BACKGROUND Sperm quality may degrade during transit through the male reproductive tract in some individuals. In this setting surgically retrieved testicular sperm may outperform ejaculated samples for use with in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI). We sought to describe one center's experience with the use of fresh testicular sperm after prior failed IVF-I...

PURPOSE To test the hypothesis that better eye measures overestimate binocular visual field (VF) defect severity in glaucoma. METHODS Humphrey VFs (24-2 SITA standard) from 67 consecutive patients with glaucoma were retrospectively examined (mean age, 65 years; range, 31-88 years). The better mean deviation (MD) from the two eyes was recorded (better eye MD). Binocular integrated visual field...

Objective: To assess the influence of MII oocyte morphology on the fertilization outcome and embryo development in ART cycles. Since, age may affect the quality of oocyte, the role of women's age was also evaluated following IVF or ICSI cycles. Materials and Methods: 200 MII oocytes from 30 IVF and ICSI cycles were evaluated. The morphology of oocytes that were fertilized in IVF cycles (IVF+) w...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare the frequency of imprinting diseases in children born after IVF with the incidence in naturally conceived children. METHODS All singleton children born in Denmark from January 1, 1995 through December 31, 2001 were stratified into children born without and after IVF, and were followed from birth until the end of 2002 in the National Register of ...

STUDY QUESTION Are first trimester trophoblast volume (TV) and placental bed vascular volume (PBVV) different in IVF or IVF/ICSI pregnancies in comparison with spontaneously conceived pregnancies? SUMMARY ANSWER Any possible abnormal placentation in IVF or IVF/ICSI pregnancies in comparison with spontaneously conceived pregnancies is not detected by a difference in PBVV or TV at an early gest...

Individuals conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be at increased risk of cardio-metabolic disorders. We recently reported that IVF conceived male mice displayed impaired glucose metabolism at normal and high body weights. In this study, we examined glucose metabolism in mature female C57BL/6J mice that were conceived by natural conception (NC), by ovarian stimulation (OS) or by IVF fol...

The health economics of IVF and ICSI involve assessments of utilization, cost, cost-effectiveness and ability to pay. In 48 countries, utilization averaged 289 IVF/ICSI cycles per million of population per annum, ranging from two in Kazachstan, to 1657 in Israel. Higher national utilization of IVF/ICSI was associated with higher quality of health services, as indicated by lower infant mortality...

Short incubation time prevents deleterious effects of cumulus cell degeneration and excess spermatozoa in IVF embryos. We performed a short incubation (3 h) protocol in 328 IVF cycles, in order to compare the developmental potential of regular IVF embryos with those originating from 316 cycles entered our intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) programme over the same period. Embryo transfers w...

BACKGROUND Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) failure with unknown causes are the controversial issues that are probably related to the immune system. OBJECTIVE To compare circulating NK cells expressing activation and inhibition surface markers between patients with RSA and IVF failure with those of healthy multiparous and successful IVF control women, resp...

BACKGROUND We investigated the separate and combined effects of smoking and body mass index (BMI) on the success rate of IVF for couples with different causes of subfertility. METHODS The success rate of IVF was examined in 8457 women. Detailed information on reproduction and lifestyle factors was combined with medical record data on IVF treatment. All IVF clinics in The Netherlands participa...