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A study led by VA Puget Sound Health Care System researchers has shown that prazosin, a drug used to treat high blood pressure, can prevent posttraumatic headaches.
Senior study author Dr. Murray Raskind, director of the VA Northwest Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center in Seattle, Washington, explained that few treatment options exist for this type of headache.
“Persistent posttraumatic headaches are the most common long-term consequence of mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) in Veterans and active-duty service members, causing substantial distress and disability at home and work. Although these headaches usually resemble migraine headaches symptomatically, they often fail to respond to the prevention treatments useful for migraines,” said Raskind.
The FDA approved prazosin to treat hypertension in 1976. It has been widely used “off-label” to treat conditions such as PTSD-associated nightmares and enlarged prostate. An earlier study by members of the research group suggested that prazosin could reduce the frequency and severity of headaches caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI).
To test this effect, the researchers conducted a pilot study with 48 Veterans and service members with headaches caused by mild TBI, also known as a concussion. Participants took gradually increasing doses of prazosin for five weeks before receiving the maximum dose for 12 weeks. The study showed that the drug was well-tolerated, and researchers reported that morning drowsiness was the only adverse effect.
Before the trial began, study participants had an average of 18 headache days each month. By the end of the 12-week period, those taking prazosin only had headaches for an average of six days a month. Participants receiving a placebo reported some reduction in headaches, but still had headaches about 12 days a month. Significantly more participants in the prazosin group had at least 50% fewer headaches during the 12 weeks of taking a full dose of medication.
Participants taking prazosin also saw significant decreases in how much headaches impacted their quality of life. By the end of the trial, those taking prazosin reported that headaches had “some impact” on their daily ability to function, while participants given a placebo continued to report “severe impact” of headaches.
Larger clinical trials are needed to confirm the extent of these promising results, according to the researchers, but these initial findings offer a potential relief for a common ailment faced by many Veterans.
“This study is the only clinical trial of an oral medication to demonstrate efficacy for posttraumatic headache. Because prazosin is widely used across VA and the Department of Defense to treat PTSD trauma nightmares and sleep disruption, many VA and DOD prescribers are familiar with prescribing this generically available, inexpensive medication,” said Raskind. “Prazosin now offers an evidence-based approach to alleviate the suffering of Veterans and service members who have struggled for years with frequent posttraumatic headaches.”
TBI has been called the “signature injury” of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2000, more than 460,000 service members have sustained a TBI, most of which were mild TBIs. Headaches are common following a mild TBI, and they often become chronic and cause substantial disability and distress.

Kinesiologists at McMaster University have found ketone supplements, used by some athletes hoping to cross the finish line faster, may in fact worsen performance.
The new study, published in the latest print edition of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, tackles contradictory research findings related to the effectiveness of ketone supplements, which have gained popularity among athletes seeking a competitive advantage.
Some previously published studies had shown the supplements improve performance, while others have reported they had no effect or even worsened performance.
Natural ketones can serve as fuels for the brain and muscles. A ketogenic diet -characterized by very low carbohydrate and typically high fat intake — causes the body to produce more organic ketone compounds and increase their use for energy.
Ketone supplements speed up that process, without the strict diet.
“One of the main perceived benefits is that ketones may serve as an alternative fuel source during exercise or potentially alter the utilization of other major fuel such as carbohydrates and fats, and in turn enhance endurance capacity,” explains Martin Gibala, supervising author of the study and a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. “But our findings suggest that isn’t the case.”
The McMaster researchers recruited well-trained endurance athletes who cycled five or more hours per week, selecting them because their athletic performance is consistent from day to day. The experiment was conducted in a lab but simulated race conditions and the participants prepared as they normally would for a cycling competition.
Each participant completed two trials that differed only in the drink provided before they completed a 20-minute cycling time trial that closely predicts 40-km race performance. The drinks contained either a ketone supplement or a similar-tasting placebo.
The research was structured as a double-blind study, meaning neither the researchers nor the athletes knew whether the ketone supplement or the placebo was provided.
“The main observation from this study was that the speed that the cyclists could sustain during the test was lower after drinking the ketone supplement compared to the placebo,” says Devin McCarthy, lead author of the study and graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster.
Researchers say the findings align with their previous work which found ketone supplements increased cardiorespiratory stress during exercise.
They are currently investigating responses to varying doses of the supplements at different exercise intensities to better understand how ketones may affect performance, and the potential underlying mechanisms.

