http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1309160/Want-girl-You-need-quit-salt-bananas-bed-often.html

Mothers who want a baby girl should cut out bananas and go on a diet of beans and hard cheese, scientists claim. They have discovered that a combination of the right food and the timing of sex are the key to the nursery being painted pink rather than blue. The trick, the scientists say, is to refrain from eating sodium and potassium-rich foods, such as anchovies, olives, bacon, salami, smoked salmon, prawns, savoury rice, blue cheese, potatoes, processed meats, bread and pastries. Instead they should concentrate on foods rich in calcium and magnesium.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11164078

Scientists say they are closer to knowing why older women are more likely to produce abnormal eggs. The Newcastle University team saw a fall in levels of proteins called cohesins, essential for chromosomes to divide properly for fertilisation. Writing in Current Biology, they said understanding this process could help develop ways to prevent cohesin loss. Abnormal eggs are linked to infertility, miscarriage and conditions including Down’s Syndrome.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11057943

The body that regulates fertility treatment in the UK is considering increasing compensation for egg and sperm donors. Women who donate eggs are currently paid £250, but this could rise considerably under moves to address egg and sperm shortages at IVF clinics. Many fertility clinics have long waiting lists, driving some childless couples abroad. No decision will be made until the end of a public consultation next year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7948027/IVF-the-hidden-story-of-Britains-snowbabies.html

There are tens of thousands of ’spare’ IVF embryos currently in storage in Britain, but parents face an agonising choice in deciding what to do with them. When Helene Torr received a letter from her IVF clinic in the spring of 2001 its arrival was almost comically timed. The past few months had passed in an exhausted blur of caring for her toddler and newborn twins, one of whom has a disability. That morning her kitchen was strewn with pastel-coloured baby toys and piles of tiny clothes. So the clinic’s reminder that two ’spare’ embryos remained in storage came as a shock. It wasn’t just the realisation that the embryos were there that bothered her, but the thought she might have to use them. ‘It was as if [the letter] was saying, “Want some more?’ says the mother-of-three with a laugh, as she looks back on her barely coping younger self.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303442/Pregancy-The-average-couple-sex-104-times-conceive.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The average couple has sex 104 times before falling pregnant, a study has found. Research revealed it takes a typical woman six months to conceive her first child, during which she has sex around four times a week. The study also found one in ten women have been so eager to get pregnant they have called their husband home from work when they were ovulating. Despite this, 70 per cent of those polled said they wanted their baby to be conceived during a loving and spontaneous sex session, rather than a ’sex on demand’ approach.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10942956

A scientific study has shown for the first time that high stress levels may delay pregnancy. Oxford University experts measured stress hormones in women planning a baby naturally and found the most stressed had a reduced chance of becoming pregnant. Relaxation might help some couples, but more research is needed, they say. The study, in the journal Fertility and Sterility, followed 274 healthy women aged 18-40 planning a pregnancy. Age, smoking, obesity and alcohol are known to affect pregnancy success, but the influence of stress is less clear.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7902308/Hundreds-of-IVF-embryos-donated-without-consent.html

Hundreds of leftover IVF embryos from British couples have been given away to other people without their knowledge or explicit consent, in a controversial scheme at a clinic in Spain, it can be disclosed. Hundreds of British couples could have children that are biologically theirs living with other parents around Europe or across the world without knowing, it has emerged. A Spanish clinic runs an ‘embryo adoption scheme’ where spare embryos are donated to other women if the couple who created them do not know what they want to do with them or do not respond to correspondence from the clinic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10683203

A “personalised predictor” model could help women decide whether their next cycle of IVF is going to succeed, say US researchers. A team from Stanford University in California developed the model using clinical data from a patient’s previous failed IVF treatment. About 75% of in vitro fertilisation treatments do not result in a live birth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10433577.stm

A new egg screening technique, which doctors hope will boost the success rate of IVF, can predict genetic problems in 90% of cases, research shows. However, it is not yet clear whether or not it increases pregnancy rates, European fertility experts warned. Some clinics already offer the £2,000 test to older women who have failed multiple attempts at IVF. A large trial is due to start next year to further assess the technology. Up to half of the eggs in younger women and up to 75% in women over 39 are chromosomally abnormal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10419076.stm

Women in their late 30s are freezing eggs because they are still hunting for “Mr Right”, research suggests. A study of women at a Belgian clinic found half wanted to freeze their eggs to take the pressure off finding a partner, a fertility conference heard. A third were also having eggs frozen as an “insurance policy” against infertility. Many students would also consider the procedure to focus on a career before motherhood, a separate UK survey found. The study of nearly 200 students showed eight in 10 doing a medical degree would freeze their eggs to delay starting a family.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7857262/Scientists-invent-first-male-contraceptive-pill.html

Scientists have developed the worlds male alternative to the female contraceptive pill. Until now all attempts to develop a male pill have failed with scientists working on a contraceptive jab for men given by doctors. But researchers in Israel have finally been able to create a oral pill that deactivates sperm before they reach the womb. And theyve developed a version that means it only needs to be to be taken once every three months. The breakthrough pill could be available in as little as three years, according to the scientist behind the discovery.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1290043/Menopause-test-tell-late-baby.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

A simple blood test that tells a woman as young as 20 how long she has left to start a family is being developed by doctors. The kit, which could be on sale in three years, would predict when a woman will go through menopause to within four months. This means that if a woman finds the menopause is fast approaching, she can decide to try for a family – or freeze some eggs for use at a later date.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/13/ivf-malformation-risk-doctors-warn

Doctors should warn couples attempting to have children through fertilisation treatment that there is a small risk that the child will suffer some sort of malformation, geneticists said today. Scientists in France looked at the records for over 15,000 children born as a result of treatment in 33 fertility centres and found that more than 4% of them had some sort of major congenital malformation. Reporting their findings at the European Society of Human Genetics, however, they say this is lower than the 11% previously found in smaller studies, but because their study is the largest to look at the issue so far, the French team believes the lower figure is more likely to be accurate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10254133.stm

About one percent of IVF pregnancies are aborted every year, figures collected by the fertility watchdog show. The exact reasons for the terminations – which amount to an average of about 80 a year – are unclear, but will include medical problems with the foetus as well as social grounds, such as a relationship breakdown. ”Selective reduction” abortions, when one foetus is removed to improve the survival chances of another in a multiple pregnancy, are also included. The figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF clinics in the UK, were obtained as part of a Freedom of Information request.