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Miscarriage risk and Diesel Fumes linked

Around one in 10 pregnancies in Britain ends in miscarriage.

Exposure to diesel exhaust particles for preganant women is linked to miscarriages, scientists warn.

A study on 1,200 women found that being exposed to levels of pollution just slightly above the recommended safe level set by the World Health Organisation led to the highest miscarriage rates.

The new study set out to investigate the effects of diesel exhaust particles on embryos in mice, it’s aim was to question previous research which found higher pregnancy loss among women undergoing IVF exposed to poorer quality air.

While the exposure to diesel exhaust particles didn’t stop the embryo implanting in the womb it did cause development problems, increasing the risk of miscarriage by up to 2.5-fold.

Dr Paulo Marcelo Perin, who led the research at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil said, “Our latest study found that air pollution significantly decreased the cell population of embryos,”

“When you have a decrease in cell mass you compromise embryo viability. Because diesel is a major component of air pollution we can assume most of the effect is from diesel.

“We saw a significant increase in the miscarriage rates.

“Even small amounts of pollution can cause pregnancy loss.”

Stuart Lavery, from IVF Hammersmith in west London, said that more research needed to be done on the effect of pollution on fertility.

         

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IVF hope increased as new screening test doubles conception rate

The odds for IVF success are currenty less than one in four procedures and with around 37,000 woman in Britain every year undergoing IVF, this will be welcome news.

British scientists have developed a new method, which screens embryos for genetic defects and greatly increases the chance of women becoming pregnant, even in their late thirties. Genetic screening also substantially cuts the risk of conditions like Down’s syndrome.

To date more than 20 babies have been born after using the technique and the wishes of the scientists involved are that it could eventually become standard practice on the National Health Service.

One in six couples faces problems conceiving. However, with this new method, experts achieved a birth in four out of five attempts in older women whose previous IVF attempts had been unsuccessful.

“Astonishing”, was how the team, from Oxford, hailed their results. However they admitted they used the candidates most likely to succeed anyway for the treatment, (The method requires women to produce embryos which progressed to the five day stage).

Stuart Lavery, consultant gynaecologist at the IVF unit at Hammersmith Hospital, said the latest results were still ‘quite amazing when compared to conventional approaches’.

This technique, by the Reprogenetics UK laboratory in Oxford for the Colorado Centre for Reproductive Medicine, took 42 women with an average age of 39 who had endured at least one failed IVF attempt.

The experts tested five-day-old embryos for chromosome abnormalities which could prevent them implanting in the womb, or cause miscarriage.

More than twice as many embryos ended in a pregnancy using the technique compared to a control group of similar patients. In addition, multiple embryos were transferred at the same time.

Although some women miscarried, the birth rate was 80 per cent, compared to 60 per cent in the control group.

Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: “Embryology is really crying out for something like this.

“We really haven’t moved on from the science of just looking down the microscope and seeing if an embryo looks good on the basis of some rather loose criteria.

“This is very exciting technology but we do need proper randomised control trials to see if it does what says on tin.”

The screening technique is currently too new to be considered for funding by the NHS and is only offered privately in a handful of IVF clinics in Britain, costing up to £11,000.

The findings will be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) conference in Atlanta this week.

The first baby was born in Britain using a similar technique last month, after his parents underwent 13 failed IVF attempts.