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Men’s sperm count could be reduced by exposure to chemicals in the environment, according to research. A rise in IVF treatments could be down to the effect of chemicals such as cosmetics, detergents and pollutants. Researchers from the University of Glasgow, in collaboration with academics in Edinburgh, the James Hutton Institute, the University of Aberdeen [...]

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A lesbian couple desperate for one child have given birth to four – two sets of twins who arrived a few weeks apart. Laura Calvin and Sheri Green, from Naples, Florida, defied the odds when they both became pregnant through artificial insemination and were amazed to discover later that they were both expecting twins. The [...]

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Women approaching their mid-thirties who aren’t ready to have children are not the only ones worrying about their reproductive futures. Reports from fertility centres around the country are showing the increase of parental contribution as adult women opt to freeze their eggs. For many would-be-grandparents, helping to cover the cost of the expensive oocyte cryopreservation [...]

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A controversial fertility doctor has raked in £25million in a single year. Mohamed Taranissi and his wife received the colossal sum through their IVF clinic, giving fresh evidence to critics who say that the creation of human life has become a multi-million pound industry. On Saturday the Daily Mail revealed that a human egg agency [...]

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IVF procedures widely used in the UK are posing a ‘serious health risk’, healthcare experts have warned. Clinics are using ‘aggressive’ practices that improve success rates but have led to treatments becoming one of the biggest causes of maternal deaths in England and Wales, they said. There is increasing evidence that the most common treatment, [...]

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IVF clinics in the UK are practising aggressive fertility treatments that are putting women and children at unjustified risk, experts say. The commercially driven industry uses unnecessary procedures, high doses of powerful drugs and risky interventions to help desperate couples spending thousands of pounds to conceive. But a milder, safer approach to IVF could provide [...]

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Zoe Clark-Coates remembers the moment a scan showed that her second pregnancy, like her first, had ended. “I’ll never forget the midwife’s face as she looked at the screen. She fell completely silent and I started screaming – a terrible, almost primal reaction over which I had no control. Looking back, I feel sorry for [...]

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Tania Mirmothari was worried sick. The previous night, the 19-year-old from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, had had yet another drunken one-night stand. Carefree at the time, the following morning she’d woken with a thumping hangover, horrified at the realisation she might be pregnant. There was only one thing for it: Tania went to her local walk-in [...]

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A couple who had IVF treatment after struggling to conceive for years have advertised their 18 leftover embryos on Craigslist so they can donate them to others in need. Deb and Kevin McCrea had two boys after undergoing fertility treatment and a baby girl after In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) when they were left with 18 [...]

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Half of the women who lost weight became pregnant within a year compared with just one in seven of those not on a strict diet, the first randomised trial of its kind has shown. The research being presented at the European Congress on Obesity, in Lyons, France, is believed to be the first to randomly [...]

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For more than a decade, Misty and Brian Baker have tried for a child without any luck. But now, with the help of their best friends, they are making up for lost time – as they are expecting FOUR babies after both Misty and her surrogate fell pregnant with twins. When the Bakers, who live [...]

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Fertility doctors have long puzzled why only one per cent of the 300million sperm released by a man during sex manages to reach their partner’s uterus, while just a few dozen reach the egg. Now British scientists think they have the answer – it’s all down to an appalling sense of direction. The findings could [...]

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As she clutches her newborn baby Paula Lackie has more reason than most new mums to feel euphoric. After more than two decades of trying 7lb Isla is a ‘little miracle’ who has defied doctors’ by becoming Paula’s first child. The proud mother, who is now 43, was just 21-years-old when doctors shattered her dreams [...]

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Fertility treatment increases the risk of birth defects in babies, according to the largest scientific study of its kind. Babies conceived by assisted techniques are at least one-third more likely to suffer from congenital problems than those conceived naturally, the new research has found. Birth defects including heart, spinal and urinary tract problems, limb abnormalities [...]

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Research on more than 300,000 babies found those born following a fertility treatment used when men have low sperm counts or motility problems had a significantly higher risk of developing abnormalities than those conceived naturally. Babies born as a result of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) – where a single sperm is injected directly into the [...]

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Above a cheap mobile phone shop in a chaotic street in north Delhi, there is a grimy apartment whose peeling walls are decorated with photographs of adoring mothers nursing their babies. The woman cooing at her child in the biggest portrait is beautiful, white and affluent-looking — in stark contrast to the flat’s five residents, [...]