“This technology is not alive,” says Laia Mogas-Soldevila. “It is living-like.”
The distinction is an important one for the assistant professor at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, for reasons both scientific and artistic. With a doctorate in biomedical engineering, several degrees in architecture, and a devotion to sustainable design, Mogas-Soldevila brings biology to everyday life, creating materials for a future built halfway between nature and artifice.
The architectural technology she describes is unassuming at first look: A freeze-dried pellet, small enough to get lost in your pocket. But this tiny lump of matter, the result of more than a year’s collaboration between designers, engineers and biologists, is a biomaterial that contains a “living-like” system.
When touched by water, the pellet activates and expresses a glowing protein, its fluorescence demonstrating that life and art can harmonize into a third and very different thing, as ready to please as to protect. Woven into lattices made of flexible natural materials promoting air and moisture flow, the pellets form striking interior design elements that could one day keep us healthy.
“We envision them as sensors,” explains Mogas-Soldevila. “They may detect pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, or alert people to toxins inside their home. The pellets are designed to interact with air. With development, they could monitor or even clean it.”
For now, they glow, a triumphant first stop on the team’s roadmap to the future. The fluorescence establishes that the lab’s biomaterial manufacturing process is compatible with the leading-edge cell-free engineering that gives the pellets their life-like properties.

A rapidly expanding technology, cell-free protein expression systems allow researchers to manufacture proteins without the use of living cells.
Gabrielle Ho, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Bioengineering and co-leader of the project, explains how the team’s design work came to be cell-free, a technique rarely explored outside of lab study or medical applications.
“Typically, we’d use living E. coli cells to make a protein,” says Ho. “E. coli is a biological workhorse, accessible and very productive. We’d introduce DNA to the cell to encourage expression of specific proteins. But this traditional method was not an option for this project. You can’t have engineered E. coli hanging on your walls.”
Cell-free systems contain all the components a living cell requires to manufacture protein — energy, enzymes and amino acids — and not much else. These systems are therefore not alive. They do not replicate, and neither can they cause infection. They are “living-like,” designed to take in DNA and push out protein in ways that previously were only possible using living cells.
“One of the nicest things about these materials not being alive,” says Mogas-Soldevila, “is that we don’t need to worry about keeping them that way.”
Unlike living cells, cell-free materials don’t need a wet environment or constant monitoring in a lab. The team’s research has established a process for making these dry pellets that preserves bioactivity throughout manufacturing, storage and use.

Bioactive, expressive and programmable, this technology is designed to capitalize on the unique properties of organic materials.
Mogas-Soldevila, whose lab focuses exclusively on biodegradable architecture, understands the value of biomaterials as both environmentally responsible and aesthetically rich.
“Architects are coming to the realization that conventional materials — concrete, steel, glass, ceramic, etc. — are environmentally damaging and they are becoming more and more interested in alternatives to replace at least some of them. Because we use so much, even being able to replace a small percentage would result in a significant reduction in waste and pollution.”
Her lab’s signature materials — biopolymers made from shrimp shells, wood pulp, sand and soil, silk cocoons, and algae gums — lend qualities over and above their sustainable advantages.
“My obsession is diagnostic, but my passion is playfulness,” says Mogas-Soldevila. “Biomaterials are the only materials that can encapsulate this double function observed in nature.”
This multivalent approach benefited from the help of Penn Engineering’s George H. Stephenson Foundation Educational Laboratory & Bio-MakerSpace, and the support of its director, Sevile Mannickarottu. In addition to contributing essential equipment and research infrastructure to the team, Mannickarottu was instrumental in enabling the interdisciplinary relationships that led the team to success, introducing Ho to the DumoLab Research team collaborators. These include Mogas-Soldevila, Camila Irabien, a Penn Biology major who provided crucial contributions to experimental work, and Fulbright design fellow Vlasta Kubušová, who co-led the project during her time at Penn and who will continue fueling the project’s next steps.
The cell-free manufacturing and design research required unique dialogues between science and art, categories that Ho believed to be entirely separate before embarking on this project.
“I learned so much from the approach the designers brought to the lab,” says Ho. “Usually, in science, we have a specific problem or hypothesis that we systematically work towards.”
But in this collaboration, things were different. Open-ended. The team sought a living-like platform that does sensing and tells people about interactive matter. They needed to explore, step by step, how to get there.
“Design is only limited by imagination. We sought a technology that could help build towards a vision, and that turned out to be cell-free” says Ho.
“For my part,” says Mogas-Soldevila, “it was inspiring to witness the rigor and attention to constraints that bioengineering brings.”
The constraints were many — machine constraints, biological constraints, financial constraints and space constraints.
“But as we kept these restrictions in play,” she continues, “we asked our most pressing creative questions. Can materials warn us of invisible threats? How will humans react to these bioactive sites? Will they be beautiful? Will they be weird? Most importantly, will they enable a new aesthetic relationship with the potential of bio-based and bioactive matter?”
Down the line, the cell-free pellets and biopolymer lattices could drape protectively over our interior lives, caring for our mental and physical health. For now, research is ongoing, the poetry of design energized by constraint, the constraint of engineering energized by poetry

