A medical worker works on an intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) station on Febuary 2, 2011 at the Erasmus Hospital in Brussels. GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images Although use of an IVF treatment for male infertility, known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), has doubled in the past decade, the procedure is not always associated with better outcomes, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During ICSI, a single sperm is injected directly into an egg. The procedure, which was introduced in 1992, made it possible for many infertile men to father children. "In the pre-ICSI days, couples with severe male infertility would frequently have to resort to donor insemination, thus eliminating the possibility of the man to be the genetic parent," explained one expert, Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. "There are now millions of children and adults whose fathers had deficient sperm, and it is because of ICSI that they have been created," said Hershlag, who was not involved in the new study. Play Video The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking at a controversial procedure whereby a baby can be created … Continue reading →

Sperm is injected into a human egg during IVF treatment. Photograph: Zephyr/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF The health of artificially conceived children has steadily improved in the last 20 years with fewer babies being born prematurely or affected by low birth weight, research has shown. The number of babies conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART) who are stillborn, or die within the first year of life, has also fallen. The findings come from an analysis of data on more than 92,000 children in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the largest long-term investigation into the health of ART babies ever carried out. Dr Anna-Karina Aaris Henningsen, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who led the research published online in the journal Human Reproduction, said: During the 20-year period of our study, we observed a remarkable decline in the risk of being born pre-term or very pre-term. The proportion of single ART babies born with a low or very low birth weight less than 2,500 grams or 1,500 grams respectively also decreased. The rates for stillbirths and death during the first year declined among both singletons and twins, and fewer ART twins were stillborn or died during the first year compared … Continue reading →