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If you're in your late 30s or 40s and trying to conceive, ovulation-predictor kits might be steering you wrong -- or driving you crazy.

In a US study of 848 women, researchers found that the hormonal surge that usually signals "It's time!" may not really announce ovulation if you're perimenopausal and your period is irregular. (Perimenopause can start in your late 30's or early 40's.)

"Levels of luteinizing hormone, the hormone measured by most ovulation kits that use a urine sample, may be high and produce a falsely positive color change on test strips," says lead researcher Nanette Santoro, MD, an OB/GYN at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "A woman thinks she's ovulating, but in fact, two other key hormones -- estrogen and progesterone -- may be so low that ovulation isn't really possible."

Santoro's team is developing a mathematical formula that pinpoints ovulation based on the ratio of estrogen to progesterone. A home version of their ovulation detector is years away, but these steps can help you pinpoint a ready egg:

Are you ovulating at all? If you have irregular periods or have tried to conceive for 6 months, your doc can order lab tests to assess ovulation.

Buy two ovulation test kits. Women over 35 may have late-in-the-month hormone surges. "If you start checking on day 10, and you don't ovulate until day 20, you'll run out of strips if you have just one five-strip pack," says Santoro.

Switch to a saliva test. These kits ($25 to $60) detect the pre-ovulation estrogen surge.

Source: http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/pregnancy-after-35/fb279c777f803110VgnVCM20000012281eac____/health/healthy.living.centers/ob.gyn.health

Ovulation Predictor Kit Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/opk.html


How to use ovulation kits: http://www.babycenter.ca/preconception/suspectingaproblem/howovulationkitswork/





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INFERTILE PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CHARACTERIZED as desperate for children. But Houston psychologist Patty Mahlstedt says the struggles people will endure to conceive a child is not a sign of desperation. Mahlstedt, who specializes in counseling the infertile, says people were intended to conceive children. "That was the plan, wasn't it?" she asks with a smile. "Whoever or whatever you believe made our bodies had that plan. I think it's unfair to think that because people really want a child, and will go to extremes to conceive, that that is pathological or neurotic or narcissistic."

In fact, most infertility patients never go so far as IVF. In 1995, only seven percent of the women who sought help for infertility used IVF, artificial insemination, or other "assisted reproductive technologies." Three times as many used ovulation drugs. But infertile people are far more likely to try treatment than to adopt. Only about 11 percent of infertile people pursue adoption -- about half of those who do adopt pursue medical treatments first.

Does that mean people are driven by a primordial edict to bear children? Evolutionary psychologist Stephen Pinker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks not. Pinker is the author of the recent book, "How the Mind Works."

"Primarily, we have a drive to have sex," he says. "If we really had a drive to have children that bear copies of our genes, you'd have men lining up around the block to donate sperm." Pinker says humans wouldn't be such avid consumers of birth control if our genes were commanding us to reproduce.

"There are people who decide not to have children," Pinker points out. "Probably most people in our society decide to have fewer children than they could have." There is, however, one other powerful impulse: "I think there are very few people who decide they have no interest in sex," Pinker says.

From an evolutionary perspective, there was never a need for humans to develop a desire for babies, Pinker argues. As long as we wanted sex, we got babies. He believes the reason so many people do want babies is that human brains run on more than instinct. People can reason. We can predict that having children might make us happy. But many experts on human behavior, including Pinker, say once a baby is born, an instinct does kick in: parents are driven to care for their children.

Imagine a maternity ward, Pinker urges, where a nurse who tells a new mother, "We have about a dozen babies who've appeared in the last day or two. Do you care which one we give you?'" Pinker laughs. "I think it's obvious that people would care," he says. "They would want their own child, even if they can't even tell the difference between their child and other children. There is a deep-rooted idea of a child that is your flesh and blood."

Minneapolis adoption attorney Judy Vincent says it's not as hard to adopt as people think. LISTEN

Biologists point out that in other species, too, animals are more likely to care for offspring related to them. Penguins will find and feed their own young in vast colonies of seemingly identical baby penguins. Psychologists say it is clearly possible to love and bond with a child who is not genetically related to you. Adoptive parents and their children often love each other deeply. But many infertile people say that in order to adopt, they first had to grieve for the genetically-related child they could never have.