In an eight-year study of more than 600 community-dwelling older adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have further linked levels of cell-free DNA (DNA fragments resulting from cell death) circulating in the blood to chronic inflammation and frailty. The study is novel and expands on previous work, the investigators say, because it focused on mitochondrial DNA rather than solely genomic DNA, as previously reported in October 2022.
The new findings, published May 23 in Immunity & Ageing, add to evidence that relatively high levels of DNA fragments found in routine blood samples could be accurate and useful biomarkers, or signals, for a wide range of cognitive and physical decline. Analysis also found correlations between such DNA fragments and the presence of other well-known biomarkers for aging, including cytokine proteins, tumor necrosis factors (proteins made by the immune system in response to tumor growth) and proteins made by the liver when inflammation is present.
“By expanding the types of DNA screened for in the blood, the new research has expanded efforts to better understand and predict physical and cognitive declines that come with aging,” says Peter Abadir, M.D., associate professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Previous studies by Abadir and Lolita Nidadavolu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, focused solely on circulating cell-free genomic DNA (ccf-gDNA) as a possible biomarker for aging’s cognitive and physical decline. The new work focused on mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) — maternally inherited DNA found in cellular organelles and often described as “power plants” in the cells of humans, other animals, plants and most other organisms
When cells die via natural programmed cell death (apoptosis), mitochondrial DNA is broken into small fragments and left to circulate in the blood, much the same as genomic DNA. If a catastrophic event such as injury, blood flow interruptions or disease causes cell death, larger mitochondrial DNA fragments will be found that can trigger chronic inflammation — an immune response that mimics what happens when the body reacts to bacteria and viruses.
Chronic inflammation has been shown over time to result in symptoms of frailty and memory loss and other cognitive decline.

For the new study, researchers analyzed blood samples drawn in the mid-1990s from 672 community-dwelling men and women with an average age of 80 at the beginning of the study period. The participants were pulled from three cohort studies based at the RUSH Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The study groups are the Religious Orders Study, the Memory and Aging Project and the Minority Aging Research Study.
All participants received yearly physical and cognitive testing at the time of each blood draw. Cognitive tests included memory, perception and physical tests of grip strength, gait, fatigue and motor function. Researchers then compared levels of long and short CCF-mtDNA fragments against four known biomarkers of inflammation: cytokine proteins, two tumor necrosis factors and inflammatory liver proteins.
Results showed close relationships between the four biomarkers and increased amounts of CCF-mtDNA. For example, if a patient’s blood sample had high amounts of one or more of these known biomarkers for inflammation, the sample also contained high amounts of CCF-mtDNA. Also, researchers found that while high amounts of genomic circulating DNA were linked to cognitive and physical decline, high levels of mitochondrial DNA were more strongly linked to physical decline only.
“Our goal is to promote healthy aging, which means prolonging ‘health span,’ preserving quality of life and maintaining energy for older adults,” says Nidadavolu. “The more we can learn about why some patients take the path to frailty or dementia and others don’t, the more interventions we can identify and recommend to preserve health as people age. Identifying circulating DNA in the blood as a biomarker is just the beginning of this research.”
The researchers say their next steps include expanding study populations to younger adults to identify the earliest time these cell-free DNA fragments become prevalent in blood samples. Additionally, they hope to determine exactly how these DNA fragments contribute to inflammation and how to possibly intervene before they become a precursor to cognitive and physical decline.
Other scientists who contributed to this research are Diefei Chen, Danielle Feger, Alden Gross, Esther Oh, Jeremy Walston and Yuqiong Wu of Johns Hopkins, and David Bennett and Francine Grodstein of Rush University.
No authors declared conflicts of interest related to this research under Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine policies.
Funding for this research was provided by the BrightFocus, the Johns Hopkins University Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, the National Institute on Aging, the Nathan W. and Margaret T. Shock Aging Research Foundation and the National Institute on Aging Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Aging Program’s Translational Aging Research Training Program.

Probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome or restore populations of “good bacteria” after a heavy course of antibiotics. But now, they could also be used as an effective treatment strategy for certain intestinal diseases, such as Crohn’s disease. Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a microgel delivery system for probiotics that keeps “good” bacteria safe while actively clearing out “bad” ones. In mice, the system treated intestinal inflammation without side effects.
In the digestive system, there’s a delicate balance of bacterial populations. When this balance is disrupted, bad bacteria can take over the colon, causing it to swell, resulting in colitis. Certain diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease, involve chronic colitis and currently require immunosuppressants to treat them. These drugs are expensive and non-specific, sometimes giving rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
An alternative strategy is to deliver beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, to help restore balance. But to reach the colon, a treatment must first pass through stomach acid, withstand being cleared out by the intestine, then fight for space alongside the numerous invading bacteria. Pairing probiotics with a drug delivery system could make this strategy feasible, though most current approaches simply protect the probiotics from digestion without affecting the microbes responsible for the condition. So, Zhenzhong Zhang, Junjie Liu, Jinjin Shi and colleagues wanted to combine probiotics with specialized microgel spheres that could not only protect the good bacteria, but also actively help clear out the bad.
To create their system, the researchers combined sodium alginate, tungsten and calcium-containing nanoparticles into small, spherical microgels, then coated them with beneficial, probiotic bacteria. The gels protected the bacteria as they made their way through the stomach and increased their retention time in the colon. Once there, calprotectin proteins — highly expressed during colitis — bound to the calcium and disassembled the gels, allowing the tungsten to escape. By displacing molybdenum in a key enzyme substrate of the bad bacterium Enterobacteriaceae, tungsten inhibited the microbe’s growth while leaving the probiotics unaffected. In experiments using a colitis mouse model, the system allowed probiotics to proliferate in the intestine without any side effects. Additionally, mice with the microgel spheres did not exhibit many of the hallmarks of colitis, such as shortened colons or damaged intestinal barriers, showing that the delivery system could be a viable treatment strategy. Though the researchers also want to prove its utility in more advanced preclinical models, they say that this work provides a new perspective into treatments using colonizing probiotics.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Outstanding Youth Foundation of Henan Province and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.

Published33 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, UN FOUNDATIONThe World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Belize as free of malaria.The WHO said the Central American nation had “achieved a dramatic reduction” in malaria cases, down from 10,000 in 1994 to zero indigenous cases in 2019.It said Belize’s achievement would serve as an inspiration for other countries in the Americas, where malaria is endemic. Malaria, spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes, can be lethal.The WHO said that Belize had kept the fight against malaria at the forefront of its public health agenda,It praised the country for distributing mosquito nets treated with insecticide and encouraging the spraying of insecticides indoors. The organisation also said that trained community health workers had “played a vital role in timely diagnosis and treatment” of malaria. The WHO certifies a nation as malaria-free when it has shown “with rigorous, credible evidence” that the there has been no transmission of malaria within the country for at least three consecutive years. Belize is the third country in the world to be certified this year so far, after Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.More on this storyGhana first to approve ‘world-changer’ malaria vaccinePublished13 April

