Time-lapse imaging which takes thousands of pictures of developing embryos can boost the success rate of IVF, according to British research.
The method, reported in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, can be used to select embryos at low risk of defects.
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Women who want to delay giving birth until later in life may soon be able to have their eggs dried into a powder that they can keep at home until needed.
What it lacks in romance, it makes up for in convenience.
Researchers have developed a way of freeze-drying eggs so that they can be kept at room temperature almost indefinitely in sealed sachets. To revitalise the eggs for use in fertility treatment, they then just add water.
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Amniotic fluid may hold the key to healing a fatal gut disease which affects premature babies, doctors say.
Severe inflammation, called necrotizing enterocolitis, can destroy the gut's tissues and lead to major organ failure.
Early animal tests, published in the journal Gut, showed that stem cells inside amniotic fluid could heal some of the damage and increase survival.
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"Super-fertility" may explain why some women have multiple miscarriages, according to a team of doctors.
They say the wombs of some women are too good at letting embryos implant, even those of poor quality which should be rejected.
The UK-Dutch study published in the journal PLoS ONE said the resulting pregnancies would then fail.
One expert welcomed the findings and hoped a test could be developed for identifying the condition in women.
Recurrent miscarriages - losing three or more pregnancies in a row - affect one in 100 women in the UK.
Doctors at Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton and the University Medical Center Utrecht, took samples from the wombs of six women who had normal fertility and six who had had recurrent miscarriages.
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Early research suggests cranberries, vitamin C, acupuncture, and other alternative treatments may help to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) in some women, according to a Dutch infectious diseases specialist.
While the treatments don't appear to work as well as antibiotics, they also will not contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, says Suzanne Geerlings, MD, of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
But other experts say the evidence for alternative treatments is weak, and they point out that studies of such treatments often show conflicting results.
Speaking here at the annual infectious diseases meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, all agree that further study is needed before cranberries or other alternative treatments can be recommended as standard UTI fighters. Read More
Pioneering Uterus Transplant Carried Out in Sweden
A team of researchers, physicians and specialists from the University of Gothenburg performed the world's first mother-to daughter uterus transplantation, when two Swedish women received new wombs donated by their mothers.
Two unnamed Swedish women, who are both aged in their 30s, received wombs from their mothers in procedur by a team surgeons from Gothenburg University.
One of the daughters had her uterus removed many years ago due to surgery for cervical cancer, while the other was born without the organ.
The women will now wait a year for the two wombs to settle before doctors attempt to implant embryos. Read More
Eat Eggs while Pregnant to Lower Child's Risk of Illness, Researchers Say
Pregnant women should eat plenty of eggs and lean meat to reduce their unborn child's risk of high blood pressure and mental health problems in adulthood, researchers claim.
A nutrient called choline, which is found in meat, eggs, beans and broccoli, could lower the risk of the children developing stress-related illnesses and chronic conditions later in life.
In future, women could even be given choline tablets in the same way folic acid is prescribed today to lower the risk of children being born with defects like spina bifida, experts said. Read More
