by Iris Waichler, L.C.S.W.
One of the most important aspects of riding the infertility roller coaster is partnering with the right medical doctor to help your parenting …
Month: August 2012
The Awkward History of Americans Talking About Contraception
The ACLU announced earlier this week that a California school district is being sued by parents and students over its abstinence-only sex education program. Among other affronts to the concept of comprehensive sex education, the program’s textbooks never once mention condoms — not even in the chapters on protecting oneself from STIs and unintended pregnancy. If the program is forced to introduce contraception into their literature, they can look to a long, awkward history of trying to figure out how to do it. Read full article.
US Appeals Court Panel Rules Federal Funding of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is Allowed by Law
This morning, a three judge Federal Appeals Court panel unanimously affirmed a lower court decision in Sherley v. Sebelius, allowing NIH funding of human embryonic stem cell research to continue.
VA urged to pay fertility bills
WASHINGTON — The roadside bomb that exploded outside Andrew Robinson’s Humvee in Iraq six years ago broke the Marine staff sergeant’s neck and left him without use of his legs. It also cast doubt on his ability to father a child, a gnawing emotional wound for a then-23-year-old who had planned to start a family with his wife of less than two years.
The catastrophic spinal cord injury meant the couple’s best hope for children was in vitro fertilization, an expensive and time-consuming medical procedure whose cost isn’t covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robinson and his wife were forced to pay out of pocket, with help from a doctor’s discount and drugs donated by other patients. Read full article.
Super-fertility offers clue to recurrent miscarriage
“Super-fertility” may explain why some women have multiple miscarriages, according to a team of doctors.
They say the wombs of some women are too good at letting embryos implant, even those of poor quality which should be rejected.
The UK-Dutch study published in the journal PLoS ONE said the resulting pregnancies would then fail.
One expert welcomed the findings and hoped a test could be developed for identifying the condition in women.
Recurrent miscarriages – losing three or more pregnancies in a row – affect one in 100 women in the UK. Read full article.
Stem Cells: A Culture War Gone Quiet
While a draft plank in the Republican Party’s platform supporting a constitutional amendment banning abortion has gotten plenty of attention, so far unnoticed is another culture war provision tucked right alongside it — an opposition to federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. “We oppose the killing of embryos for their stem cells. We oppose Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research,” the draft language reads, mirroring previous years’ platforms. You’d be forgiven for having déjà vu from 2004, when stem cell research was at the top of the agenda of both parties and sparked fierce and emotional debate. It’s completely vanished from the political scene since — what happened? Read full article.
Involuntary Childlessness
Recently, I had a woman struggling with infertility come into my office for counseling. After years of unsuccessful fertility treatments, three miscarriages, and a husband unwilling to consider other family-building options, she is considering giving up her dream of having another child. She wanted to know if she would ever get over her childlessness. Read full article.
Antibiotics: Do They Affect Contraceptives
NPS MedicineWise has released information for consumers about taking antibiotics when also using hormonal contraceptives, explaining that there are only two antibiotics that affect how hormonal contraceptives work.
There are many misconceptions regarding the impact of antibiotics in our bodies, says NPS MedicineWise clinical adviser Dr Philippa Binns.
“While it’s important to always be careful with medicines to avoid mishaps, it’s also wise to separate the fact from fiction,” she says.
“Not all antibiotics interfere with how well hormonal contraceptives work. However there are exceptions, so it’s important for women to always check whether their antibiotic may have an impact.”
Women using hormonal contraception are encouraged to get advice from their doctor or pharmacist so they’re reassured about the need to take precautions if prescribed an antibiotic.
“Many women who use hormonal contraceptive methods often express concern that antibiotics may jeopardise their effectiveness,” says Dr Binns.
“In fact, there are only two antibiotics which are thought to affect how well some hormonal contraceptives work.” Read full article.
New CDC Recommendation: One-Time Hepatitis C Test for Baby Boomers
Current CDC recommendations focus on testing individuals with known hepatitis C risk factors. However, more than 75% of American adults with hepatitis C are baby boomers and baby boomers are five times more likely than adults of other ages to be infected. Likely reasons for this disproportionate infection rate are that this generation may have received blood transfusions before screening of the blood supply began 20 years ago and because they came of age before HIV brought awareness of the risks of unprotected sex and needle sharing.
Father’s Age Linked to Autism and Schizophrenia
Older men are more likely than young ones to father a child who develops autism or schizophrenia, because of random mutations that become more numerous with advancing paternal age, scientists reported on Wednesday, in the first study to quantify the effect as it builds each year. The age of mothers had no bearing on the risk for these disorders, the study found.
Experts said that the finding was hardly reason to forgo fatherhood later in life, though it might have some influence on reproductive decisions. The overall risk to a man in his 40s or older is in the range of 2 percent, at most, and there are other contributing biological factors that are entirely unknown.
But the study, published online in the journal Nature, provides support for the argument that the surging rate of autism diagnoses over recent decades is attributable in part to the increasing average age of fathers, which could account for as many as 20 to 30 percent of cases.
The findings also counter the longstanding assumption that the age of the mother is the most important factor in determining the odds of a child having developmental problems. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities, likeDown syndrome, increases for older mothers, but when it comes to some complex developmental and psychiatric problems, the lion’s share of the genetic risk originates in the sperm, not the egg, the study found. Read full article.