Month: August 2012

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Human Embryo Question Appealed to Supreme Court

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ADA, Okla. – The contentious question about whether a fertilized human egg is a person will go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A national anti-abortion group said it has appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision rejecting a citizens petition calling for a statewide vote on the question.

The Oklahoma court ruled in April that the petition was unconstitutional, citing federal court precedents in abortion cases.

Keith Mason, founder of Personhood USA, said the appeal is based on the argument that Oklahoma voters have a constitutional right to express their preference “on such a critical issue as life.”

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In sperm world, slow and steady wins the race

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New York: Scientists have discovered that it is not the fastest swimming sperm that is most likely to succeed in fertilising the egg but the slower and longer one.

Researchers from Syracuse University found that in sperm competition in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) slower and longer sperms outcompete their faster rivals.

The research team led by Stefan Lupold, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences made the discovery using fruit flies that were genetically altered so that the heads of their sperm glow fluorescent green or red under the microscope.

“Sperm competition is a fundamental biological process throughout the animal kingdom, yet we know very little about how ejaculate traits determine which males win contests,” Lupold said in a statement.

“This is the first study that actually measures sperm quality under competitive conditions inside the female, allowing us to distinguish the traits that are important in each of the reproductive phases,” he added.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

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Congressman links contraception mandate to 9/11, Pearl Harbor Day

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(CBS News) Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., an ardent opponent of the contraception mandate that went into effect Wednesday, is comparing the beginning of the mandate to the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“I know in your mind you can think of the times that America was attacked,” Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said during a news conference. “One is December 7th, that’s Pearl Harbor Day; the other is September 11th and that’s the day of a terrorist attack. I want you to remember August the first 2012 the attack on our religious freedom. That is the date that will live in infamy along with those other dates.”

“Today is the day that religious freedom died,” Kelly said.

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For Soldiers, Sperm Banking Could be the New Flack Jacket

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An upsurge of genital injuries amongst Afghanistan vets is becoming the new “signature wound” of the war. But soldiers arriving home with these injuries have drawn attention to the lack of government support for in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination using donated sperm, which costs up to $7,000 per procedure.

A new policy highlights these grievances, as reported by the Huffington Post:

The policy authorizes payment for some reproductive procedures for the first time, including limited in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. But it also specifically excludes covering males who cannot produce sperm. “Third-party donations and surrogacy are not covered benefits,” the policy states firmly.

The average age of soldiers with genital wounds is 24, and the majority of them are married.
Since 2005, at least 1,875 American troops have suffered genital wounds, including 51 so far this year. They are among the 34,440 American battle casualties caused by roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, a grim toll that includes over 3,000 dead and 31,394 wounded through May, according to the most recent Defense Department data.

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Childhood Obesity Could be Related to Growing Problems with Infertility

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A dramatic increase in childhood obesity in recent decades may have impacts that go beyond the usual health concerns – it could be disrupting the timing of puberty and ultimately lead to a diminished ability to reproduce, especially in females.

A body of research suggests that obesity could be related to growing problems with infertility, scientists said in a recent review, in addition to a host of other physical and psycho-social concerns. The analysis was published in Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Human bodies may be scrambling to adjust to a problem that is fairly new. For thousands of years of evolution, poor nutrition or starvation were a greater concern, rather than an overabundance of food.

“The issue of so many humans being obese is very recent in evolutionary terms, and since nutritional status is important to reproduction, metabolic syndromes caused by obesity may profoundly affect reproductive capacity,” said Patrick Chappell, an assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Oregon State University and an author of the recent report.

“Either extreme of the spectrum, anorexia or obesity, can be associated with reproduction problems,” he said.

Researchers are still learning more about the overall impact of obesity on the beginning of puberty and effects on the liver, pancreas and other endocrine glands, Chappell said. While humans show natural variations in pubertal progression, the signals that control this timing are unclear.

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New women’s health benefits go into effect

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) — New U.S. health insurance plans are required beginning Wednesday to provide new preventive benefits at no cost to covered women as part of healthcare reform.

The new rules require insurers to cover a comprehensive set of preventive services that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates will benefit 47 million women. They include contraceptives, breastfeeding supplies and gestational diabetes screening for pregnant women, prenatal care, routine breast and pelvic exams and pap tests used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in the cervix.

Other benefits that became effective Wednesday as part of a decade-long rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama March 23, 2010, include testing for the human papillomavirus — which can cause warts and, in a minority of cases, lead to cervical cancers — screening and counseling for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and screening and counseling for domestic and interpersonal violence.

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Why We Keep Accidentally Getting Pregnant

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A fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of sex and the function of birth control appears to underlie the country’s remarkable rate of unwanted pregnancies.

Thirty-seven percent of babies born in the U.S. are the result of unplanned pregnancies. The National Survey of Family Growth, released this week by the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics, suggests a number of possibilities for why this is, all of which merit further attention. But the leading reason that women eschewed birth control? They “did not think they would get pregnant.”

Because the survey looks only at unintended births — and not unintended pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or abortion — this means that there are 290,000 babies born each year to mothers who believed their coming into existence was a statistical improbability. Other data has indicated that 60 percent of women who gave birth to unplanned babies had not used contraception when they became pregnant; the survey indicates that a majority of them must misunderstand either the connection between sex and childbirth or how strongly correlated the two actually are, seeing pregnancy instead as an “it can’t happen to me” scenario.

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Americans put off having babies amid poor economy

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Twenty-somethings who postponed having babies because of the poor economy are still hesitant to jump in to parenthood — an unexpected consequence that has dropped the USA’s birthrate to its lowest point in 25 years.

The fertility rate is not expected to rebound for at least two years and could affect birthrates for years to come, according to Demographic Intelligence, a Charlottesville, Va., company that produces quarterly birth forecasts for consumer products and pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.

Marketers track fertility trends closely because they affect sales of thousands of products from diapers, cribs and minivans to baby bottles, toys and children’s pain relievers.

As the economy tanked, the average number of births per woman fell 12% from a peak of 2.12 in 2007. Demographic Intelligence projects the rate to hit 1.87 this year and 1.86 next year — the lowest since 1987.

The less-educated and Hispanics have experienced the biggest birthrate decline while the share of U.S. births to college-educated, non-Hispanic whites and Asian Americans has grown.

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Firm seeks approval for home DNA test

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WASHINGTON — Genetic test maker 23andMe is asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve its personalized DNA test in a move that, if successful, could boost acceptance of technology that is viewed skeptically by leading scientists who question its usefulness.

23andMe is part of a fledgling industry that allows consumers to peek into their genetic code for details about their ancestry and future health. The company’s saliva-based kits have attracted scrutiny for claiming to help users detect whether they are likely to develop illnesses like breast cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

The biology of how DNA variations lead to certain diseases is poorly understood, and many geneticists say such tests are built on flimsy evidence.

For years, the Silicon Valley company has resisted government regulation, arguing that it simply provides consumers with information, not a medical service. But now company executives say they are seeking government approval, and the scientific credibility that comes with it.

‘‘It’s the next step for us to work with the FDA and actually say, ‘this is clinically relevant information and consumers should work with their physicians on what to do with it,’ ” said chief executive and cofounder Anne Wojcicki, who is married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Google and Brin have invested millions in the privately held company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif.

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