Fertility & pregnancy

Natural Cycles has received its sixth FDA clearance for an updated fertility algorithm designed to personalise digital contraception. The regulator cleared the company’s next-generation NC° Fertility Algorithm, which combines statistical modelling with machine learning to predict fertile and non-fertile days. Natural Cycles said the algorithm was trained on tens of millions of real-world [...]

A fertility startup has raised US$4m and will open its first lower-cost IVF clinic in West Palm Beach later this year. It will offer a full IVF cycle, including medications, for US$8,995. Around 12 per cent of American couples struggle with infertility, according to the company, but only 14 per cent of them [...]

More young midwives are leaving the NHS before 35 as burnout adds pressure to stretched maternity services, new research has revealed. The trend has raised concerns about the quality and safety of care for mothers and babies in understaffed maternity units. During 2025-26, 1,669 midwives aged 34 or under left the health service in England, [...]

Onto Health has acquired Levy Health, a fertility software company providing precision diagnostics and patient intake for reproductive medicine. The acquisition, fuelled by Onto Health’s US$20m Series A fundraise in April, supports its plan to build scalable, tech-enabled infrastructure for reproductive medicine. Onto founder Roohi Jeelani, MD, called it the first of several moves in [...]

A high-powered ultrasound treatment could help identical twins affected by a rare and serious condition during early pregnancy, an initial study suggests. Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, or TTTS, causes uneven blood flow between identical twins who share a placenta. The imbalance can leave one baby dangerously small and the other too large, putting both babies’ survival [...]

Softening ageing ovaries could help women remain fertile for longer, early animal research suggests. Fertility declines with age for several reasons, including poorer egg quality, fewer ovarian follicles and the gradual stiffening of ovarian tissue. Existing fertility treatments, including hormone therapy and in vitro fertilisation, mainly address hormonal imbalances or help eggs mature or become [...]

W Group has opened applications for W Accelerate with Merck KGaA and M Ventures, inviting reproductive and maternal health startups, scaleups and spinouts to pitch for direct access to global pharma partnership and strategic investment. Selected companies will pitch on 5th October, competing for the chance to accelerate their growth through commercial partnerships, investment, or [...]

IVF success declines with age even when women use young donor eggs, with a marked fall from around 49, research suggests. The findings challenge the idea that donor eggs can fully “reset” the reproductive clock, although researchers said they should not discourage older couples from trying. Dr Beatrice Crestani, from an assisted reproduction [...]

Women with PMOS should receive annual NHS checks to spot related health risks sooner, according to new draft guidance. Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) is a complex condition that can have wide-ranging effects across the body. It affects around one in eight women and was formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome. It was renamed in [...]

Immunotherapy may temporarily restore fertility in women with autoimmune premature ovarian insufficiency, a pilot study suggests. Three of the 10 women who received treatment later gave birth to healthy babies. Premature ovarian insufficiency, or POI, affects just over three per cent of women worldwide and occurs when the ovaries stop functioning before the age of [...]