Parents Feel Responsible for Unused Embryos
Following the completion of a course of fertility treatment, parents typically feel a sense of responsibility towards the unused embryos left over.
Such is the finding of Duke University Medical Center in a recent survey of those who had undergone women's sexual health procedures.
Despite a desire to preserve the embryos, however, few respondents were willing to allow them to be implanted into other recipients.
As such, researchers were left wondering what purpose the remaining stored embryos could serve.
The problem arises when extra embryos are created as a backup should the first implant fail during women's sexual health procedures.
When the first embryo is successfully brought to term, however, those backups remain in storage indefinitely.
But the parents queried expressed a desire for their excess embryos to be used in research.
Such a wish was seen to be the only commonly accepted option, while indefinite storage, donation to another family and disposal were rejected.
The European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology recently investigated the effect of alternative therapies on women's sexual health.
Researchers compared the likelihood of conception while undergoing IVF for patients who also received acupuncture treatments with those who were given a placebo procedure.
In the placebo process, needles were used which retracted into the handle rather than entering the skin.
Patients given the placebo acupuncture were seen to be more likely to conceive than those receiving the genuine alternative therapy.
