For some women, conceiving and carrying a child to term is incredibly difficult. Doctors who specialize in IVF are constantly looking for new ways to help them achieve this dream. According to the doctors behind a new experimental study, the answer may be a relatively inexpensive soy-based liquid.
Intralipid liquid is a fat and calorie rich substance made from soy beans. The liquid is usually used for patients that very ill and need to be tube fed. The liquid stops the body from producing many harmful chemicals, and could be the secret to helping women conceive through IVF. In a small trial done so far, half of the women who were given the liquid were able to become pregnant.
The trial involved women who had undergone at least six failed IVF treatments. Half of the women were given the soy-based liquid, while the other half used conventional methods. Those who were not given the Intralipid only had a 9 percent success rate afterwards, compared to the 50 percent rate for those who were given Intralipid.
George Ndukwe, of the Care fertility clinic in Nottingham, said: ‘Every day in my clinic I see women who have had numerous IVF cycles all with the same negative outcome and no baby.
‘I also regularly see couples who have suffered the misery of repeated miscarriages.
‘People talk about the financial implications but the emotional one is as bad or, I would say, worse.
We are devoting our attention to finding answers when nature goes wrong.
The cost of the liquid is only around $300 per use. That number is much lower than the thousands of dollars a single IVF treatment can cost. When who have trouble conceiving could be given Intralipid to increase their odds of getting pregnant and prevent the costs from adding up in the cases of multiple failed attempts.
According to Dr Ndukwe, one in four women have immune systems with higher than average levels of white blood cells. These cells can prevent a pregnancy or cause a miscarriage by fighting against the pregnancy as if it were an infection. Shutting down this process may be the best way to allow a pregnancy to happen. Giving women Intralipid through an IV tube may be one way to help slow the body’s immune system enough for pregnancy to occur. – Summer, staff writer
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