The mysterious oil helping women get pregnant

They say old remedies are sometimes the best ones, and now a 100-year-old procedure might hold the key to boosting fertility.

A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has looked at an ingredient that could see woman avoiding the “huge costs and emotions associated with IVF treatment”.

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That mysterious oil is none other than Lipiodol, a iodised poppy seed oil that researchers say could be helping women fall pregnant.

Author of the study, Professor Ben Mol, from the University of Adelaide, points to the age-old procedure of hysterosalpingography (HSG), a dye test of the fallopian tubes conducted under X-ray and used to check if the tubes were open or blocked.

With Lipiodol or a water-based solution used to flush the fallopian tubes during testing, the study examined 1119 women who underwent the procedure.

Results saw 40 percent of infertile women in the oil group falling pregnant within six months of undergoing the procedure, compared to 29 percent of women in the water-based group.

"The rates of successful pregnancy were significantly higher in the oil-based group, and after only one treatment," Professor Mol said in a statement.

"Considering that 40 percent of women in the oil-based group achieved a successful pregnancy, that's 40 percent of couples who could avoid having to go through the huge costs and emotions associated with IVF treatment."

Professor Mol adds that further research is needed, but believes this kind of procedure using the oil could have potential fertility benefits.

"It was long believed that testing a woman’s fallopian tubes could have fertility benefits through 'flushing out' the kind of debris that hinders fertility. The reality is, we still don't really understand why there is a benefit, only that there is a benefit from this technique, in particular for women who don't present with any other treatable fertility symptoms," Professor Mol says.

"Further research would need to be conducted into the mechanisms behind what we're seeing. For now, and considering the technique has been used for 100 years without any known side-effects, we believe it is a viable treatment for infertility prior to couples seeking IVF.”

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