For some, it’s a startling side effect.Until she started taking the weight loss drug Wegovy, Staci Klemmer’s days revolved around food. When she woke up, she plotted out what she would eat; as soon as she had lunch, she thought about dinner. After leaving work as a high school teacher in Bucks County, Pa., she would often drive to Taco Bell or McDonald’s to quell what she called a “24/7 chatter” in the back of her mind. Even when she was full, she wanted to eat.Almost immediately after Ms. Klemmer’s first dose of medication in February, she was hit with side effects: acid reflux, constipation, queasiness, fatigue. But, she said, it was like a switch flipped in her brain — the “food noise” went silent.“I don’t think about tacos all the time anymore,” Ms. Klemmer, 57, said. “I don’t have cravings anymore. At all. It’s the weirdest thing.”Dr. Andrew Kraftson, a clinical associate professor at Michigan Medicine, said that over his 13 years as an obesity medicine specialist, people he treated would often say they couldn’t stop thinking about food. So when he started prescribing Wegovy and Ozempic, a diabetes medication that contains the same compound, and patients began to use the term food noise, saying it had disappeared, he knew exactly what they meant.As interest has intensified around Ozempic and other injectable diabetes medications like Mounjaro, which works in similar ways, that term has gained traction. Videos related to the subject “food noise explained” have been viewed 1.8 billion times on TikTok. And some of the people who have managed to get their hands on these medications — despite persistent shortages and list prices that can near or surpass a thousand dollars — have shared stories on social media about their experiences.When food noise fadesWendy Gantt, 56, said she first heard the term food noise on TikTok, where she had also learned about Mounjaro. She found a telehealth platform and received a prescription within a few hours. She can remember the first day she started taking it last summer. “It was like a sense of freedom from that loop of, ‘What am I going to eat? I’m never full; there’s not enough. What can I snack on?’” she said. “It’s like someone took an eraser to it.”For some, the shortages of these medications have provided a test case, a way to see their lives with and without food noise. Kelsey Ryan, 35, an insurance broker in Canandaigua, N.Y., hasn’t been able to fill her Ozempic prescription for the last few weeks, and the noise has crept back in. It’s not just the pull of soft-serve each day, she said. Food noise, to Ms. Ryan, also means a range of other food-related thoughts: internal negotiations about whether to eat in front of other people, wondering if they’ll judge her for eating fried chicken or if ordering a salad makes it look like she’s trying too hard. Ozempic is more of a way to silence the food noise than anything else, she said.“It’s a tool,” she said. “It’s not like a magic drug that’s giving people an easy way out.”What causes food noise?There is no clinical definition for food noise, but the experts and patients interviewed for this article generally agreed it was shorthand for constant rumination about food. Some researchers associate the concept with “hedonic hunger,” an intense preoccupation with eating food for the purpose of pleasure, and noted that it could also be a component of binge eating disorder, which is common but often misunderstood.Obesity medicine specialists have tried to better understand why a person may ruminate about food for some time, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association. “It just seems to be that some people are a little more wired this way,” he said. Obsessive rumination about food is most likely a result of genetic factors as well as environmental exposure and learned habits, said Dr. Janice Jin Hwang, chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.Why some people can shake off the impulse to eat, and other people stay mired in thoughts about food, is “the million-dollar question,” Dr. Hwang said.How does medication suppress food noise?The active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy is semaglutide, a compound that affects the areas in the brain that regulate appetite, Dr. Gabbay said; it also prompts the stomach to empty more slowly, making people taking the medication feel fuller faster and for longer. That satiation itself could blunt food noise, he said.There’s another theoretical framework for why Ozempic might quash food noise: Semaglutide activates receptors for a hormone called GLP-1. Studies in animals have shown those receptors are found in cells in regions of the brain that are particularly important for motivation and reward, pointing to one potential way semaglutide could influence cravings and desires. It’s possible, although not proven, that the same happens in humans, Dr. Hwang said, which could explain why people taking the medication sometimes report that the food (and, in some cases, alcohol) they used to crave no longer gives them joy.Researchers are continuing to investigate how semaglutide works, how it may influence aspects of the brain like food noise and the potential it has for other uses, like treating addiction.Ms. Klemmer said she worried about the potential long-term side effects of a medication she might be on for the rest of her life. But she thinks the trade-off — the end of food noise — is worth it. “It’s worth every bad side effect that I’d have to go through to have what I feel now,” she said: “not caring about food.”

