Reproductive and cardio-metabolic health

我们正试图找出如何提高体外受精（IVF）的成功率，并确保通过IVF或“自然”受孕的女性有一个健康的怀孕和分娩。IVF很常见。在平均30个孩子的学校班级中，有1个孩子是通过IVF出生的。使用试管婴儿的新方法可能会提高成功率，但需要仔细评估。无论女性是通过试管婴儿还是自然受孕，高达40%的女性都会有一种或多种妊娠损失，妊娠期高血压或高血糖，早产或婴儿出生时不健康的小或大。我们不知道如何预防这些问题或预测哪些女性会遇到这些问题。我们将使用来自大型研究的数据和新方法，帮助我们从“混杂因素”（欺骗我们认为某些事情是原因的因素，而实际上并非如此）中确定原因。这将使我们能够研究如何改善IVF并预防怀孕问题。它还将提高我们对怀孕中哪些风险因素影响儿童在以后的生活中患肥胖症或糖尿病或心脏病的风险的理解。

We are trying to find out how to improve the success of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and make sure that women who have conceived by IVF or ‘naturally’ have a healthy pregnancy and birth.IVF is common. In an average school class of 30 children 1 will have been born by IVF. New ways of using IVF might improve success rates but they need to be carefully evaluated. Whether women conceive by IVF or naturally up to 40% will have one or more of pregnancy loss, high blood pressure or high blood sugar in pregnancy, a premature birth or an infant who is born unhealthily small or large. We do not know how to prevent these problems or predict which women will experience them.We will use data from very large studies and new methods that help us to determine causes from ‘confounders’ (factors that fool us into thinking that something is a cause when it is not). This will allow us to work out how to improve IVF and prevent pregnancy problems. It will also improve our understanding of what risk factors in pregnancy affect children’s risk of being obese or having diabetes or heart problems later in their lives.