Is Spring the Best Season for In Vitro Fertilization?
Oct. 31, 2000 — In nature, some animals tend to give birth in the spring. Do humans have similar seasonal variations in fertility and birthing? An Israeli study shows that fertilization rates do vary by the seasons of the year in some women undergoing in vitro fertilization. “This observation suggests the existence of hereditary factors in seasonally breeding primates,” the authors write in a recent issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility. In vitro fertilization is a process by which a woman’s eggs are removed from her body and then fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. The sperm has also been harvested previously. In vitro fertilization, also called IVF, is a commonly used method of helping couples with fertility problems to become pregnant. Spring is the most opportune time for fertilization and also the time when embryos that are conceived through this method are at their highest quality, according to study author Nathan Rojansky, MD, and colleagues. The average fertilization
