Fertility Center Achieves High Pregnancy Rates While Lowering Pregnancy Risks

Every year thousand of families are created with the assistance of in-vitro fertilization. Many of those newborns are twins. While some may see this as a double blessing, it is important to understand that there are many potential risks associated with multiple gestation. Statistics show that a higher percentage of twins are born prematurely. Premature birth can cause complications resulting in physical impairment, learning disabilities, and even death. In addition to the increased risk to the children born of multiple pregnancy, there is also an increased risk of complications associated with carrying multiples for the pregnant woman.

Pacific Fertility Center has been taking steps to minimize the risk of multiple gestation for several years. "We have worked actively to increase pregnancy rates and decrease the number of multiples," comments Carolyn Givens, M.D. "Balancing high pregnancy rates with low pregnancy risk improves pregnancy outcomes. Thus, achieving this balance and reducing the risk of multiple gestation is our goal."

Read more...

Life Begins... - Miscarriage stories of loss, hope & help
Pregnancy Stories by Age - Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
Stories of Pregnancy over 44 years old - sharing stories I find online, for inspiration!

Recent Keyword Searches: can you get pregnant at 50, could i be pregnant at 41 years old, hormonal egg stimulation in women over fifty for pregnancy, fertility in 44 year old men, what age can a woman get pregnant

Abortions and conception

Picture by red2000
If you're having trouble becoming pregnant and have had one or more abortions in the past, you might be worrying if the two are related. Infertility can be related to abortion in two ways. First, when you have an abortion, your cervix is dilated. If you've had multiple abortions, the cervix often dilates more readily, sometimes prematurely. Doctors call this an 'incompetent cervix.'

If you have this, you're more likely to go into labor before your term is up. Having previous abortions doesn't mean you'll have problems with your cervix, just that you'll be more likely to. Other fertility problems that can occur from an abortion are cervical scarring and pelvic inflammatory disease. Either of these can make conception or pregnancy difficult.

Source: http://www.khsltv.com/guides/health/story/Abortions-and-conception/dh3OZ267mE-l5yI7-4E8fQ.cspx

Life Begins...
Miscarriage stories of loss, hope & help
http://born2luv.blogspot.com/

Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
- Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

5,100 Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

Recent Keyword Searches: chance of pregnancy at 47, until what age can you get pregnant, change of life babies, can you get pregnant at 45, is it dangerous to get pregnant at 42

TSH - TTC & pregnant women

The researchers determined that euthyroid pregnant women with positive thyroid antibodies developed impaired thyroid function and had an increased rate of miscarriage and premature delivery.

“It is a very important idea that women with even the mildest degree of thyroid disease should probably be treated. This gets into the whole issue of whether women who are pregnant, or those who wish to be, should be screened for thyroid disease. This paper by Negro et al is so powerful that many physicians are screening women,” Cooper said.

Full story: http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=28716

Life Begins...
Miscarriage stories of loss, hope & help
http://born2luv.blogspot.com/

Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
- Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

4,650 Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

Recent Keyword Searches: how to get pregnant at age 44, fertility and egg count, pregnancy in your late fortys, can a woman have children at age 45, which age women can get pregnant, pregnant for the first time at age 40

Study looks at progesterone therapy

Progesterone therapy does not reduce the chances of preterm birth in women pregnant with twins, reported researchers in a network sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

An earlier study showed progesterone therapy reduced the risk for preterm birth in another category of high risk pregnant women, those carrying a single baby who had delivered a single baby prematurely in the past.

"This study shows that progesterone therapy is not beneficial for all women at risk for giving birth prematurely," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD, the NIH institute that supported the research network. "So far, the evidence supports progesterone therapy as a means to reduce preterm birth only in women pregnant with a single baby who are at risk for premature delivery because of a prior preterm birth."

After the initial study showed progesterone therapy could reduce the likelihood of preterm birth in women carrying a single baby and who had previously given birth prematurely, many physicians began prescribing the therapy for women pregnant with twins and for other categories of women at risk for preterm birth as well. In addition to women carrying two or more babies, and those who have delivered prematurely before, also at risk for preterm delivery are pregnant women having a shortened cervix (the lower part of the uterus) and certain infections of the reproductive tract.

The study appears in the August 2, 2007 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

A large team of researchers from the NICHD Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network, led by Dwight J. Rouse, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, conducted the study.

In the study, 655 women pregnant with twins were randomly assigned to receive weekly injections of a placebo or the form of progesterone known as 17-alpha hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC), explained Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., Branch Chief of NICHD's Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch, and the NICHD author of the study.

Progesterone is a female hormone that is produced in large quantities during pregnancy. Researchers with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network reported in 2003 that weekly injections of progesterone reduced the risk of preterm birth by 34 percent among pregnant women who had given birth prematurely in an earlier pregnancy.

Women in the current study were randomly assigned to groups receiving weekly injections of either 250 mg of progesterone or a placebo. The injections started when the women were 16-20 weeks pregnant and continued until the 35th week of pregnancy or until the woman gave birth. Women in both groups had similar characteristics such as age, race, and marital status.

The researchers found that the use of progesterone did not reduce premature birth in twin pregnancies when compared with the placebo group: 41.5 percent of women on progesterone treatments delivered prematurely (before 35 weeks) or experienced fetal loss vs. 37.3 percent of women receiving placebo injections. Fetal loss describes the loss of the baby because of such factors as stillbirth or miscarriage, said Dr. Spong.

There was no difference between the two groups in the amount of time the baby spent in the womb before it was delivered. Progesterone treatment did not affect the proportion of deliveries before 37 weeks or before 32 or 28 weeks, when compared to the placebo group.

Whether the child was conceived using assisted reproductive methods or conceived spontaneously did not affect these results, nor did the type of placentation (whether the babies shared a placenta or had two separate placentas). The study could not determine whether progesterone therapy could reduce the chances of preterm birth in women pregnant with twins who had delivered prematurely in a previous pregnancy. Fewer than 10 percent of women participating in the current study had experienced a prior preterm delivery,a number too small to allow a reliable estimate of the effect of treatment in this group of women.

Premature infants are often very small and at greater risk for life-threatening infections, blindness, breathing problems, learning and developmental disabilities, and cerebral palsy. Premature babies are also more likely to die from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) than full-term infants. Premature birth is one of the leading causes of infant death.

Women pregnant with twins are at higher risk for preterm birth than are other pregnant women, with more than half delivering prematurely, said Dr. Spong. Over one quarter of all very low birth weight infants (less than 1500 grams or 3.3 pounds) are the result of a multiple pregnancy. Multiple pregnancy accounts for one in seven infant deaths, she said.

Overall, the number of twin births has increased in recent years. Between 1980 and 2004, the rate of twin birth rose from 18.9 to 32.2 per 1000 live births, the study authors wrote, citing data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Dr. Spong added that NIH-funded researchers are testing progesterone in other groups of women who are at risk for preterm birth, such as women with shortened cervixes and women pregnant with triplets.

Source: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=28366