A systematic review of reproductive technologies for shared conception in same-sex female couples.

Reciprocal in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intravaginal culture (IVC) are two technologies that allow same-sex female couples to jointly contribute biologically to a pregnancy. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the clinical outcomes of each method including live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, embryo quality, and perinatal complications. A dual-reviewer protocol identified eight studies on reciprocal IVF and ten studies on IVC. In retrospective studies reporting on a total of 1,405 reciprocal IVF cycles, reciprocal IVF has demonstrated similar cycle and pregnancy outcomes to autologous IVF. One study that reported on pregnancy complications found a comparable rate of hypertensive disease in pregnancy between patients undergoing reciprocal IVF and intrauterine insemination. However, a lack of prospective studies on reciprocal IVF limits the generalizability of these results. Overall, small prospective and retrospective studies reporting on a total of 776 IVC cycles show that IVC offers good cycle and pregnancy outcomes, comparable to IVF. However, randomized prospective studies reported that the rate of quality embryo creation in IVC may be lower than in IVF. Although both reciprocal IVF and IVC show promise for same-sex female couples and the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, and other sexual or gender minorities community, this review has highlighted the need for larger, prospective, more diverse studies on methods of shared biological contribution for family building.

Social behavioral impairments in SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability.

Introduction: Developmental synaptopathies are neurodevelopmental disorders caused by genetic mutations disrupting the development and function of neuronal synapses. Methods: We administered the validated Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) to investigate the phenotypic presentation of social-behavioral impairments for the developmental synaptopathy-SYNGAP1-related Intellectual Disability (SYNGAP1-ID) (n = 32) compared with a phenotypically similar disorder Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMD) (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 43). A short form SRS-2 analysis (n = 85) was also conducted. Results: Both SYNGAP1-ID and PMD had significantly elevated total and subcategory T-scores, with no significant score differences between SYNGAP1-ID and PMD, consistent between the full and short form. Mild to severe deficiencies in reciprocal social behavior were found in 100% of PMD individuals and 87.1% of SYNGAP1-ID individuals. Surprisingly, a positive correlation between age and total score was discovered for SYNGAP1-ID participants and not found in individuals with PMD or healthy controls. Discussion: The short form demonstrated greater utility for SYNGAP1-ID participants due to lower item-omission rates. In conclusion, significant impairment in reciprocal social behaviors is highly prevalent in SYNGAP1-ID.