• Question: does your research help increase the life span of the test tube babys

    Asked by lbatten07 to Claire, Greg, Jane, Jo, Nuruz, Vicki on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Vicki Onions

      Vicki Onions answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi lbatten
      No, my research hopes to help girls and women whose ovaries might be damaged by medical treatments eg cancer treatments – we aim to take the ovary, or pieces of it, out and stored it away frozen while the treatment is going on. Then we hope to thaw the tissue/ovary and reimplant it after the damamging treatment has finished

    • Photo: Jane Cleal

      Jane Cleal answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      We don’t know the life span of ivf babies yet as the oldest one is only 31. My work may help improve the quality of the embryos used in ivf.

    • Photo: Claire O'Donnell

      Claire O'Donnell answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      No I don’t do research myself any more, I analyse other people’s:) As far as I know testube babies have the same lifespan as anyone else. The oldest Louise Brown is in her 30’s now:)

    • Photo: Jo Broadbent

      Jo Broadbent answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I hope that the work I do should help increase the life span of lots of people in the area where I work, however they were conceived. BUT it’s v hard to know if Ive been successful as it takes a long time to an effect plus unless you have a control group who didn’t get the improved services we put in place, we’ll never know exactly what has helped people live longer. Jo

    • Photo: Greg FitzHarris

      Greg FitzHarris answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi there

      Not explicitly. My research is more aimed at understanding why it is that eggs from older mothers are (on average) worse than those from younger women. To be honest, we know so little about the lifespan of IVF babies that i dont expect anyone is really studying it yet. Remember, the oldest IVF baby is only 31 or 32 years old…. so we have no idea yet whether they really will have a shorter lifespan. If i had to bet, i’d guess yes… but thats pure speculation!!

      Great Question,

      Greg

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