Critical insights into why airborne viruses lose their infectivity have been uncovered by scientists at the University of Bristol. The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today [21 June], reveal how cleaner air kills the virus significantly quicker and why opening a window may be more important than originally thought. The research could shape future mitigation strategies for new viruses.
In the first study to measure differences in airborne stability of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 in inhalable particles, researchers from Bristol’s School of Chemistry show that the virus has become less capable of surviving in the air as it has evolved from the original strain through to the ‘Delta’ variant.
Dr Allen Haddrell, the study’s lead author and Senior Research Associate in Bristol’s School of Chemistry, explained: “Aerosol particles, exhaled when infected individuals breathe, speak or cough, can transmit viruses — but how and why viruses lose infectivity once they are circulating around in these airborne particles has been widely debated.”
To conduct the research, the team used a next generation bioaerosol technology instrument that they developed called CELEBS (Controlled Electrodynamic Levitation and Extraction of Bioaerosols onto a Substrate), that allowed them to probe the survival of different SARS-CoV-2 variants in laboratory generated airborne particles that mimic exhaled aerosol. They examined how environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, particle composition and the presence of acidic vapours such as nitric acid alter virus infectivity over a 40-minute period.
Through manipulating the gaseous content of the air, the team confirmed that the aero-stability of the virus is controlled by the alkaline pH of the aerosol droplets containing the virus. Importantly, they describe how each of the SARS-CoV-2 variants has different stabilities while airborne, and that this stability is correlated with their sensitivities to alkaline pH conditions.
The high pH of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 virus droplets is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness, so the less acid in the air, the more alkaline the droplet, the faster the virus dies. Opening a window may be more important than originally thought as fresh air with lower carbon dioxide, reduces acid content in the atmosphere and means the virus dies significantly quicker.
Dr Haddrell added: “Our results indicate that the high pH of exhaled aerosol drives the loss of viral infectivity. So, any gas that affects aerosol pH may play a role in how long the virus remains infectious in the air. For example, bleach gives off acidic vapour that may increase SARS-CoV-2 stability in the aerosol phase. Conversely, ammonia which gives of alkaline vapour may have the opposite effect.”
The findings provide valuable insights into why and how aerosolised viruses lose their infectivity, setting the stage for the design of new strategies to mitigate risk.
Jonathan Reid, Director of Bristol Aerosol Research Centre and Professor of Physical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol, and one of the corresponding authors, said: “There are numerous factors that affect the transmission of airborne viruses, and these are often confounded with physical and environmental parameters that can affect viral longevity in the aerosol phase such as temperature, relative humidity, air movement and UV light.
“Our findings broaden our understanding of how environmental factors affect airborne stability of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, which will help us design better safety and mitigation strategies to reduce disease transmission. We now intend to explore the role of pH further through studying the role that carbon dioxide has on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.”
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)-UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) rapid COVID-19 call, the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute (EBI), the University of Bristol and the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on transmission and environment, managed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Around 20% of women who needed fertility treatment, such as IVF, to conceive their first child are likely to get pregnant naturally in the future, finds a new UCL study.
The first-of-its-kind research, published in Human Reproduction, analysed data from 11 studies of over 5,000 women around the world between 1980 and 2021, to evaluate how common it is to get pregnant naturally after having a baby conceived by fertility treatment.
They found that at least one in five women conceived naturally after having had a baby using fertility treatment such as IVF mostly within 3 years. This figure remained unchanged, even when taking into account the different types and outcome of fertility treatment — alongside length of follow up.
Infertility is defined by the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse, and it is estimated to affect 1 in 7 heterosexual couples.
However, not all women seeking and undergoing fertility treatment are absolutely or permanently infertile. And half of couples who struggle to conceive naturally in the first year of trying will go on to do so in the second year.
Although it is typically considered ‘rare’ for a woman to get pregnant naturally, if she has previously had fertility treatment, the researchers want to highlight how it is not in fact an unusual event.

