One method of assessing biologic fertility is to measure time to pregnancy (TTP). Accidental pregnancies do not generate a valid TTP value and lead to nonrandom missing data if couples experiencing accidental pregnancies are more fertile than the general population. If factors affecting the rate of accidental pregnancies, such as availability of effective contraception and induced abortion, var...

BACKGROUND A previous European study found a longer time to pregnancy (TTP) among fertile women from Paris compared with women from other Western European countries. A co-ordinated, cross-sectional study of pregnant couples from Denmark (Copenhagen), France (Paris), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Finland (Turku) was therefore undertaken to assess differences in waiting TTP among couples from these ci...

BACKGROUND Each year 40,000 men have a vasectomy in the UK whilst another 2400 request a reversal to begin a second family. Sperm can now be obtained by testicular biopsy and subsequently used in assisted conception with ICSI. The study aims were to compare sperm yields of men post-vasectomy or with obstructive azoospermia (OA) of unknown aetiology with yields of fertile men and to assess any a...

One method of assessing biologic fertility is to measure time to pregnancy (TTP). Accidental pregnancies do not generate a valid TTP value and lead to nonrandom missing data if couples experiencing accidental pregnancies are more fertile than the general population. If factors affecting the rate of accidental pregnancies, such as availability of effective contraception and induced abortion, var...

A map of human embryo development that combines imaging, molecular, genetic and epigenetic data for comparisons to other species and across pathologies would be greatly beneficial for basic science and clinical applications. Here, we compared mRNA and protein expression of key mediators of DNA methylation and histone modifications between mouse and human embryos, embryos from fertile/infertile ...

In a non-matched case-control study using data from two large national cohort studies, we investigated whether indicators of child health and development up to 7 years of age differ between children conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART), children born after sub-fertility (more than 24 months of trying for conception) and other children. Information on ART use/sub-fertility was ...

IKE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER FOLLOWING THE SPRING SNOW MELT, THE FAMILY landscape is being flooded with new technologies having to do with baby making or not making. The explosion of progress in reproductive technologies is creating choice in a dimension of life we previously consigned to destiny, namely, procreating children. Fertile women can stop baby making with Norplant, RU486, or abortion. I...

Almost 1600 individuals from the Polish population were recruited to this study. Among them 319 were fertile couples, 289 were recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) couples, and 131 were in the group of recurrent implantation failure (RIF) following in vitro fertilization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the MTHFR c.c.677 C>T and c.c.1298 A>C polymorphisms' association with RSA and RIF. We...

We find interventions targeting serodiscordant couples (SDC) may not be feasible in countries where HIV prevalence is less than 5%, because only 3-19/1000 individuals are HIV-positive/negative and in SDC. Interventions may be feasible in countries where prevalence is greater than 10%, because 34-48/1000 individuals are HIV-positive/negative and in SDC. We calculated that 20-27% of all HIV-posit...

Couple therapy research affirms that various approaches to couple treatment produce statistically and clinically significant improvement for a substantial proportion of couples in reducing overall relationship distress. Recent studies have extended these findings in indicating the effectiveness of couple-based interventions for a broad range of coexisting emotional, behavioral, or physical heal...