{"id":230752,"date":"2026-02-06T21:12:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/why-many-human-conceptions-dont-last-until-birth"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:12:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:12:41","slug":"why-many-human-conceptions-dont-last-until-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/why-many-human-conceptions-dont-last-until-birth","title":{"rendered":"Why Many Human Conceptions Don\u2019t Last Until Birth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HpsJSfxXN8Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC5443340\/#sec9\">estimates of total pregnancy losses vary considerably<\/a>, about 15% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, and many other conceptions do not survive past the very early stages of pregnancy. The primary cause for these losses is chromosomal abnormalities, like extra or absent chromosomes. Scientists have now analyzed data collected from over 140,000 IVF embryos to identify genetic differences that can increasethe risk of pregnancy loss. This work showed that there are certain genetic variants in some women that increase the risk of miscarriage. These findings, which were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09964-2\">reported in <em>Nature<\/em><\/a>, may help scientists develop new methods to reduce the risk of pregnancy loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis work provides the clearest evidence to date of the molecular pathways through which variable risk of chromosomal errors arises in humans,\u201d said senior study author Rajiv McCoy, a computational biologist at Johns Hopkins University. \u201cThese insights deepen our understanding of the earliest stages of human development and open the door for future advances in reproductive genetics and fertility care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While estimates of total pregnancy losses vary considerably, about 15% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, and many other conceptions do not survive past the very early stages of pregnancy. The primary cause for these losses is chromosomal abnormalities, like extra or absent chromosomes. Scientists have now analyzed data collected from over 140,000 IVF embryos [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}