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I don’t have any paternal instinct; zilch. Perhaps this is selfishness. But there’s more than enough love and companionship in my existence. The universe is indifferent to “Graeme Archer”; that I will at some point be swept away, like a sandcastle by the waves, leaves me oddly content. Wash me, thoroughly, of my iniquity, says [...]

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A test which checks if an embryo contains the right amount of genetic information could dramatically improve the effectiveness of IVF, a UK biotech company says. IVF can have a low success rate, particularly with older women. A study, published in the journal Molecular Cytogenetics, suggests that extra genetic screening increases the pregnancy rate by [...]

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This month a fertility specialist announced plans to open a new London clinic for young women who want to delay childbearing. They will be able to ‘insure’ against infertility by ‘banking’ bits of their ovaries while they are still well under 30, allowing them to conceive later in life. This specialist plans to freeze these [...]

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A mother who spent £40,000 on IVF over eight years in order to have a son was thrilled to conceive another child a year later, without trying. Jenifer Heneghan, 35, and husband Kevin, 37, spent their life savings on six rounds of IVF treatment after Jenifer was told she was infertile. My miracle babies: Jenifer [...]

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Women who take the contraceptive pill or use condoms are doing so with the misconception of how effectively they prevent pregnancy, a new study has revealed. Researchers in St. Louis, Missouri interviewed 4,144 women about birth control methods and found that 45 per cent relied too heavily on their contraceptives to do the job without [...]

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A Mexican woman who claimed to be pregnant with nine babies is not expecting and is simply clinically obese, health officials have said. They have also revealed it would be impossible for Karla Vanessa Perez to be carrying nonuplets because her fallopian tubes have been removed. The 32-year-old has also been branded a liar for [...]

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A gay couple who claim an IVF blunder led them to have babies from different racial backgrounds said today that they loved their children regardless. The pair were said to have been left “devastated” after the alleged mix-up at the London Women’s Clinic in Harley Street. It is believed that sperm from the wrong donor [...]

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Rising numbers of women are dying in labour as obesity and delayed motherhood make births more risky. There are concerns maternity units can’t cope with the increasing number of complicated and potentially dangerous labours. A study of women giving birth in London, published in the Lancet medical journal, found the death rate has doubled since [...]

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Karla Vanessa Perez Castaneda, in an interview with Mexico’s main broadcaster Televisa, spoke of her surprise at discovering she was carrying so many babies. “It’s miraculous. Doctors tell me there are six girls and three boys,” she said. “It’s much too early to start thinking about names for them all. I just hope that everything [...]

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A Mexican woman has got a lot on her hands after getting pregnant with an incredible nine babies. The country’s main broadcaster Televisa reported last night that Karla Vanessa Perez is expecting six girls and three boys. Perez was described as coming from the northeastern state of Coahuila, which borders the U.S. state of Texas. New mother [...]

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Setting out from my home in sleepy Devon, I catch the bus into the nearest big town, where none of the chemists know my family, and buy two expensive pregnancy tests. It’s the summer holidays after I’ve left  school and perhaps my periods have  stopped because I’ve been anxious  about my A-level results. Or perhaps [...]

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After my son Lance was born 27 years ago, I started taking the Pill because I didn’t want another child. I was very young at the time — just 17 — and was struggling to make ends meet. However, around 14 years ago I found I was pregnant again, but scans revealed it was ectopic — [...]

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French researchers say they have for the first time found a link between drugs given to stimulate the ovaries of women before they have fertility treatment and an increased risk of leukaemia in their children. Initial findings, presented at a conference in London, found that the use of ovarian stimulation drugs was associated with more [...]

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Every year tens of thousands of women in Britain undergo fertility treatment, that usually involves them receiving drugs to prompt their ovaries into producing more eggs. More than 13,000 babies are born annually thanks to assisted fertility technology. No study has yet found convincing evidence suggesting that fertility treatment leads to babies that are any less [...]

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The number of single women and lesbian couples receiving fertility treatment has soared since the  Government took the controversial decision to remove the legal requirement for any child conceived to have a father or father figure. In 2007, before the change in the law, only 350 single women had IVF. But by 2010, the last [...]

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A test devised by British scientists promises to make successful pregnancies far more likely through IVF treatment. The test, which costs £600, helps doctors find the embryos with the best chance of surviving in the womb before they are implanted. In trials, pregnancy rates have been boosted by 25 per cent. Many women need to [...]

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A sophisticated new microscope makes it possible for fertility doctors to monitor the developing fertilised egg continuously for up to five days.   It means any abnormal changes can be spotted and the egg discarded so only the best quality ones with the best chance of creating a healthy pregnancy are transferred to the womb. [...]

