London:
In what's being claimed as the world's first clinical trial, Israeli scientists have found evidence that an anti-ageing hormone pill could dramatically boost a woman's chances of conceiving.
DHEA is produced in the brain, ovaries and testes and is the most common hormone in the human body. Its levels peak in people in their 20s and then rapidly plummet by the 30s. A team at Tel Aviv University was stunned by the results of a small study carried out with their patients, some of whom took the DHEA hormone supplement.
Lead scientist Adrian Shulman of Tel Aviv University was quoted by the 'Daily Express' as saying, "We believed that a reduction in this hormone has a part to play in older women having difficulty in conceiving when using IVF.
"The results achieved were beyond our wildest dreams. We never believed there would be a 300 per cent increase in a woman's chances of becoming pregnant when she took the hormone supplement."
The study included a group of women who had standard treatment for poor ovulation and another group had the same treatment plus the DHEA supplement.
Twenty women, aged 37 to 42, took 75 mg of DHEA daily for 40 days before starting fertility treatments and continued for five months. Not only were the women who took DHEA likely to conceive but also to have a healthy pregnancy and delivery. "In the DHEA group, there was a 23 per cent live birth rate as opposed to four per cent in the control group," said Prof Shulman. However, the scientists say that more research is needed to find out how DHEA makes the body more fertile. "It could be affecting the quality of the eggs," he said.
Expert Dr Tim Childs of Oxford Centre for Fertility, welcomed the findings, saying, "We are prepared to look at ways of improving IVF treatments."
The findings of the study have been published in the 'AYALA', the journal of the Israeli Fertility Association.
DHEA is produced in the brain, ovaries and testes and is the most common hormone in the human body. Its levels peak in people in their 20s and then rapidly plummet by the 30s. A team at Tel Aviv University was stunned by the results of a small study carried out with their patients, some of whom took the DHEA hormone supplement.
Lead scientist Adrian Shulman of Tel Aviv University was quoted by the 'Daily Express' as saying, "We believed that a reduction in this hormone has a part to play in older women having difficulty in conceiving when using IVF.
"The results achieved were beyond our wildest dreams. We never believed there would be a 300 per cent increase in a woman's chances of becoming pregnant when she took the hormone supplement."
The study included a group of women who had standard treatment for poor ovulation and another group had the same treatment plus the DHEA supplement.
Twenty women, aged 37 to 42, took 75 mg of DHEA daily for 40 days before starting fertility treatments and continued for five months. Not only were the women who took DHEA likely to conceive but also to have a healthy pregnancy and delivery. "In the DHEA group, there was a 23 per cent live birth rate as opposed to four per cent in the control group," said Prof Shulman. However, the scientists say that more research is needed to find out how DHEA makes the body more fertile. "It could be affecting the quality of the eggs," he said.
Expert Dr Tim Childs of Oxford Centre for Fertility, welcomed the findings, saying, "We are prepared to look at ways of improving IVF treatments."
The findings of the study have been published in the 'AYALA', the journal of the Israeli Fertility Association.
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