Could household products be damaging your fertility?

New research suggests that some chemicals used widely in consumer products could be causing infertility. A team from the United States checked amount of these chemicals in women's blood, and found that those with high levels took much longer to conceive.

The chemicals, known as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are used in all kinds of household products and may be found in clothing, upholstery, carpets and toiletries as well as pesticides. They are also used in manufacturing, and we're all exposed to them to some degree. They were introduced in the 1950s, and have since been found to have toxic effects on animals, and have been associated with miscarriage.

You can read the research paper, which is published in the journal Human Reproduction here.

Don't worry about your stress levels

Have you been told you'd be far more likely to get pregnant if you could just relax and forget about your fertility problems? I'm sure most of us have had to listen to advice like this somewhere along the line in our fertility journeys... If you'd just stop trying to get pregnant / go on holiday / chill out you'd conceive, people tell you, and of course they like to mention that couple everyone except me seems to know who had been trying for a baby for years and finally had a child just a few months after adopting a baby/giving up on treatment/moving to the other side of the world... There's an underlying implication that somehow our infertility is our own fault because we're too stressed. Even doctors and consultants will often suggest that you need to lower your anxiety levels if you want to get pregnant. For patients, it's a vicious circle - infertility causes stress, which then apparently leads to more infertility.

Well, we can all take heart from a new Dutch study published in the latest edition of the journal Human Reproduction which has found that anxiety and depression levels before and during treatment have no influence on pregnancy rates. The researchers followed more than 700 women at seven fertility clinics, and you can read their paper here . So next time someone tells you that you need to stop being so anxious if you want to get pregnant, you can enjoy telling them it wouldn't make the least bit of difference.

First pregnancy from new egg-screening technique

A new technique for screening eggs and embryos has been used successfully for the first time at a UK clinic, amid claims that it could hugely improve the outcome of IVF treatment for many couples. It's not yet widely available and will probably prove to be a costly addition to your IVF bill, but if it lives up to the hype, it may be well worth it.

The CARE Fertility Group have used a technique called Array CGH which involves testing chromosomes. As women get older, they tend to have more and more eggs that are chromosomally abnormal. These eggs will not always fertilise or implant, but when they do they are often lost during pregnancy. Using this new method the abnormal eggs can be detected and the only the most viable healthy eggs replaced during IVF. There is no need to freeze the eggs or embryos to carry out this process, and the sample is taken from the polar body - previous screening tests involved taking a cell from an embryo.

Trials using frozen embryos led to a doubling of the implantation rate, and the patient who is currently pregnant had been through 13 unsuccessful IVF attempts before trying array CGH (or comparative genomic hybridisation).

Staff at CARE hope this will not only improve the pregnancy and birth rates, but will also decrease the risk of miscarriage or birth defects. Other fertility specialists have given the new development a cautious welcome.

You can read more on the CARE website at www.carefertility.com

Water pollution and male infertility

We're often told that environmental pollution affects male fertility, but new research strengthens that link as scientists have found testosterone-blocking chemicals in rivers in the UK.

The researchers have found a new group of chemicals in our rivers that inhibit the function of testosterone, and combined with the oestrogen type chemicals we already know are in our water, these have had the effet of "feminising" male fish. This has led to reproductive problems and some male fish have even changed sex. The oestrogens arrive in the water via the sewage system from the contraceptive pill or industrial chemicals, whilst it is not entirely clear where the new group of chemicals originate.

It is thought that there may be a link between what is happening to the fish and the increase in male fertility problems in humans.

You can read more about the research at www.brunel.ac.uk/news

New sperm quality test

A new method for testing sperm quality is already leading to claims that it could increase IVF success rates.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have worked out a way of evaluating DNA damage in sperm by capturing the sperm in laser light and inspecting the DNA by looking at vibration patterns. The process is known as Raman Spectroscopy. It would allow them to choose the healthiest sperm when carrying out IVF or ICSI.

When couples conceive naturally, only the strongest sperm survive the journey through the woman's body to reach the egg, and this new method allows scientists to weed out the healthiest sperm in a similar way.

