User:Z3333427

Lab attendance

Lab 1 --Z3333427 10:31, 25 July 2012 (EST)

Lab exercises

Lab 1

1) Identify the origin of In Vitro Fertilization and the 2010 nobel prize winner associated with this technique and add a correctly formatted link to the Nobel page.

Dating back to 1953, the first intact human fertilized egg was extracted by John Rock reported by the Australian Foxton School researchers to be only a transient biochemical pregnancy. The first pregnancy made possible by in vitro human fertilisation (IVF) was reported in 1973 by the Lancet from Monash University, however the pregnancy itself only lasted a small number of days. It was not until 1978 that the first child (Louise Brown) was born with the help of IVF. The process was carried out by Steptoe and Edward successfully the year before. IVF History

At the Nobel price ceremony in 2010, Robert Edwards, was awarded the price in Physiology or Medicine for his contribution in the field of human infertility and the development of IVF treatment. Nobel price page

2)Identify and add a PubMed reference link to a recent paper on fertilisation and describe its key findings (1-2 paragraphs).

- <pubmed>22611166</pubmed>

Today's couples are delaying childbirth to later stages in life which in many cases translate into complications with childbirth. The aim of this study is to assess the extent in which factors related with IVF treatments contribute to anxiety levels and mental health a year after childbirth.

The couples included were either of singleton pregnancy (IVF treatment) and subfertile couples (naturally conceived). Parental trait anxiety (Dutch version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and mental health (Dutch version of General Health Questionnaire) were assessed 1 year after childbirth.

A hundred and ninety-six couples participated, in which 93% were eligible. Trait anxiety and mental health were similar in both groups (IVF and naturally conceived). However, fathers who had naturally conceived children more often recorded mental health scores in the clinical range (21%) compared to the fathers who had undergone IVF (9%).

Females risk of having a trait anxiety or mental health score was lowered by having a greater number of IVF treatment cycles, whereas males risk had been lowered by being treated by IVF for a longer time period prior to pregnancy.

Therefore it was concluded that IVF treatment is not associated an increase in clinically relevant Spielberger State-Trait scores in parents 1 year after childbirth. This study also indicated that a higher number of IVF treatment cycles and an extended time to pregnancy were associated with better mental health.