Source: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/fertility_race/part2/narr_mandate.shtml



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It's time to debunk some fertility myths
Let's face it, myths abound when it comes to fertility and conception. Some myths may be harmless, but others may actually work against you as you try to conceive. It helps to be knowledgeable. So let's start to shed some light on some common misconceptions.

Myth: It's easy to get pregnant.
For many people, it's not easy. Yet, friends and family often still put undue pressure on couples with the "what's wrong with you?" syndrome.

Myth: Having sex every day will increase our chances of conceiving.
The truth is that timing sex during the most fertile days of a woman's monthly cycle will increase your chances — not how many times you have sex. Generally, the best time to try to conceive is during the 11 - 17th days of a woman's menstrual cycle based on a 28-day cycle. Since a man's sperm can live for 48 - 72 hours in a woman's reproductive tract, intercourse every other day during this period is recommended. A study found no difference in pregnancy rates between couples that had sex daily and those who had sex every other day.[1]

Myth: A woman's menstrual cycle begins when she starts spotting.
Close, but wrong. If you're trying to time intercourse, it's critical to identify the first day of your reproductive cycle. Start counting on the first day of normal bleeding or full flow, not when spotting begins. Being off by just a day or two can make a big difference.

Myth: A woman can't get pregnant if she doesn't have an orgasm.
Getting pregnant has nothing to do with a woman having an orgasm. Conception occurs when a man's sperm fertilizes a woman's egg.

Myth: I can wait until I'm 40 to conceive. Everyone's doing it.
When you choose to start a family is up to you. But as you make your decision, you should be aware of some basic fertility facts. A man's fertility drops after age 35.[2] A healthy woman at age thirty has about a 20% chance per month of conceiving. By the time she reaches forty, her chances drop to about 5% per month.[3]

Getting pregnant — at any age — is not an automatic. And as you get older, it may become increasingly difficult to conceive - despite all the stories you've heard in the media. Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after regular, unprotected intercourse after 12 months (or 6 months if a woman is over 35). It's important to talk to a healthcare provider whenever you're concerned about your ability to conceive. Some people talk with their Primary Care Physician, others with an OB/GYN, and some go directly to a Fertility Specialist, also called a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE). Find a Fertility Specialist, Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), in your area.

Myth: We've already had one child, so conceiving again will be easy.
Perhaps, but it's no guarantee. Many Americans experience secondary infertility, or difficulty conceiving a second or subsequent child. This problem is often caused by age-related factors.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg...
If you're wondering if something else is fact or fiction, talk to your healthcare provider.

Looking for definitions for fertility terms? Visit our Glossary.


* American Society for Reproductive Medicine

[1] Wilcox, AJ et al. The time of the "fertile window" in the menstrual cycle: day specific estimates from a perspective study. British Medical Journal 2000 November 18;321 (5):1259-62.

[2] American Fertility Association. Protect Your Fertility: Know the Facts.

[3] American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Age and Fertility: A Guide for Patients. 2003

Source:www.fertilitylifelines.com

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
It Starts with the Egg:
How the Science of Egg Quality Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally, Prevent Miscarriage, and Improve Your Odds in IVF
by Rebecca Fett

-- Whether you are trying to conceive naturally or through IVF, the quality of your eggs will have a powerful impact on how long it takes you to get pregnant and whether you face an increased risk of miscarriage.

Poor egg quality is emerging as the single most important cause of age-related infertility, recurrent miscarriage, and failed IVF cycles. It is also a major contributor to infertility in PCOS.

Based on a comprehensive investigation of a vast array of scientific research, It Starts with the Egg reveals a groundbreaking new approach for improving egg quality and fertility.

With a concrete strategy including minimizing exposure to toxins such as BPA and phthalates, choosing the right vitamins and supplements to safeguard developing eggs, and harnessing nutritional advice shown to boost IVF success rates, this book offers practical solutions to will help you get pregnant faster and deliver a healthy baby.

Paperback: 304 pages
Click to order/for more info: It Starts with the Egg

Start reading It Starts with the Egg on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Biologists at Brown University and the University of California Berkeley have discovered that two proteins team up to turn on an assortment of ovarian genes critical to the production of healthy eggs. This finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds important light on the biochemical processes underpinning fertility.