It all sounds great, but apparently it will take at least five and possibly ten years before this will be available to patients as research is still ongoing.

You can read more here .

IVF book available for pre-order

Having suggested that you read other people's books, I thought it was a good time to let you know that my new book The Complete Guide to IVF is now available to pre-order online. It will be published on April 2, and tells you everything you could possibly want to know about IVF.

I had a fascinating time researching it, spending time behind the scenes at fertility clinics, and interviewing consultants, fertility nurses, counsellors and embryologists as well as lots of patients. The book takes you through the IVF journey from the first appointment to the outcome of treatment, and includes sections on counselling, emotions, complementary therapies and the things you can do to help yourself get through IVF and maximise your chances of success. There's also a chapter on the male perspective on IVF, which is ofen overlooked, The book will be published by Piatkus and you can order it here

Could your hormones make you more likely to have an affair?

In a paper titled "Oestradiol level and opportunistic mating in women" (yes, really...), researchers have discovered that women with higher levels of the hormone are more likely to have affairs.

We know that oestradiol levels have an effect on your fertility, but this research shows that they are also related to how physically attractive you feel, and how attractive others think you are. Cheerfully for those of us with fertility problems the researchers conclude that "Results provide support for the relationship between physical beauty and fertility"! As if not being able to get pregnant wasn't enough to contend with...

If you can bear to read more, the details from the journal Biology Letters are here

PCOS book

I've just been reading a good book on polycystic ovary syndrome that would be really helpful to anyone who has PCOS, or who thinks they may be suffering with it. Coping with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome goes into real depth about what PCOS is and the signs to look for, but also takes time to talk about living with symptoms such as excessive body hair and weight problems. The book looks at exercise, diet and includes information about complementary therapies that may help, as well as considering the emotional impact of PCOS. Co-authored by a leading expert on the subject, Professor Adam Balen, Coping with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome provides a really thorough guide. Here's a link to the book.

Appeal for sperm donors

There's such a shortage of sperm donors in the South of England that one local trust has issued an appeal for men to come forward to help childless couples.

Southampton University Hospitals NHS trust runs a sperm bank and donor programme, but staff have seen such a decline in the number of donors in recent year that they've made a public appeal to try to recruit more men. It's a national problem which has meant long waiting lists for couples who need to use donor sperm to conceive. In the UK it is no longer possible to donate sperm anonymously, and people who are conceived through donation can find out the identity of their donor once they are 18.

Anyone who is interested in donating should be between the ages of 18 and 45, and there will be some medical tests and counselling to ensure that potential donors have a chance to talk through any concerns. If you're interested in becoming a donor you can find out more on the trust website at www.suht.nhs.uk

New developments in stem cell research

Anyone who is interested in stem cell research will want to find out more about new work from the United States on stem cells from the testes which has concluded that they can change into other body tissues. The science of stem cell research is fiendishly complicated for non-scientists, but the work has shown that these stem cells from the testes are similar to embryonic stem cells although they are not exactly the same. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine say they could be used in the future to treat infertility. The full details of the work can be found on the school's website at http://med.stanford.edu

Why freezing embryos is worthwhile

If you've had IVF treatment, you'll probably appreciate why freezing any spare embryos is a good idea - it gives you another chance to try to conceive in a less invasive (and cheaper) way than a full IVF cycle. However, some primary care trusts don't include the cost of freezing and transferring any spare embryos when they fund an IVF cycle - so if you can't afford to pay for it yourself, you won't have an opportunity to use all your embryos. It has always seemed wrong to me to agree to fund the treatment to create the embryos, but not to pay for their storage and use.

Now, there's more evidence to show that embryo freezing really does make all the difference to IVF success rates. Researchers at the Oxford Fertility Unit have shown that the chances of getting pregnant are fifty percent higher when you freeze and transfer spare embryos, which surely illustrates that it is not just sensible but also cost effective to fund freezing programmes.

There's more on the subject here