Reproductive biomedicine online
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Jul 2005
CommentConcerns of sex selection and regulation in the report on Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, comprising 11 members, reviewed human reproductive technologies and the law and presented their fifth report of Session 2004-05 on 28 March 2005. They felt 'it necessary to reconnect the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990 with the changes in modern science'.
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Useful research and diagnostic criteria for PCOS arose from a conference in 1990, whereby PCOS could be defined by: (i) clinical and/or biochemical hyperandrogenism, (ii) chronic anovulation, and (iii) exclusion of related disorders. The presence of "polycystic ovaries" was not included in this definition, which created significant concern since many women with PCOS have polycystic ovaries on ultrasound, and conversely women with this ovarian morphology have a higher prevalence of androgen excess and insulin resistance. ⋯ It remains to be demonstrated whether these phenotypes actually represent patients with PCOS. Nonetheless, the trend towards the use of uniform diagnostic criteria in studies of PCOS will increase the comparability and potentially the value of published research.
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Nov 2002
ReviewFollow-up of children born after assisted reproductive technologies.
The course of pregnancies and the health of children born after assisted reproductive technologies are two of the most important outcome parameters of the quality of the techniques. There is an ongoing discussion as to whether these parameters may show poorer results as compared with spontaneous conception. Recent studies have shown increased risks for the pregnancy course following conventional IVF (e.g. premature birth, low birthweight), and a higher rate of major malformations after conventional IVF as well as after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. ⋯ Data from surrogate motherhood also demonstrate that here the risk is lower as compared with pregnancies from IVF mothers, who carry their own child to birth. Therefore, there are more infertility related problems than those related to technique. Finally, however, a risk related to the technique itself cannot be excluded completely by currently available data.