting organized by the Science Media Centre Spain, the coauthor of a paper published this week in the journal Cell discussed his findings with journalists. Although the study was conducted with mice, he is confident in being able to analyze human eggs to see if his conclusions could explain the loss of fertility that occurs in women with age.

An international team, led by a Spanish group, has published the mechanism that allows immature egg reserves (oocytes) to survive for many years, up to almost half a century in the case of humans. The research studies how oocytes are affected by protein aggregates similar to those that damage other cells such as neurons and can cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The finding of how these egg reserves are kept healthy may help to understand some causes of infertility. The results are published in the journal Cell.

A team of researchers has demonstrated how a non-invasive ultrasound technique can increase the movement of human sperm in the laboratory by up to 266%. Using microfluidic droplets to evaluate individual sperm cells, which had not been done before, they found that ultrasound exposure induced movement in immobile sperm and improved swimming speeds in mobile ones. The work is published today in the journal Science Advances.

An early first menstrual period (menarche) - compared with the average of 13 years - is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in women under the age of 65 and also with an increased risk of stroke among those living with diabetes, says a study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. The research analyses data from a national health survey in the US, focusing on women aged 20-65 between 1999 and 2018.