In some rather strange timing, following the In Utero 20th Anniversary campaign that featured the members of Nirvana giving birth, the grunge-era icons, along with the likes of metal masters Metallica, have been found to help improve the chances of pregnancy.
It isn’t through blasting Nevermind and Master of Puppets in the bedroom (though it couldn’t hurt), but rather in an interesting new study into IVF research by Spanish scientists that has shown that music can help increase the fertilisation rates of eggs exposed to some rocking soundtracks, as The Daily Mail reports.
Scientists at the Marques Institute fertility clinic in Barcelona have presented their findings at the annual European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in London, with research that proposes that playing music to artificially inseminated eggs helps increases the odds of fertilisation happening and therefore, the embryos surviving.
The Spanish team injected sperm into almost 1,000 eggs and place them on petri dishes in incubators. Half of the eggs were placed in incubators which contained iPods, each playing a selection of different styles of music, including selections from Nirvana and Metallica, as wells as songs from the King and Queen of Pop – Michael Jackson and Madonna – and classical compositions by Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi. Scientists found that fertilisation rates were higher in the incubators that had music playing in them, rising by around 5%
After checking in on the embryos, the Marques Institute scientists found that fertilisation rates were higher in the incubators that had music playing in them, rising by around 5% compared to those that were not treated to their own iPods.
“When we work in an IVF lab, we try to mimic the conditions in the womb in terms of light and temperature. For instance, we work in low light but nobody has studied the effect of sound,” said researcher Carolina Castello.
The embryos however, can’t develop hearing for at least 14 weeks, so while it would be nice that it was the researchers’ taste in music that was increasing fertility rates, they believe instead that it is the vibrations produced by the sounds that are enriching the eggs. Dr Castello reasons that the vibrations give the embryos a helping hand by easing the passage of nutrients into the egg and helping increase the removal of toxins and wastes.
Dagan Wells, an expert on fertility from Oxford University, agrees that there’s some merit to the researchers’ music theory, agreeing that the concept is bizarre but that there is scientific basis in music vibrating the petri dish embryos mimicking the organic travel of a ‘natural’ egg in the human body.
“Embryos produced using IVF sit on a dish, stewing in their own juices but those produced naturally are wafted down the fallopian tubes, rocking and rolling all their way to the uterus,” says Wells.
“This movement means that the embryo experiences a very dynamic environment, which may have some advantages, particularly in terms of getting rid of waste products. The vibrations caused by music may stimulate this effect,” he continues. One might speculate that techno music, with its pounding bass beat might do the best job of all.”
(via MusicFeeds)