Human eggs rely on handmaidens. Called granulosa cells, they surround eggs and deliver nutrients and hormones. Without granulosa cells, eggs cannot mature and be successfully fertilized.

How do these handmaidens grow? Biologists at Brown University and the University of California Berkeley have discovered that two proteins - TAF4b and c-Jun - team up to turn on about two dozen genes inside the nuclei of granulosa cells. This subset of genes, in turn, writes the genetic code for proteins that cause granulosa cells to multiply and nurture developing eggs.

The finding, published in an advanced online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides an important piece of the reproduction puzzle, and it points to possible drug targets for treating infertility and ovarian cancer.

"Thousands of women in this country undergo fertility treatments each year and some have no idea why they can't get pregnant," said Richard Freiman, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown. "This research gives us important new information about fertility. It's a basic science finding, but it may provide answers for some of these women and, possibly, lead to better in-vitro fertilization therapies."
In 2001, Freiman and colleagues at Berkeley published a paper in Science describing the essential role a transcription factor called TAF4b plays in the fertility of female mice. Without this protein, egg-producing ovarian follicles didn't develop properly. The result: infertile mice.

The new research underscores TAF4b's central role in normal reproduction. The Brown and Berkeley team found that in the granulosa cells of the ovary, it triggers production of another protein, called c-Jun, and together they switch on a network of ovarian genes that help promote granulosa cell proliferation.

"The big surprise was c-Jun," Freiman said.

That's because this well-studied protein is found at high levels in damaged nerve tissue as well as in the tumors of certain cancers, including cancer of the skin and liver and in Hodgkin's lymphoma. The new research is the first to connect c-Jun to this network of ovarian genes. Freiman said the discovery reveals a potential connection between TAF4b and c-Jun and the formation of a rare kind of ovarian cancer that springs from granulosa cells.

The scientists arrived at their findings by creating two matched rat cell lines of ovarian granulosa cell origin. In the experimental line, the level of TAF4b was increased. Berkeley researchers compared these lines and were able to identify the cooperative role of TAF4b and c-Jun, as well as the activation of the network of genes they control.

In parallel, Brown scientists studied the defective ovaries of TAF4b-deficient mice. What they found in mice was similar to what the Berkeley team found in cultured cells: When the level of TAF4b protein decreased, granulosa cells withered, broke apart and failed to multiply. A similar process may be at work in some infertile women.

Freiman plans to extend these studies to human granulosa tumors as well as explore a possible link between TAF4b and other forms of ovarian cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among women.

Ekaterina Voronina, a Brown postdoctoral research fellow, assisted with the research. The Berkeley team included lead author Kenneth Geles, Wei-Li Liu and Shuang Zheng. Berkeley Professor Robert Tijan, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, oversaw the work

Source: http://pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/baby/A-suprising-pair-of-proteins-help-make-healthy-eggs-5921.htm

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Fertility Code
by Dermot O'Connor
-- The Fertility Code program delivers a powerful and practical step-by-step approach for those who wish to give themselves the best chance of starting a family.

As many as 500,000 couples in the UK and Ireland actively seek help with fertility, such as IVF treatment each year. While some are legitimate candidates, many have been proven to just need proper lifestyle and fertility advice and assistance in order to conceive.

The Fertility Code is designed for these people, and for those who need more serious intervention, to optimize their fertility. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to preventing a couple from having a baby.

This is why it is important that a fertility plan should address as many of these potential issues as possible. Through many years' experience of helping thousands of couples to become parents, Dermot O'Connor knows that such a plan must be easy to understand, easy to implement and genuinely effective.

The Fertility Code combines the best of both Eastern and Western medicine to provide a comprehensive guide to conceiving successfully and carrying a baby to full term.
It details the optimum plan to enhance fertility, and delivers a proven strategy, incorporating the key elements consistently utilized by the couples Dermot has helped:

• Fertility Awareness Strategies
• The psychology of fertility
• Optimum nutrition for conception and pregnancy
• The importance of detoxification

Paperback: 224 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Fertility Code

Start reading The Fertility Code on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

---

The number of women becoming pregnant over the age of 40 has reached a "record high", according to official figures released today.

