The Spousal Pregnancy
Helen Watt in The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth, 2016
The image of the pregnant body is as symbolically powerful as it is publicly recognizable. The fecund silhouette is a familiar part of our cultural imagery and visual vocabulary. The public attention paid to the pregnant body is especially interesting because of what it symbolizes: the private, the family. It gestures backward toward the intimacy that created the body's prolific shape as well as forward toward the intimacy shared between mother and infant. It may be instructive to look at one less happy and far less common narrative for pregnancy, involving the reduction or selective termination of a twin pregnancy following IVF or similar assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Such reductions are often practised with higher-order multiple pregnancies to maximise the chances of the pregnancy remaining though with some unwillingness to reduce triplet pregnancies to a lower number than twins. Embryo transfer to an unrelated woman responds to, and does not cause, the plight of embryos outside the body.
Psychological Effects
Elaine Baruch, Amadeo F D'Adamo, Joni Seager in Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights, 1988
The consequences of the new technologies for the psychology of women and children and the future creation of culture are open questions. Should the technologies succeed in taking reproduction out of the body altogether, it remains to be seen whether women gain in freedom, or whether this simply fulfil the age-old misogynistic fantasy of depriving women of their central place in procreation. Fatherhood without motherhood has been the desire behind these fantasies. It is a common belief among feminists now that the new technology with its in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer was designed less to help the infertile than to appease men's envy of women's reproductive power. Surrogacy gives a man the opportunity to buy a womb of his own, without any concern for the woman to whom it is attached. The possibilities for exploitation of economically deprived women for surrogacy, both here and in the third world, whether by married or single men, are great.
Vitro
Elaine Baruch, Amadeo F D'Adamo, Joni Seager in Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights, 1988
This chapter describes that the brave new baby, whether created in vitro by embryo transfer or by a surrogate mother, feel the same sense of alienation and bewilderment upon learning the unnatural ways she or he came into the world. Society would be wise to ponder the psychology of the adopted in order to gain some insights into what the psychological makeup of the brave new baby might be. Whatever combinations of reproduction and parenting it makes, chapter should relinquish the secrecy that has been the scourge of the adoption system. The typical birth mother who gives her child for adoption is young, unmarried, and pressured by her family to give up the baby. Studies show that these women often suffer from depression for the rest of their lives. Better interview techniques have been suggested to insure that only those women who can easily give up a child be selected.
How do laboratory embryo transfer techniques affect IVF outcomes? A review of current literature
Published in Human Fertility, 2017
George Sigalos, Olga Triantafyllidou, Nikos Vlahos
Over the last few years, many studies have focused on embryo selection methods, whereas little attention has been given to the standardization of the procedure of embryo transfer. In this review, several parameters of the embryo transfer procedure are examined, such as the: (i) culture medium volume and loading technique; (ii) syringe and catheters used for embryo transfer; (iii) viscosity and composition of the embryo transfer medium; (iv) environment of embryo culture; (v) timing of embryo transfer; (vi) and standardization of the embryo transfer techniques. The aim of this manuscript is to review these factors and compare the existing embryo transfer techniques and highlight the need for better embryo transfer standardization.
Single embryo transfer improve the perinatal outcome in singleton pregnancy
Published in The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 2020
Yu Wu, Wei Chen, Lina Zhou, Xiaohong Gao, Xiaowei Xi
Background and objectives: Most of previous studies are comparing the perinatal outcome on singleton babies. There has been no study evaluating the possible effect of singleton embryo transfer on the perinatal outcomes in initial singleton pregnancy resulting from fresh embryo transfer. The purpose of our study is to access the effect of embryo transfer number on obstetric and perinatal risks in order to examine the role of single embryo transfer on perinatal outcomes on initial singleton pregnancy. Materials and methods: This study is a retrospective cohort study and analyzed 6439 fresh embryo transfer women. 1647 initial singleton pregnancy patients were divided into one of the following three groups according to the embryo transfer number: group A (n = 94): single embryo transfer (SET); group B (n = 1321): double embryo transfer (DET); group C (n = 262): triple embryo transfer (TET). The miscarriage rate and the ectopic pregnancy rate was compared between group A and group B, group C. 1273 live birth patients were divided into three groups too. The obstetrics outcomes and perinatal outcomes between group A and group B, group C. Results: There were 94 singleton pregnancy patients in unselective single embryo transfer. Comparing with double embryo transfer, the early miscarriage rate was higher, but late miscarriage rate, ectopic rate, and live birth rate were comparable between two groups. The obstetrics outcomes were comparable between single embryo transfer and other two groups. Although there was no significant difference between group A and other two groups, preterm birth rate, extremely preterm birth rate, low-birth weight rate and very low-birth weight rate increased with the increase of embryo transfer number. The mean delivery weight was highest in singleton babies in single embryo transfer group. It is higher in group A comparing with group B (3440.4 versus 3320.7 g) and comparing with group C (3440.4 versus 3277.4 g). Conclusions: Single embryo transfer was associated with a better perinatal outcome such as preterm birth and low-birth weight in a singleton pregnancy. The mean birth weight was significantly higher in single embryo transfer group too. Single embryo transfer is a reasonable option to reach the goal of in vitro-fertilization – a healthy singleton neonate.
Single embryo transfer in clinical practice
Published in Human Fertility, 2004
Christel Hydén-Granskog, Aila Tiitinen
The high incidence of multiple pregnancies is the main reason for adverse treatment outcome in assisted reproduction. A good strategy to avoid multiple pregnancies is elective single embryo transfer and cryopreservation of spare embryos. Important factors in an elective single embryo transfer programme are good counselling of the patients and the selection of embryos with high implantation potential. In the infertility clinic at Helsinki University Central Hospital the elective single embryo transfer programme was started in 1997 and in 2000 the transfer policy turned to single embryo transfer as primary option. In 2003 60% of fresh transfers were elective single embryo transfers and 66% of frozen transfers were single embryo transfers. It has been shown that an elective single embryo transfer programme can be adopted in daily practice and that it decreases the multiple pregnancy rate, in our programme to around 7% with acceptable overall pregnancy and delivery rates. In Finland the increased use of single embryo transfer has reduced the proportion of multiple births. Finally, a good cryopreservation programme is essential to achieve a good cumulative delivery rate without multiple pregnancies.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Cryopreservation
- Menstrual Cycle
- Embryo
- Uterus
- Pregnancy
- Blastocyst
- Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection