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IVF success 'downhill from age 37' finds Aberdeen study



The chances of a woman having a baby following IVF go "very rapidly downhill" from the age of 37, according to a study.

The University of Aberdeen study reports a woman's age affects the outcome of every single step of IVF. Researchers studied data from 121,744 women from across the UK.

We found that age impacted on every single hurdle that has to be overcome during the emotional rollercoaster that is IVF”Prof Siladitya BhattacharyaUniversity of Aberdeen
They found the chances of having a baby following IVF start to decline by the time the woman reaches her mid-30s, but especially from 37. The team used data from women who underwent their very first cycle of IVF between 2000 and 2007 using their own eggs. The research found that even after a pregnancy has been confirmed, women aged 38-39 were 43% more likely to have a miscarriage than women aged 18-34, while women aged 40-42 were almost twice as likely to lose the baby as the younger age group.

Prof Siladitya Bhattacharya, of the Reproductive Medicine team at the University of Aberdeen who led the research, said: "IVF comprises a number of key steps, each of which has to be successfully achieved before the next stage can be attempted.
"We found that age impacted on every single hurdle that has to be overcome during the emotional rollercoaster that is IVF.

"This influence of age is sustained at each stage of the IVF process.

"There is no point during an IVF treatment - even in women who have done well in a preceding stage - when age ceases to matter.

"Age has the capacity to increase the risk of treatment failure even in women who respond to hormonal treatment, have eggs harvested and embryos replaced."

'Dynamic' prediction
He concluded: "Many couples want to understand how their chances of having a baby evolve over the course of an IVF treatment.

"Previous work has been able to offer a global prediction of success in IVF.

"We hope our study provides a more accurate and dynamic way of predicting a couple's chances of treatment failure as they negotiate each step of IVF."


(Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25258483)


The relationship between maternal age and pregnancy rate:
1. In Taiwanese records, 38 years is the crucial cut-off point to achieve a successful pregnancy. Based on the report of Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2007 to the women those undergoing IVF program, the pregnancy rate of the women under 35 years was 45.8%, and that of the women over 40 years was 14.8%; the live birth rate of the women under 35 years was 35.9%, and that of the women over 40 years was 7.4%. The most important factor to the quality of ovaries and eggs is maternal age.

2. The solution to overcome the diminished ovarian decline is to "freeze the eggs" beforehand. If we can store our eggs through the recent cryo technique, we can arrange our life schedule flexibly and decrease the expenses to get pregnancy in the future.

How to choose the most appropriate clinical center to store my eggs?

1. Center with higher pregnancy rate in IVF realm
2. Annual cycles of frozen-thawed embryo transfer over 100, and live birth rate over 40%
3. Professional manager team
4. Individual storage space
5. Annual frozen-thawed case report

Stork Fertility Center Stork Fertility Center Author

Docs to Lower IVF Twin Birth Rate



Boston — In the five years since the “Octomom” case, big multiple births have gone way down but the twin rate has barely budged. Now fertility experts are pushing a new goal: One.

A growing number of couples are attempting pregnancy with just a single embryo, helped by new ways to pick the ones most likely to succeed. New guidelines urge doctors to stress this approach.

Twins aren’t always twice as nice; they have much higher risks of prematurity and serious health problems. Nearly half of all babies born with advanced fertility help are multiple births, new federal numbers show.

Abigail and Ken Ernst of Oldwick, N.J., used the one-embryo approach to conceive Lucy, a daughter born in September. It “just seemed the most normal, the most natural way” to conceive and avoid a high-risk twin pregnancy, the new mom said. Not all couples feel that way, though. Some can only afford one try with in vitro fertilization, or IVF, so they insist that at least two embryos be used to boost their odds, and view twins as two for the price of one.

Many patients “are telling their physicians ‘I want twins,’ ” said Barbara Collura, president of Resolve, a support and advocacy group. “We as a society think twins are healthy and always come out great. There’s very little reality” about the increased medical risks for babies and moms, she said.