The Office for National Statistics found that the overall conception rate in England and Wales rose by nearly 3% between 2005 and 2006.

There were an estimated 866,800 conceptions in 2006, compared with 841,800 the previous year.

But the rate for women aged 40 and over showed an even faster increase, rising 6% from 11.5 per 1,000 women aged 40 to 44 in 2005 to 12.2 the following year.

Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said the data reflected changes in the choices available to women.

"The figures illustrate that the traditional approach of 'get married young and have children' isn't the reality for many British women.

"Improved education and career opportunities, different lifestyle choices and expectations mean their lives may take a different path."

Figures compiled by the ONS on births show that the number of women having children over the age of 40 has increased by just under 50% in the past decade.

There were 23,706 live births in England and Wales to women aged 40 and over in 2006 compared with just 12,103 in 1996.

As might be expected, there has also been an increase in older fathers, with 75,000 babies born to fathers over 40 in 2004 – one in 10 of all children born that year.

Bentley added: "Every woman has to make her own decision about the right time to have a baby.

"As long as women are aware that their fertility naturally declines over the age of 35, and that it will probably take a bit longer to get pregnant, late motherhood is a valid choice."

Lindsey Harris, founder of the website mothers35plus.co.uk, said research indicated that women with better educational qualifications were more likely to postpone having children to pursue their careers.

She said: "By and large, the majority of women I speak to either didn't meet the right man until later in life or they are on their second serious relationship and the two of them want to have a baby together."

Harris said that publicity about well-known women who chose to have children later, such as Cherie Blair, made it seem an option for others.

She added: "I don't think older fathers get as much stick as older mothers. It's seen as a manly thing to do – a case of 'Look how virile he is at his age' – rather than looking at all the risks associated with it.

"Some women who have already reared a family wish to have another child with a new partner, and some simply didn't meet the 'right' partner until later in life."

As in previous years, nearly four-fifths of all conceptions resulted in a birth or births.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/28/youngpeople.health

Photo by bies
Here are some of the methods that can help older women conceive - and the chances of success...

Natural conception

It's harder to conceive naturally after 35, but it's by no means impossible. You can improve your chances by having sex mid-cycle to coincide with your most fertile time. (Chemists stock testing kits that reveal when you ovulate.) You should also be a healthy weight, exercise and take a folic acid supplement.

See http://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/

Pros: No medical intervention.

Cons: You may waste time better spent trying fertility treatments.

Your Chances: "Over 40, your chances of conceiving naturally are only 20 per cent" says Dr Lockwood.

"This is even lower if you've had cancer treatment. Chemo adds 10 years to your reproductive age."

Fertility drugs

Drugs such as Clomid are used to increase egg production, but aren't usually offered to women in their late 30s or 40s as they don't improve egg quality.

Pros: It's safe, cheap and easy to administer.

Cons: The drug can make cervical mucus hostile to sperm and impair egg implantation.

Your Chances: "If you are not producing enough eggs - say, due to polycystic ovary syndrome - your chances are reasonable," says Dr Lockwood. "But Clomid isn't very good for age-related infertility as the real issue is egg quality."

IVF

Fertility drugs increase your egg production. The eggs are then removed and sperm is added in a test tube. Fertilised embryos are then put back into the womb.

Pros: It can work where other treatments fail.

Cons: It's timeconsuming and expensive (between £2,000-£4,000).

The egg extraction process can be painful and fertility drugs can cause PMS-like symptoms.

Your Chances: Dr Lockwood says: "IVF for women over 40 is disappointing if it uses the woman's own eggs. Pregnancy rates are lower and miscarriage rates are higher.

"A woman over 40 has only half the chance of a live birth after IVF compared to a woman under 38. And if you've had chemo your chances are less than 10 per cent."

Donor eggs

If your eggs aren't viable, you could use a donor's.

Pros: You carry the baby.

Cons: The baby isn't related to you biologically, and you still have to go through costly, stressful IVF.

Your Chances: "Excellent," says Dr Lockwood. "The age of the donor determines the success rate.

However, patients receiving donor eggs are required to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), so cancer survivors will have to wait up to five years following their all-clear."

This is because HRT may increase the risk of hormone-related cancers.

Ovarian tissue Cryo-preservation

Kylie is rumoured to have undergone this procedure, which aims to preserve the fertility of women needing cancer treatment.

