Saturday, July 31, 2010

8 rounds and 100,000 pounds in IVF

Quite a story of persistence, and perhaps just wanting something too much, but they eventually got it. A couple went through seven unsuccessful rounds of IVF and the doctors told her she would never have a baby. They nevertheless decided to go for one more round, bringing the total they spent on fertility treatments to 100,000 British pounds, and they ended up with a new baby.

Their advice to other couples having trouble conceiving was just don't give up. Of course, that might not be an option for those who don't have that kind of money to spend on assisted reproduction technology.

Monday, July 26, 2010

How young is too young for fertility treatment?

Is two years old too young? Wait, what? Ok, this isn't your routine fertility treatment. This is what is called a fertility preservation procedure. A two year old girl needs to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments which will most likely render her sterile. So her parents have decided to give her a shot at having her own children should she make it to adulthood by having one of her ovaries removed and frozen.

The procedure has been performed quite a number of times, even on very young females. The youngest prior to this one was three years old. It isn't really known if an ovary can be frozen that long and then re-transplanted back into the girl once she has grown up. There have been successes in adult women but the freezing time has been much shorter than that anticipated for the very young patients.