Over the years it has been an important goal to optimize the treatment of subfertility in order to obtain a better pregnancy rate and baby-take-home rate, usually combined with the goal of decreasing the rate of multiplet pregnancies. This implies optimizing the development of embryos through improved in vitro culture methods. And it also implies optimizing the methods of selection of embryos f...

most fetal heart rate patterns can be interpreted accurately so that management decisions can be made correctly. how-ever, few fetal heart rate patterns are so ambiguous that the obstetricians cannot interpret them precisely. a 27-year-old woman at 38 weeks' gestation in her first pregnancy was admitted with heavy vaginal bleeding and decrease in fetal movements. fetal status was indeterminate ...

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of freeze-thaw on embryos derived from intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using surgically retrieved and ejaculated spermatozoa. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Private IVF center. PATIENT(S) Three hundred eighty-three patients undergoing frozen-thawed ET cycles. INTERVENTION(S) Testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) or percutaneous epididymal sperm as...

This investigation examined frozen cycle outcomes with the transfer of a single thawed blastocyst. It also aimed to determine if the suggested model could aid in achieving a better understanding of factors that influence success with frozen blastocyst transfer. A retrospective analysis was conducted of single frozen embryo transfer cycles carried out at the Cleveland Clinic Fertility Centre in ...

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence indicates that closed vitrification has been successfully used in the cryopreservation of human oocytes and embryos. Little information is available regarding the neonatal outcome of closed blastocysts vitrification. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of blastocyst vitrification using a high-security closed vitrification system comp...

STUDY QUESTION Does the storage time of vitrified human blastocysts negatively impact their survival, the implantation potential of embryos or the malformation rate of babies born? SUMMARY ANSWER There was no evidence that storage times of up to 6 years after vitrification (VIT) had a negative impact on blastocyst survival, the implantation potential of embryos or the malformation rate of bab...

The secretion rate of growth factors and the delivery rate of nutrients by the uterus to the conceptus affects the growth rate, development, and survival of the conceptus. For most growth factors and nutrients, passage into the uterus is not simply controlled by diffusion. Many growth factors are products of uterine tissue. Transport of some nutrients is aided by specific transporter molecules ...

Pregnancy and childbearing rates for teenagers remain high in the United States despite well-documented associated adverse health, social, and economic consequences for many of these teenagers and their children. In 1990, approximately 835,000 (10%) teenagers aged 15-19 years became pregnant and either gave birth or had an abortion (CDC, unpublished data, 1995); an estimated 95% of such pregnan...