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Most Fertility Apps Miscalculate the Fertile Window

Fertility websites and smartphone apps vary in how they calculate a woman’s fertile window, and many get it wrong, according to a new study. For example, 78.8% of apps and 75.0% of websites included days after ovulation as part of the fertile window, even though conception is unlikely to occur during that part of a woman’s cycle.

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For the Health of it: Contraception Only Prevention Tool to Fight Effects of Zika

The Zika virus is spread by a mosquito to a human and an infected mother can transmit it to her fetus. While the Zika virus can have devastating effects on a fetus, the symptoms are mild in an adult. It has a 3- to 12-day incubation period which produces mild flu-like symptoms such as a fever skin rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. Many people won’t even realize they have been exposed to the virus because it causes very mild symptoms according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, if an individual is infected, they can transmit the virus to another person through sexual contact and a mother to her unborn baby. According to the March of Dimes, it is recommended that women up to eight weeks to conceive after a Zika infection. However, it is believed that the virus lives longer semen. Therefore, men infected with Zika should wait even longer before conception.

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Caffeine Intake — Even Dad’s — Linked to Miscarriage

A couple’s risk of miscarriage may rise when the woman or man consumes more than two caffeinated drinks a day in the weeks leading up to conception, a new study suggests. Risk of miscarriage also may increase if the mother-to-be drinks more than two caffeinated beverages daily during the first seven weeks of pregnancy, the researchers found.

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Individual Cells in Four-Cell Embryos Chase Different Fates

To reveal new details of preimplantation development in mammals, scientists based at the University of Cambridge and European Bioinformatics Institute of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI) tracked gene expression in mouse embryos. These scientists found that divergent developmental paths emerge as early as the second day after conception, when embryos consist of no more than four cells.

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What Should Be the Fate of a Spare Frozen Embryo?

There are more than 600,000 embryos frozen solid in clinics and labs across the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. These excess embryos are a necessary byproduct of in vitro fertilization. For people who believe that life begins at conception, these embryos raise complex questions of logistics, priorities, and ethical consistency.

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Listen Up, Dads: Obesity Makes Your Sperm Weird.

A new study adds to the growing pile of evidence that men should worry about their prenatal health, too: Their sperm may carry epigenetic markers that can help determine the weight of their offspring. The research is still in its early stages, so you can’t go blaming Dad for every french fry you eat. But it’s becoming clearer that there’s more to parenthood than just genes — the state of your body at the moment of conception may carry a lot of weight for your child’s future.

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Fertility Awareness Week: ‘Critics of IVF should look at themselves. Pregnancy is a Fundamental Thing

We have met at the Chelsea clinic of fertility expert Emma Cannon, who supported Nina in her quest to be a mother.  Emma, who set up practice 21 years ago, and who has two teenage girls, is a fierce advocate for motherhood however it comes – from natural conception to the most cutting-edge of IVF methods. After accumulating 50,000 hours of clinical experience, there is little she hasn’t seen or worked with, yet Emma, author of The Baby Making Bible remains frustrated that the human stories behind the medical statistics often get ignored. 

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IVF in Women Over 38: The Doctor’s Dilemma

It is a biological fact that female fertility declines with age – in assisted conception as in natural. Indeed, findings from a 12-year study reported today at the Annual Meeting of ESHRE by Dr Marta Devesa from the Hospital Universitaro Quiron-Dexeus in Barcelona, Spain, showed that in her own clinic cumulative live birth rates following IVF declined from 23.6% in women aged 38-39 years to 1.3% in those aged 44 and over.