Discontinuation is a problem in fertility clinics. Many couples discontinue assisted reproductive technologies (ART) without achieving a live birth for reasons other than poor prognosis or the cost of treatment. Discontinuation has been attributed to the burden of treatment. The causes of burden can be broadly classified according to whether they originate in the patient, clinic or treatment. I...

OBJECTIVES The emotional adjustment of couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments has been widely studied; however, it remains unclear whether infertility history contributes to couples' adjustment. This study examined the impact of infertility history (duration of infertility and number of previous ART treatment cycles) on the emotional adjustment of couples undergoin...

Given the enormous ethicolegal controversies surrounding the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in the United States, the most important role for nurses may be helping couples and third party participants obtain fully informed consent. The high compensation fees for egg donors may place them at special risk of exploitation. New government and professional guidelines, broader repres...

The incidence of heterotopic/ectopic pregnancy in recent times has increased partly due to the increase in assisted reproductive technologies, whereas such medical cases and cervical pregnancy in particular are extremely rare with spontaneous conception. We report on three patients referred to our department in one week: one patient each with spontaneous heterotopic pregnancy, cervical pregnanc...

Is there a more important situation where one should apply the precautionary principle than in assisted reproductive technologies (ART)? Although ART are formidable answers to the distress of couples having difficulties to conceive, these technologies are far from being totally well controlled. The worldwide increasing demand on ART is by itself an alarming situation that should promote more re...

BACKGROUND Although gamete receipt or donation has become an integral part of infertility management, previous research in the field of social attitudes and intention to use medical technologies is limited. The aim of this paper was to investigate people's intentions to receive or donate sperm, oocyte or uterus (surrogacy) and to identify possible motivational patterns explaining this intention...

OBJECTIVE To review the results of opinion polls on community attitudes to in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other aspects of assisted reproductive technology over a 20-year period. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Fourteen Australia-wide interview surveys that included questions relating to IVF were carried out between July 1981 and November 2001 as part of regular Morgan polls of community a...

BACKGROUND The field of infertility medicine has witnessed a surge of scientific developments in recent years, but research on public attitudes towards infertility treatments has remained minimal. This study examined the social and demographic factors that affect women's attitudes towards assisted reproductive technology (ART) in general, as well as their opinions of specific issues related to ...

This study suggests that paternal age may be inversely associated with reproductive outcome, as demonstrated by a decline in fertilization, blastocyst formation, implantation and cryopreservation rates with advancing age.

Epidemiological studies demonstrate a relationship between pathological events during foetal development and future cardiovascular risk and the term 'foetal programming of cardiovascular disease' has been coined to describe this phenomenon. The use of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is growing exponentially and 2-5% of children are now born by this procedure. Emerging evidence indicat...