The Biological Basis of Early Human Reproductive Failure

This book explains how biological factors can influence the development of human gametes and early embryos, and how clinicians and researchers can use this information to select methods of medically-assisted conception best suited to infertile patients. Because laboratory methods and clinical protocols, such as the quality of water and purity used in culture medium, are essential to the success of laboratory-assisted conception, there is a tendency to give the inherent biology of gametes and embryos less weight in explaining the success or failure in achieving pregnancy. The book will redress the balance, and show how molecular, cellular, generic, endocrinological, and immunological factors contribute to the developmental potential of human gametes and early embryos. Reproductive biologists and clinicians involved in medically-assisted conception will find the book extremely useful. The authors are clinicians in medically-assisted conception and researchers in the etiology of early reproductive failure. They offer advice on how programmes could benefit from adopting analytical methods that would determine fertility/developmental problems at the gamete level.
The ability to recognise how these intrinsic factors can affect the early stages of human development provides greater insights for interpreting pregnancy outcome, and a more complete understanding of the factors that can and cannot be controlled in attempts at medically-assisted conception.