http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (AP)—Police questioned 30 people on Tuesday and searched the homes of six employees of a private fertility clinic who are suspected of illegally trafficking human eggs and selling them to Israeli couples with fertility problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-romania-alleged-illegal-trafficking-human.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:50:02 EST news280497436 Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology say cells from the amniotic membrane part of the placenta normally discarded after a woman gives birth could one day be a source for human eggs. The first-of-its-kind discovery was published online last month in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology (2012, 10:108). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-amniotic-sac-membrane-source-human.html Medical research Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:26:57 EST news277115209 Freezing human eggs can be successful in treating infertility—but U.S. guidelines issued Friday still urge caution for women hoping to pause a ticking biological clock. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-eggs-fertility-caution-urged.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:55:04 EST news269862898 One third of American women of childbearing age are battling obesity, a condition that affects their health and their chances of getting pregnant. Obese women often have poor reproductive outcomes, but the reasons why have not been clearly identified. Now, a novel study led by Catherine Racowsky, PhD, director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and performed by Ronit Machtinger, M.D., of BWH, in collaboration with Catherine Combelles, PhD, of Middlebury College, gains further insight into the underlying mechanisms. The study will be published online on September 11 in the journal Human Reproduction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-insight-severely-obese-women-difficulty.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:57:21 EST news266587032 Women who have eggs that cannot mature will not become pregnant, and they cannot be helped by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified a molecule called Cdk1 that has an important function for mammalian egg maturation. In the future this could lead to an increased rate of successful IVF. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-discovery-molecule-maturation-mammalian-eggs.html Genetics Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:22:08 EST news250186919 A new technique successfully used in mice to identify embryos likely to result in a successful pregnancy could be used in humans, potentially boosting IVF success rates and helping to reduce the number of multiple births (1), according to Cardiff University scientists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-technique-boost-ivf-success-multiple.html Other Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:41 EST news244810836 Researchers have uncovered exactly how a human egg captures an incoming sperm to begin the fertilisation process, in a new study published this week in the journal Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-revealed-sticky-egg-captures-sperm.html Medical research Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:14 EST news232894450 (AP) -- British scientists say a new expert body should be formed to regulate experiments mixing animal and human DNA to make sure no medical or ethical boundaries are crossed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-uk-scientists-human-animal.html Other Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:30:14 EST news230553000 Caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman's ovaries to her womb. "Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant," says Sean Ward, professor of physiology and cell biology, at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, who conducted the study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-caffeine-consumption-female-infertility-link.html Medical research Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:46:44 EST news230384776 Researchers are developing a new way to test a woman's egg for chromosome abnormalities that avoids the need to manipulate and biopsy the egg itself. The research may also shed light on the crucial role played by certain genes in the development of chromosome abnormalities that are a major cause of miscarriages and conditions such as Down's syndrome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-chromosome-abnormalities-genetic-faulty-eggs.html Medical research Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:02:21 EST news229111312 Caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman's ovaries to her womb. "Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant," says Professor Sean Ward from the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, USA. Ward's study is published today in the British Journal of Pharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-caffeine-fertility-women.html Medical research Thu, 26 May 2011 03:21:09 EST news225598849