The 2009 case of a California woman who had octuplets using IVF focused attention on the issue of big multiple births, and the numbers have dropped, except for twins. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent numbers show that 46 percent of IVF babies are multiples — mostly twins — and 37 percent are born premature. By comparison, only 3 percent of babies born without fertility help are twins and about 12 percent are preterm.

It’s mostly an American problem — some European countries that pay for fertility treatments require using one embryo at a time.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine is trying to make it the norm in the U.S., too. Its guidelines, updated earlier this year, say that for women with reasonable medical odds of success, those under 35 should be offered single embryo transfer and no more than two at a time. The number rises with age.

To add heft to the advice, the guidelines say women should be counseled on the risks of multiple births and embryo transfers and that this discussion should be noted in their medical records.

“In 2014, our goal is really to minimize twins,” said Dr. Alan Copperman, medical director of Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, a Manhattan fertility clinic.

The one-at-a-time idea is catching on. Only 4 percent of women under 35 used single embryos in 2007 but nearly 12 percent did in 2011. It’s less common among older women, who account for fewer IVF pregnancies, but it is gaining among them, too.

“Patients don’t really want multiples. What they want is high delivery rates,” said Dr. Richard T. Scott Jr., scientific director for Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, which has seven clinics in that state.

Better ways to screen embryos can make success rates for single embryos nearly as good as when two or more are used, he contends. The new techniques include maturing the embryos a few days longer. That improves viability and allows cells to be sampled for chromosome screening. Embryos can be frozen to allow test results to come back and more precisely time the transfer to the womb.

Taking these steps with single embryos results in fewer miscarriages and tubal pregnancies, healthier babies with fewer genetic defects and lower hospital bills from birth complications, many fertility specialists say.

Multiple studies back this up. In May, doctors from the New Jersey clinics did the kind of research considered a gold standard. They randomly assigned 175 women to have either a single embryo transferred after chromosome screening or two embryos with no screening, as is done in most IVF attempts now. Delivery rates were roughly equivalent — 61 percent with single embryos and 65 percent with doubles.

More than half of the double transfers produced twins but none of the single ones did. Babies from double transfers were more likely to be premature; more than one-third spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit versus 8 percent of the others.

Chromosome testing and freezing embryos adds about $4,000 to the roughly $14,000 cost for IVF, “but the pregnancy rates go up dramatically,” and that saves money because fewer IVF attempts are needed, Scott said. Using two or more embryos carries a much higher risk of twins and much higher rates of cerebral palsy and other disorders.

After explaining the risks, “this is the easiest thing in the world to convince patients to do,” Scott said of screening and using single embryos.

But Dr. Fady Sharara of the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reston, Va., found otherwise. For a study, he offered 48 couples free medications and embryo freezing if they would agree to transfer one at a time instead of two. Eighteen couples refused, including one-quarter of those whose insurance was covering the treatment. Some who refused said they viewed twins as two for the price of one.

“I tell my patients twins are not twice the fun,” Shahara said. “One is hard enough. Two at a time is a killer for some people. Some marriages don’t survive this.” The New Jersey couple, who had a daughter using a single embryo, has eight more frozen embryos. When it’s time to try again, Abigail Ernst said, “we would do the same thing” and use one at a time.


The progress of IVF techniques: 
Development
Yesterday
Today
Program
Long protocol
GnRH agonist
Short protocol
GnRH antagonist
Trigger shot
HCG
GnRH agonist
Embryo culture
Cleavage stage
Blastocyst stage
Embryo Transfer
Fresh embryo transfer
Frozen-thawed embryo transfer
Number of transferred embryos
Double embryo transferDET
Single embryo transfer
SET
Risk of OHSS
4%
0%
Risk of multiple birth
20~30%
0%
More information about multiple births:
http://e-stork.blogspot.tw/2013/11/cost-of-having-baby-21k-for-single.html
Stork Fertility Center Stork Fertility Center Author

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