'Tis the season for end-of-the year top 10 lists. (Just wait - we have some of our own to post soon on Scope.) TIME.com recently published its "Top 10 of Everything of 2013" lists, and a Stanford fertility development was included as a top medical breakthrough.
From writer Alice Park:
Poor quality eggs are one of the reasons that some American women struggle to get pregnant. But researchers at Stanford University developed a technique that helps women with ovarian insufficiency to produce healthy, mature eggs again. The process, called in vitro activation, involves removing an ovary or piece of ovarian tissue and treating it in a lab with proteins and other factors that help the immature follicles it contains to develop into eggs. The recharged tissue is then reimplanted near the fallopian tubes. So far, of the 27 women who volunteered to test the technique, five produced viable eggs, one woman is pregnant and another gave birth to a healthy baby.
Previously: Image of the Week: Baby born after mom receives Stanford-developed fertility treatment, Oh, baby! Infertile woman gives birth through Stanford-developed technique and Researchers describe procedure that induces egg growth in infertile women
