Research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests workplace exposure to plasticizers and pesticides may lower a woman's fertility and increase her chances of having a baby born with a lower birthweight. Research for this long term study tracking the health of their children from fetal development to young adulthood was conducted on a total of 6,000 women with due dates between 2002 and 2006 and an average age of 30. More than two-thirds (68%) said they had planned their pregnancy.



Along with a physical examination of each of the women, questionnaires and interviews were conducted to ask how long it took them to conceive and what paid work they had done, the types of jobs and activities they had participated in and a job exposure matrix was used to study their working conditions, including the physical workload and exposure to chemicals during pregnancy.

Among the 3,719 who provided information on time to conception, a period of 6 to 12 months or in excess of a year was reported by 15% and 10%, respectively. Six months to conception is considered to be long.

Around one in 20 (5.5%) had a preterm birth (under 37 weeks of pregnancy) and just over 1% gave birth before 34 weeks.

Some 15% of babies weighed less than 3,000 g at birth and 5% were deemed to be of low birthweight (under 2,500 g).

Known risk factors were older age, lower educational attainment, ethnicity, smoking and drinking, all of which contributed to the time it took to conceive a child and the birthweight of their baby.

Your family doctor is the first person to talk to before stepping foot inside a fertility clinic, but when looking for a fertility doctor you should ask yourself and the referred doctor these questions.

1. Could lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol, or stress be affecting my fertility?

2. What type of treatment would you recommend trying first? Does this treatment involve surgery, medications, or both? What are the risks of treatment?

3. Are there any non-medical approaches, such as relaxation or meditation techniques, that could improve my chances of becoming pregnant?

4. How many cycles of treatment would you recommend before trying another option?

5. What does treatment cost? Does my insurance cover any of the medications, hospital charges, or doctor's visits? If I must pay out-of-pocket, do you offer any special payment plans?

6. What is the national success rate, in terms of live births, for each of these treatments?

7. Can you put us in touch with former patients who have undergone similar treatments?

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that provinces now have exclusive authority to regulate fertility clinics, this includes: ensuring doctors are licensed and establishing safe laboratory practices and regulating how many embryos can be implanted.

 

Read the full Globe and Mail article.

Embryo quality is a very important consideration for couples experiencing infertility.
The difference between transferring a day 3 versus a day 5 embryo is significant. To help you understand the difference we’ve listed five reasons why a day 5 blastocyst has had more success than a day 3 embryo. To begin with, a blastocyst is an embryo that has developed for five to seven days after fertilization.

5 Good Reasons to Transfer a Day 5 Blastocyst

1. At LifeQuest we perform the most day 5 embryo transfers in Canada. Because of this, we have had more success in helping women achieve pregnancy with these advanced embryos.

2. In the past, most IVF physicians would transfer three to four good-quality ‘day 2 or 3’ embryos. However, using more advanced technology, LifeQuest can transfer most embryos on day 5 when they are blastocysts. Waiting those extra few days in the lab to transfer a day 5 embryo, or blastocyst, can make a big difference to whether or not a woman achieves a pregnancy.

3. Using a blastocyst to transfer during the IVF process allows the cells time to mature more than day 3 embryos and closely mimics the time of natural human implantation. A day 3 embryo has 8 cells; a day 5 embryo, or blastocyst has 70-100 cells.

4. Using the blastocyst technique, pregnancy rates are higher with fewer embryos replaced. This is an advantage because we can use fewer embryos to achieve a pregnancy, reducing the chances of, and risks associated with multiple pregnancies (twins or triplets). For example, the transfer of two blastocysts in lieu of three day 3 embryos has increased the pregnancy rate but reduced the chance of triplets to almost zero.

5. The blastocyst development rate in today’s nutritionally supplemented blastocyst media is approximately 45-50%, with a reported 50% implantation rate.

 

Day 5 Blastocyst Embryo Transfer