Factors That Affect IVF Success Rates

So what is In vitro fertilization, which is also referred to as IVF? This process is a type of fertility treatment that was first invented in 1978. It involves joining the sperm and the egg outside of the womb. The resulting zygote is placed inside of the mother's womb. Most doctors implant multiple embryos in order to increase the chances of success. The mother may use her own eggs or make use of donor eggs.
What are some of the factors that affect IVF Success rates?
It is estimated that 27 percent of mothers who have one round of IVF will get pregnant. Approximately 43 to 57 percent of mothers will get pregnant after a third round. Nearly 71 to 80 percent of women will get pregnant after a sixth round. However, it is important to note that there are several factors that can affect the actual success rate.
The quality of the egg is one of the major factors that affects the success rate. Women who are under the age of 35 usually have the best quality eggs. It is estimated that women who are under the age of 35 have about a 50 percent chance of becoming pregnant from in vitro. Women who are between the ages of 40 and 45 only have about a 25 percent chance of conceiving. Egg quality begins to drop slightly after the age of 30, and then it begins to drop sharply after the age of 35. The man's sperm has to be of good quality also.
The timing of the protocol is another factor that will increase or decrease a mother's chance of conception. Because many women who opt to get in vitro do not ovulate on their own, the specialists will have to use artificial methods to induce ovulation. A woman has a very low chance of conceiving if the egg is not place around the time ovulation is induced.
Women should also be cognizant of the fact that their lifestyle choices can boost or decrease their chances of conceiving. Women are strongly advised to quit smoking at least three months prior to getting IVF. Furthermore, being overweight can also decrease the chance of conception. Women are also advised to lose weight prior to getting this treatment if they are more than 30 pounds over their ideal body weight. Additionally, it is very important for women to pick a clinic that has a relatively high success rate.

Pole Dancing in the Olympics

A new sport may be coming to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The International Pole Sport Federation is trying hard to get pole dancing into the upcoming games. It has become incredibly popular around the world and there are thousands of skilled, trained dancers who would be competing to make it to there. There are currently many international pole dancing competitions held all over the world and they get very big turnouts.
There is a big hurdle to climb in order to make it to the Olympics. The Olympic Committee must recognize pole dancing as a sport. With its reputation as a workout done by strippers, it will be an uphill battle to get it recognized by 2016. Pole dancing has moved far beyond what you see in a strip club and involves many complex dance routines and does not involve the removal of clothing.
Pole dancing does have incredible athletes and it takes a lot of skill, strength and endurance to become a professional pole dancer. These dancers are manipulating their full body weight while performing holds, inversions and climbs. It could easily be included in the gymnastics category where it would probably steal a lot of viewers. In fact, it could be considered vertical gymnastics. You can't deny that it would create quite a buzz before the next games.
Participation in pole dancing has increased an incredible amount over the last few years and has attracted a lot of athletic women. Classes are filling up in fitness centers around the world and women realize it is a great way to stay in shape. Not only that, but women are loving it and moving on to more advanced moves. The more popular it gets, the more people will be attracted to competing in the events held around the world.
If rhythmic gymnastics can be included as a sport I really don't see why pole dancing couldn't make it as well. There are a few mental barriers it will have to hurdle beforehand, but all it would take is some education of the public and for it to continue to gain popularity. The last time the International Pole Federation tried to get it in the games they received 6000 signatures. I'm betting that we will see way more signatures this time around with the increase in its popularity. Who knows, maybe we'll be watching something a little more exciting next Olympic games.

Want to Be the Smartest SOB in the Room

One thing that always bothered me as an athlete was that people called us dumb jocks. Now there might have been some jocks perhaps playing other sports that were not so smart, but everyone on our track team and cross country team were top-notch students, and trust me, we were not dumb jocks. Indeed, there may actually be something to this, because certain types of exercise actually boosts cognitive abilities to a large degree. Okay so let's talk about this shall we?
In the research paper; "Effects of acute bouts of exercise on Cognition," by Phillip D. Tomporowski of the Department of Exercise Science, University of Georgia, published on October 15, 2002 - it notes that exercising 60-minutes a day at varying sub-maximum cardio-vascular stress levels seemed to be the best for mental cognition, memory, and mental acuity, but over that +60-minute workouts, maximum stress levels, or exhaustive exercise leading to dehydration had a quick showing of cognitive decline especially on memorization.
It surely makes sense that if a human being doesn't stay hydrated while doing strenuous sporting activities or exercise, that they will be hurting their brains, rather than helping them. On the other hand if they stay hydrated, and don't overdo it, they increase their cardiovascular ability which also increases their blood flow, and their bodies work at optimum. Since the brain needs the body for energy, it makes sense that if the body has more energy to spare and is running more efficiently, the brain will also run at optimum. That makes sense, I'm sure we can all agree.
Therefore, whereas, it may be true that there are some dumb jocks out there, I would submit to you that there are quite a number of people who don't exercise who don't have a lick of sense amongst them. People who sit on their butts all day and don't exercise just do not have the quickness of the mind, the mental acuity, or the ability for deep level mental cognition. How do you think I know this? Well, some of it is personal experience obviously, but the rest is observed out in human society.
You see, I run a think tank, and I'm quite interested in why some people are so sharp, and their abilities and strength of their mind so strong while others can't seem to think their way out of a paper box, and yet claim to be so wise. If you are doing everything right, and exercising properly, you are already ahead of the game even if your IQ level is not at the upper end, you can still compete just fine. That's what I've noted when observing members of our think tank. And I thought I would share that information with you here today. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Postulating on Road Rage, Riots, and The Arab Spring

Well, I live in a desert resort city, and although I do a lot of traveling in the summertime, sometimes I am here when the temperature reaches 115 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems as though there are more traffic accidents, more road rage, and people are at their wits end here by the middle of the day when those temperatures occur. This is known as thermal stress, and it affects people's mental cognition, and their bodies at a cellular level. It's a very real stress, and there have been incredible number of studies done on this. Okay so let's talk shall we?
There was an interesting research paper put out titled; "Hot Temperatures, Hostile Affects, Hostile Cognition, and Arousal: Tests of a General Model of Affective Aggression," by Craig A. Anderson, William E. Deuser, and Christina M. DeNeve of University of Missouri - Columbia where the authors did some tests and suggested that heat aggression was potentially the cause of 3-factors, and that it had been recorded and assumed throughout the ages in historical writings. The team noted higher levels of aggression but lower levels of perceived aggression which was also interesting.
Observers driving around in an air-conditioned car will notice outrageous behavior on hot days - aggressive drivers, road rage too, and yet those doing the aggression don't appear to consider any of their behavior unacceptable and seem to easily rationalize it. Well, this study and research seems to indicate why in that case. In one experiment they used video games to judge aggression, and above 80 to 94 degrees the aggressiveness was noticeable.
Maybe the USAF, USNC, or US Navy flying their drones needs to consider this for Attack UAVs. Maybe in Olympic Boxing, Wrestling, or other aggressive sports we need to turn up the heat to just around uncomfortable temperatures to get the best matches out of the athletes? Does this mean we need to require air-conditioning in cars for the Arizona desert - maybe, that's a thought? For NASCAR races it's been noted that historically there are more crashes when it is hotter, but maybe it's not due to the tires, as much as the human drivers who are behaving extremely aggressively?
If we want happy space colonists in the future, we surely might consider keeping the ambient temperature of the enclosed biosphere at 70-79 degrees for good health and less aggression. If we want peak performance, better health, and a smarter citizenry we should be thinking about all these things not only in the next space colony, but right here on earth in the present period. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.