The team consider the findings to be particularly important, as many women may not realise that they could conceive naturally following fertility treatment.
This could lead to them becoming pregnant again quickly or when they aren’t ready — which could be problematic for both the health of the mother and child.
Lead author, Dr Annette Thwaites (UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health) said: “Our findings suggest that natural pregnancy after having a baby by IVF is far from rare. This is in contrast with widely held views — by women and health professionals — and those commonly expressed in the media, that it is a highly unlikely event.”
Much has changed since the early days of IVF and it is now used for a wide range of causes of infertility, including cases where no cause is ever found.
In addition, some women may not have experienced infertility at all but used treatment for other reasons. This could include single women using donor sperm, women in same sex relationships, surrogates or those seeking to screen for serious genetic conditions.

So, it is important for those who have had successful IVF to know how likely they are to conceive naturally afterwards.
IVF was first used in 1978 and now, more than 10 million babies worldwide have been born using the treatment — equating to between 1% and 6% of all babies born per year in the developed world by 2020.
In order to track the data more accurately and analyse which factors make natural pregnancy after having a baby by fertility treatment more likely, the researchers are calling for linked national data sets.
They hope that this information could then be used to counsel people considering their options after successful fertility treatment.
Dr Thwaites said: “Knowing what is possible would empower women to plan their families and make informed choices regarding further fertility treatment and/or contraception.”
Study limitations
The included studies were mostly of moderate quality and varied widely by geography, cause of subfertility, type and outcome of fertility treatment and length of follow up making direct comparisons difficult.

Published5 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ShemaBy Michelle RobertsDigital health editorThe chance of becoming pregnant naturally after having an IVF baby is quite high, about one in five, which is something couples should be aware of, researchers say. It is news that could give some fresh hope around planning a family, they say, or important information about contraception.They analysed data from more than 5,000 women to judge how common it was. The findings are averages, so the odds for individuals differ. What fertility treatments are available on the NHS?How successful is IVF?’I hit rock bottom while trying to have a baby’Jennifer Aniston opens up about attempts to have childrenAccording to the NHS, the chance of any couple conceiving naturally within the next year, if they have already been trying for a few years, is one in four, or less.Infertility is usually diagnosed only after a couple have failed to conceive despite a year of trying.But since female fertility declines with age, women aged over 35, and anyone already aware they may have fertility problems, should see their GP sooner, according to the advice.Fertility problems can be permanent or come and go and can affect either partner. There are lots of treatable reasons, but for about one in four couples it may not be possible to find a cause.One in six affected by infertility globallyCalls to regulate ‘cruel’ IVF add-onsFertility treatments, such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), are not always free on the NHS. One cycle of IVF treatment may cost up to £5,000 or more.Image source, ShemaShema Tariq, from London, was diagnosed with “low ovarian reserve”, meaning she had fewer remaining eggs, and told her chances of conceiving without IVF were almost zero. It took six rounds of IVF to conceive her son, who was born in 2018. ‘Wonderful surprise'”My GP briefly mentioned contraception to me after he was born – but we both laughed and agreed that it wasn’t relevant,” Shema says.”It never occurred to me that I might get pregnant, despite being a sexual-health doctor. “I was 43 and had been told that my chances of conceiving naturally were less than 1%. “Eight months later, I was unexpectedly, and naturally, pregnant with our daughter. “She has been the most wonderful surprise – but when we first found out, I felt overwhelmed and unprepared for another pregnancy. “If I’d known that one in five women conceives naturally after IVF, I’d have used contraception until I was ready both emotionally and physically.”Lead author of the new research, published in the journal Human Reproduction, Dr Annette Thwaites, from University College London, said: “Our findings suggest that natural pregnancy after having a baby by IVF is far from rare. “This is in contrast with widely held views – by women and health professionals – and those commonly expressed in the media, that it is a highly unlikely event.”The 11 international studies her team looked at found at least one in five women conceived naturally after having had a baby using fertility treatment, mostly within three years. And this applied across the different types and outcomes of fertility treatment.Clinical Embryologist Dr Marta Jansa Perez, from the British Fertility Society, said: “This study highlights the importance of giving patients accurate information about their chances of conception at any point, in particular after giving birth to an IVF baby. “It is good news that such a high proportion of patients are able to conceive naturally after IVF, but people should be aware that in cases where the age of the woman is a factor for the initial failure to conceive or there is severe male factor infertility, it would be advisable to seek treatment for a second child sooner rather than later.”More on this storyAniston opens up about attempts to have childrenPublished9 November 2022More women freezing eggs to preserve fertilityPublished1 day ago