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Effectiveness Of Infertility Treatments Questioned

Women who experience recurring miscarriages do not need to receive treatments aimed at controlling the level of natural killer cells in their

Women who experience recurring miscarriages do not need to receive treatments aimed at controlling the level of natural killer cells in their wombs, say researchers based on findings of a recent study .

Researchers say natural killer cells are normally found in the uterus and increase significantly in number during early pregnancy. However, specialists are not sure why these cells exist or what their function is during pregnancy and till date women who appear to have high levels of the cells are being offered treatments with steroids or immune suppressant drugs to bring their natural killer cell levels under control.

At present none of the existing treatments have been licensed for use in reproductive medicine, and all are associated with potentially dangerous risks for the mother and her child and neither does any research exist to show they have any benefit on the outcome of pregnancy.

In conclusion researchers say , understanding the function of uterine natural killer cells is certainly a major challenge in human reproduction, however researchers say until more is known about their role in normal pregnancy, there is no evidence of any benefit in offering natural killer cell testing to women with recurrent miscarriage or infertility.


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