Prev: ADHD fraud and the chemical holocaust against a generation of children
Next: Get mad
From: Dave on 7 Aug 2008 19:39
It looks as if two of the long established medical interventions that
doctors use to help couples with infertility problems do not improve
fertility, according to a study published in the British Medical
Journal (bmj.com).

One in seven couples in Great Britain experience infertility; the
numbers are nearly the same in most developed countries. Unexplained
infertility affects a quarter of these couples and common
interventions to help them have been used for many years. One of those
is the drug clomifene citrate, and the other is actual intra-uterine
insemination of what is called "unstimulated" sperm.

As it turns out, in this research a team of researchers led by the
University of Aberdeen compared the effectiveness of these two
specific interventions with women who had no treatment at all.

They recruited 580 women who had experienced unexplained infertility
for more than two years from four teaching hospitals and a district
general hospital in Scotland. The women were randomized into three
groups—one group of women were encouraged to try naturally for a
pregnancy without any medical interventions at all; one group took
oral clomifene citrate (CC) which is believed to correct subtle
ovulatory dysfunction; and the last group had unstimulated intra-
uterine insemination (IUI) of sperm.

Overall, 101 women became pregnant and had a live birth during the
course of the study. That's good, as pregnancies were the goal of the
program. Unfortunately, the numbers did not bear out any statistical
improvements for those who had the medical interventions.

The women with no interventions had a live birth rate of 17%, the
group taking oral CC had a birth rate of 14%, and the group having
unstimulated sperm injections had a birth rate of 23%. While that
sounds like a modest improvement, it would have to be a greater
improvement than 6% to be statistically meaningful.

Side effects for women including abdominal pain, bloating, hot
flushes, nausea and headaches were highest in women taking oral CC,
affecting 10–20% of women. Combined with the lower results in
pregnancies, these side effects certainly appears to make that drug a
poor choice. This product is marketed under various names, including
Clomid, Serophene, and Milophene.

The researchers conclude: “These interventions, which have been in use
for many years, are unlikely to be more effective than no treatment.”

Dave

Full text article above extracted from http://shamvswham.blogspot.com/
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: ADHD fraud and the chemical holocaust against a generation of children
Next: Get mad