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A couple who were told it would be ‘virtually impossible’ for them to conceive have had a baby with the help of a pioneering IVF technique – an incubator with built-in CCTV. Gemma and Simon Potter spent  four years trying for a child before  tests revealed that surgery Mr Potter had as a child had [...]

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An infertile couple duped by Nigerian conmen into believing their child was miraculously conceived were the victims of greedy international child traffickers, a judge has ruled. Now the pair are fighting a legal battle to adopt the one-year-old girl after she was taken into care. In 2010, the husband and wife from Hackney decided to travel [...]

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A couple who spent £35,000 on 44 attempts at IVF have written a book charting their heartbreaking journey – with a miracle ending. Trudie and Lloyd Thompson finally gave birth to healthy baby boy Jaja after 12 agonising years of fertility treatment. The pair, from Leyland, had to remortgage their home and spent all their [...]

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I’d like to thank Bibi Lynch for her moving and brave article about the pain of desperately wanting children and not having them (Family, 31 March). Brave not only because it’s difficult to speak about such unhappiness, but also because, as your correspondents showed (Letters, 6 April), childless women are now so marginalised that they [...]

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Many cases of autism are caused by faulty sperm and eggs, with older men more likely to father a child with the condition, researchers believe. Three large-scale studies have highlighted the importance of mistakes in the DNA of eggs and sperm to the development of autism. One in seven cases of autism in families where [...]

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A majority of people believe children should be told if they were conceived by sperm donors, according to a survey for The Independent. ComRes found 60 per cent of the public think such children should be told “once they reach an appropriate age”, 27 per cent disagree and 13 per cent “don’t know”. There are [...]

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BIOLOGY is destiny. That sentiment, often ascribed to Sigmund Freud, has infuriated women for the best part of a century. It became even harder to accept after the contraceptive pill came on the scene in the 1960s. Women had the chance to seize control of their lives and they did just that, changing society’s destiny [...]

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For many women, a thoughtful card from their son or daughter is enough to make them feel extra special on Mother’s Day. But for one woman, just being able to call herself a mother is more than enough. Genevieve Drinkwater was told by doctors she had less than a one per cent chance of conceiving [...]

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Mother who had babies through surrogate appeals for right to maternity pay A teaching assistant whose cousin carried her twin babies has called for greater surrogacy rights after discovering that she is not entitled to maternity pay. A mother who had a baby through a surrogate has called for the right to paid maternity leave. [...]

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Jane Kassim was born without a womb and her cousin Amy Bellamy, 26, agreed to help fulfil her dream to have children of her own. Amy gave birth by Caesarean section to Isla Jane and Ivy May but Jane was stunned when she was told she wasn’t entitled to maternity leave or the statutory pay [...]

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Making up for lost time: 34-year-old virgin becomes father of 82 after launching free ‘baby making’ service (with an 80% success rate) Dutchman Ed Houben, 42, sleeps with around 15 childless women a month Had 45 girls and 35 boys in nine years but doesn’t know sex of other two By ALAN HALL A man [...]

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What price motherhood? Tens of thousands of pounds? A major operation that sees tissue removed from your ovaries, stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 190C, and then regrafted into your body when you decide you want children? That may sound like some strange, dystopian vision, like a plot from a movie where women have their [...]

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Male fertility has been largely overlooked until recently with most treatments requiring women to take medication or undergo expensive and invasive procedures.   Up to half of the problems suffered by couples trying to conceive, however, are due to the man’s fertility. Now research into a key aspect of male fertility – how sperm cells swim [...]

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British women are to be  given the chance of delaying motherhood by freezing parts of their ovaries. They will be able to ‘bank’ their ovarian tissue in their twenties  and early thirties, when it is most fertile, and have it re-implanted years later. Fertility specialists are planning to open the first clinic in the country [...]

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Women will be able to delay motherhood by freezing parts of their ovaries at the first specialist fertility clinic to be opened in Britain. Those in their twenties and early thirties will be able to “bank” their ovarian tissue when it is most fertile, and have it re-implanted years later. The procedure, which could cost [...]

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Gel to boost male fertility being developed by scientistsBritish scientists have gained fresh insight into the causes of male infertility that promise to provide new treatments for couples struggling to have children. Scientists are now using the compounds to develop a new gel they hope will increase the chance of couples conceiving naturally without the [...]

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An American woman has given birth to 15 babies however only four of the children are her own. Meredith Olafson, a 47-year-old woman from North Dakota, has acted as a surrogate mother for the past 13 years, producing 11 children for other parents. According to Jay, her husband, the super surrogate is driven by the [...]

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