Japanese woman pregnant with wrong egg after IVF mix-up

A Japanese woman became pregnant with another person's baby following an egg mix-up during fertility treatment.

The mistake happened when the woman, who is in her twenties, underwent IVF treatment at a government-run hospital in Kagawa Prefecture.
But medical tests during the early stages of pregnancy revealed the implanted egg was unlikely to have come from the mother.

Further investigations led to the discovery that the fertilised eggs of another patient had accidentally been implanted.
The woman decided to abort at nine weeks upon discovery of the blunder and are now seeking £149,000 (in compensation from the prefectural government.
Yuzo Matsumoto, director of Kagawa Prefectural Central, said: "She was very happy after undergoing such a difficult procedure and becoming pregnant, but unfortunately a mistake had been made."
"The in vitro procedures are carried out in sequence one after the other. In this case the eggs from one procedure may have accidentally been left over and used in the following procedure."
Fertility treatment is increasingly common in Japan with thousands of women undergoing IVF treatment every year, during which a women's eggs are removed, fertilised outside the womb and then implanted in the uterus to lead to pregnancy.
However, medical groups traditionally do not encourage raising and bearing children who are not related to the mother. As a result, surrogate births and adoptions are comparatively rare in relation to other industrialised nations.

Researchers Worried about Limp Korean Sperm

The sperm of young Korean men is growing weak. Although there is no problem with their sperm count, over the past five years Korean men have produced significantly small numbers of healthy, actively mobile sperm cells. Experts blame the phenomenon on environmental hormones that affect the reproductive system.

Professor Han Sang-won of the Department of Urology at Yonsei University's College of Medicine studied the sperm of 102 students from a Seoul university between April and November last year, and discovered that the average motility rate of the sperm was in the upper 40 percent range.

The motility rate is the percentage of healthy sperm that can reach the female egg; a rate of 50 percent or more is considered healthy by World Health Organization standards.

The motility rate of sperm from 20-something Koreans has been declining for the past five years. From 1999 to 2001 it was an average of 66 to 83 percent. Then it dropped to upper 40 percent in 2002, and has been below normal since.

The sperm that Professor Han's team collected came from otherwise healthy Koreans in their early 20s. The researchers studied soldiers until 2004, athletes in 2005, and normal university students last year.
"The decrease in motility is serious in that it can become the major cause of sterility in men," Professor Han said. Detailed research results will be announced in July.

The researchers also discovered that the sperm count of the same group of university students showed a 30 percent decrease during exam periods, which confirms that stress can cause a temporary decline in the sperm count.

Foul air hits below the belt

Calcutta’s male population is losing the power to procreate with every breath of foul air, according to an Indo-American study of infertility patterns in the city over two decades.

Toxic fumes belched out by vehicles are not only responsible for sore throats and damaged lungs and hearts but also “a significant decline” in male fertility since the 80s, says the report on the basis of laboratory studies of sperm samples collected more than 20 years apart.

The report — the result of collaboration by researchers from Calcutta University, the Dhakuria-based Advanced Medicare & Research Institute (AMRI) and Cleveland Clinic, Ohio — twice refers to The Telegraph’s campaign against vehicular emission.
“It was a first-of-its-kind study in the subcontinent and has been accepted for publication in Fertility and Sterility, a research journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine,” said a scientist associated with the project.

The examination of 3,729 sperm samples — 1,752 in the 80s (1981-85) and 1,977 in the last decade (2000-07) — revealed a nearly 10 per cent drop in semen volume and a corresponding decline in motility (a measure of the percentage of sperm that can move towards an ovum for fertilisation) over 20-odd years.
“In the last two decades, fertility patterns in the city have undergone tremendous changes and we found a strong correlation between the trend and worsening pollution levels in the city,” said Ashok Bhattacharyya, a retired professor of biochemistry at Calcutta University and a co-author of the paper.

Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay, the first author of the paper, and the other scientists had taken care to avoid “regional variation” in the selection of samples. According to the report, the root cause of male infertility was regular inhalation of noxious gases belched out by polluting vehicles and the increasing presence of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium in the environment.

The experts attributed the decrease in semen volume mainly to chemicals that adversely affect male sex hormones. Several studies have established that these toxins — released in the air mainly by polluting vehicles — directly affect the functioning of “accessory sex glands” that help produce sperm.
“Benzopyrene, an extremely toxic and carcinogenic pollutant found in the city’s air, can break through all membranes and damage sperm,” Bhattacharyya said.

Alex C. Varghese, the scientific director of the in-vitro fertilisation division of AMRI and a co-author of the study, said the changes in infertility patterns were significant because “such a decline has taken place in a very short duration”.

The paper quotes a World Bank study as saying that in 2002 Calcutta was the third most polluted city in the world in terms of concentration of particulate matter. “Transport emissions in Calcutta rose from an estimated 1,825 tonnes per annum in 1970 to 25,550 tonnes in 1990.”
The paper quotes from reports in The Telegraph to illustrate how much autorickshaws and adulterated fuel (katatel) have contributed to air pollution.

Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, an expert on fertility research, said the “male factor” in infertility had shot up to 45 per cent from 30 per cent about four decades ago. He warned that the male population was more vulnerable to air pollution because of lifestyle and frequent exposure. “Sperms generally take 70 to 80 days to mature and males are extremely vulnerable to air pollution during this particular period,” Ghosh Dastidar added.

source: telegraphindia.com

Vietnam has made significant progress in infertility treatment

Recent achievements in infertility treatment in Vietnam have not only given fresh hope to childless couples, but also earned the country international recognition, according to local experts.

In the last week of December, the Hanoi-based Military Hospital’s Embryo Technology Center announced its success in culturing spermatids, saying that a baby had been born and six were expected to be born this year using the method.
Although the success rate now stands at 10 percent, it is notable that Vietnam is the first country in Asia to succeed in developing the technique, Vietnam News recently quoted Quan Hoang Lam - head of the center as saying.

Initiated by Doctor Tesarik J. from Turkey in 2001, the new technique helps men who cannot produce sperms.
Men can have their spermatids – the cells that become spermatozoon (sperms) – grown into sperms in culture medium within 24 hours and then injected into their wives’ ovum for fertilization.
Leading IVM nation
“Vietnam is one of the five countries, including Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Italy, which are leading in developing in vitro maturation (IVM),” Ho Chi Minh City Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Association (HOSREM) General Secretary Dr. Ho Manh Tuong told Lao Dong in a recent interview.
Since the first IVM baby was born in 2007, it is estimated that Vietnam has introduced 4 to 5 percent of some 500 IVM babies that are delivered internationally, he says.
“The number of IVM babies in Vietnam has increased sharply thanks to the rather high success rate,” Tuong adds.
According to HORSEM statistics, around 50 pregnancies so far have been achieved using IVM, including more than 10 cases of twins.
Following the success of the Vietnamese program, local scientists and experts have been invited to report their IVM application at international conferences, including the first European IVM meeting held in Monza, Italy, last month, Tuong says.
The association has also been invited to take part in a multi-center study on
IVM babies in the world headed by Professor R. Cheng Chian and Professor Seang Lintan of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, he says.
During IVM, immature eggs, or oocytes, are retrieved from the ovary, then matured in the laboratory before being fertilized and implanted in the womb.
The method almost halves the cost of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and has a shorter time of 10 days instead of four weeks.
Moreover, it does not imply a potentially fatal side-effect of injections given to stimulate egg production prior to retrieval, like the IVF. The side-effect, which is very rare, is known as the Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome.
While new achievements are being recorded and newer techniques applied, Vietnam already has a solid base in IVF development, experts say.
The country marked its first achievement in infertility treatment when three babies were born in 1998 using the IVF technology.
Over the past 10 years, 10 IVF centers have been established nationwide and these have introduced nearly 5,000 IVF babies in Vietnam, Tuong told the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper recently.
Since 2004, Vietnam has also conducted IVF courses for foreign students from countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar.

Source: Lao Dong, SGGP

Vietnam achieves success in new IVF treatment

Vietnam has become the first nation in Asia to successfully carry out a new treatment to help childless couples.
A girl was born using an IVF procedure in which doctors incubated a non-motile sperm cell and injected it into an egg, said Dr. Quan Hoang Lam, director of the Embryo Technology Centre.
Currently, the center is waiting for another six babies to be delivered from this procedure. Although the success ratio stands at 10 percent, Dr. Lam said, Vietnam is the only nation in Asia to have successfully applied the new method.

A disorder, not a disease

Dr Y Ravindranath

The last lap of 20th century witnessed a leap in tackling infertility with the advent of methods such as IVF Infertility is not a disease as such but a disorder of an order. Human fertility functions are very dynamic and precise.

Any deviation from this precision, may lead to a disorder. In women, the structural anomalies are permanent and congenital, like small, septate uterus, small ovaries or polycystic ovaries etc. These anomalies appear from the birth and if not corrected (some cannot be corrected), the consequences may lead either to abnormal function or no function.

Functional anomalies like hormonal imbalance, abnormal ovarian functions, irregular and painful periods etc., too can lead to infertility. Comparatively, these functional anomalies can be corrected better than structural anomalies. The seminal inadequacy in men is a similar anomaly. Apart from these inherent anomalies, age, psychological factors, stress, ignorance, changes in the biological clock and rhythms etc. can also lead to infertility.

The last lap of 20th century witnessed a leap in tackling infertility with the advent of methods such as IVF (In vitro Fertilisation), test tube techniques, followed by more advanced ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection) methods. More than 3 million babies were born by these techniques in a span of 25 years round the world. Avoiding late marriages, getting professional help without delay, may to some extent control this tendency.