A sliver of ovary is removed and frozen then it's later put back inside the patient in the hope that some of her eggs will have been preserved.

Pros: It gives fertility hope to women battling cancer.

Cons: It's a very new and experimental procedure.

Your Chances: "So far only two babies have been born worldwide from slices of ovary that were retransplanted back after chemo," says Dr Lockwood. "But there are hopes for it in the future."

Egg freezing

Your eggs can be frozen - preferably before you are 35 - to be used at a later date. This is offered on the NHS to patients having cancer treatment, and women can pay to do it as a lifestyle choice.

When you want to conceive, the eggs are mixed with your partner's sperm then planted in your womb.

Pros: This procedure is a more realistic chance for older women to conceive, and gives you greater control over your fertility.

Cons: It's invasive, expensive (prices start at £2,000) and doesn't guarantee a pregnancy.

Your Chances: "Egg freezing before cancer treatment does offer a realistic chance of pregnancy, especially if the woman is young," says Dr Lockwood. "But after 38 it's less successful simply because the quality of eggs deteriorates."

Full article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/yourlife/2008/02/06/kylie-s-baby-race-and-how-you-can-conceive-at-40-89520-20310940/



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A cause of premature menopause has been found which could pave the way to new treatments and also help improve the success of test tube baby fertility treatments.

An international team that includes British scientists has discovered an enzyme that controls the rate at which women ovulate and believe that when this process goes awry it can lead to menopause occurring years earlier than normal.

At birth, the ovaries of women contain about 300,000 - 400,000 unripe eggs, her lifetime's complement, each held in a tiny sac or follicle.

But in adulthood only ten or so follicles grow each month and of these, only one goes on to deliver an egg bursting to release its ripened egg into the fallopian tube.

However, around one woman in every hundred runs out eggs before her 40th birthday, triggering early menopause, so she is no longer able to have children naturally.

Today, in the journal Science, Dr Kui Liu of Umeå University, Sweden, Prof Ilpo Huhtaniemi of Imperial College London and colleagues in China and America report that the enzyme PTEN keeps immature eggs from ripening prematurely. "It is a kind of brake," says Prof Huhtaniemi.

The team finds that in mice lacking PTEN in their eggs, the entire pool of immature eggs is activated prematurely, becoming ripe so the mouse uses up it store of eggs more rapidly..

Prof Huhtaniemi says that PTEN works in humans too and that the team is now going to investigate whether mutations in the PTEN gene are linked with premature menopause in women. "We have one good candidate to explain why some women develop premature menopause," he says.

A drug to mimic the effects of PTEN could be used to prevent or treat premature menopause when combined with new tests that can show how quickly a woman's biological clock is ticking. By the same token, a way to block the effects of PTEN could lead to new ways to ripen eggs for IVF, notably if eggs fail to ripen in the first place, says Dr Liu.

To overcome how women only make one egg each month and obtain more for IVF treatments, or to create embryos if they are to undergo fertility threatening cancer treatments, doctors have used expensive hormones to stimulate them to ripen multiple eggs, which does carry some risks.

But some women seeking to preserve their child-bearing capacity may not have enough time to undergo ovarian stimulation or may have a condition that makes it dangerous, such as hormone-sensitive breast cancer.

Lab-dish or "in vitro" egg maturation has produced hundreds of babies worldwide, though is still experimental.

Now PTEN offers another way to ripen eggs, says Dr Liu. "With the knowledge that PTEN suppresses follicle activation, it is in theory possible to culture a piece of the ovaries in the petri-dish and trigger the follicle growth with a synthetic PTEN inhibitor, which we have started to try".

Such a method will enrich the source of eggs for IVF or who want to freeze their embryos before going to have chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer, says Dr Liu.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/01/31/scimeno131.xml




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As fertility-treatment costs soar -- and more women seek treatment at an older age -- a growing number of Americans are heading abroad to try to get pregnant.

The Internet has made it easier for women to connect with fertility clinics in diverse locales such as the Czech Republic, Israel, Canada and Thailand. And specialized travel services have sprung up to help people arrange accommodations, set up medical appointments and even plan sightseeing tours.

The cost of in-vitro fertilization in many foreign countries is a fraction of that in the U.S., even after factoring in expenses for travel and accommodations. And some women say they have been able to get treatment abroad after having been turned away by a U.S. clinic because of their age.

There are some downsides. Treatments can take four or five weeks -- too long for many couples to take a break from their regular lives. It might not be possible to find medical practitioners who speak fluent English, though some of the travel firms also provide translation services. And while medical standards are high in many countries, regulations can vary, including rules for screening egg donors, leaving it to patients to do due diligence. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration regulates egg-donor screening, though some states set stricter standards.

"Money was a factor" for Robyn Bova, 47 years old, in deciding with her husband to travel to the Clinic of Reproductive Medicine and Gynecology in Zlin, a college town in the Czech Republic, for IVF treatment in May and again in November after their first attempt failed. Though initially concerned about everything from the health of the egg donors to the medical standards, Ms. Bova researched the clinic and contacted other American women who'd gone there. "I thought, if we get there and it's horrible, we don't have to go through with it," she says.

Ms. Bova says she was pleased with the treatment she received and is now 17 weeks pregnant. And during their time in Eastern Europe, "we had the most incredible trips you could imagine." Ms. Bova says the total price tag for both trips, including travel, hotels, food and treatments, was $22,000, or roughly the cost of one round of in-vitro fertilization in the U.S.

The Bovas booked their overseas treatment through IVFVacation.com, which was started by Craig and Marcela Fite. The Ohio couple had traveled to Marcela's native Czech Republic for their own IVF treatments and decided to serve as middlemen for Americans wishing to do the same. The couple charge between $1,500 and $2,500 for their services, which include arranging appointments at the clinic and providing on-site assistance for driving and translations.

Other such service providers include IVFThailand.com, a Web site that helps arrange treatments at a fertility clinic in Thailand. And the CHEN Patient Fertility Association, an Israeli fertility group that promotes fertility treatments along with sightseeing tours around the Holy Land.

"We're just now starting to see foreign clinics market themselves to U.S. patients," says Barbara Collura, executive director of Resolve: The National Infertility Association.

U.S. fertility doctors say that while IVF isn't a high-risk medical procedure, patients going abroad should consider several things, including the reputation and number of procedures performed, and the success and complication rates of a clinic -- information the clinic should be able to provide. Also worth considering: liability and patients' rights to take legal action if something goes wrong. "There are great and good hospitals in many countries," says Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at New York Weill Cornell Center. "One has to look at the overall medical standards and I think it's much harder to judge from far away."

While Americans have increasingly gone abroad in recent years for medical procedures ranging from hip replacements to face lifts, fertility treatments have largely remained an outlier. Concerns about medical standards and the strong emotions that often surround infertility have persuaded many people seeking IVF treatment to stick close to home.

But outsize costs and relatively sparse insurance coverage at home are driving more Americans to seek treatments abroad. The cost of fertility treatments in the U.S. varies by region and depends on the procedures needed. A single round of IVF with a woman's own eggs, including medications, costs on average about $12,000, according to Resolve, but can run much higher. For IVF using donor eggs, the cost can add as much as $5,000 to $15,000. Prices have risen steadily in recent years as more-advanced technology and additional options have emerged.

The in-vitro fertilization process involves stimulating a woman's ovaries with hormone treatments, extracting eggs for fertilization, and then implanting embryos in her uterus. Alternatively, a donor's eggs are used to create an embryo. Insurance plans sometimes cover aspects of the process, such as the drug treatments, or they might cover a single round. Only a handful of states, including Massachusetts, require some form of IVF coverage.

It can be difficult to compare success rates of women getting pregnant from IVF treatments because of the different ways statistics are collected. In the U.S., the rate of live single births from IVF transfer was 40.5% in women under 35, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2005 Assisted Reproductive Technology Report. That fell to 13.1% in women ages 41 to 42. In Europe, 18.6% of IVF transfers resulted in pregnancies, according to 2003 statistics from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, which doesn't break out data by age.

Age restrictions for fertility treatments vary in the U.S. by clinic and by the individual health of the patients. For women using their own eggs, the age cutoff is usually early 40s; if using donor eggs, it's usually late 40s to 50.

Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120338119629575619.html?mod=hpp_us_personal_journal