Month: September 2012

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Missouri Lawmakers Override Veto of Contraception Bill

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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. — Missouri lawmakers enacted new religious exemptions from insurance coverage of birth control Wednesday, overriding a gubernatorial veto and delivering a political rebuke to an Obama administration policy requiring insurers to cover contraception.

Although Missouri and 20 other states already had some sort of exemption from contraceptive coverage, Missouri’s newly expanded law appears to be the first in the nation directly rebutting the federal contraception mandate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and supporters of the law.

Republican legislative leaders barely met the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto by Gov. Jay Nixon. They got help from a few of Nixon’s fellow Democrats and ultimately persuaded one particular Republican lawmaker who had opposed the measure to support the override. Read full article.

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Infertility in Obese Women May be Due to Damaged Egg, Brigham Study Finds

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Obesity has long been associated with infertility as well as lower success rates with in vitro fertilization, and now researchers think they understand why: Obese women are more likely to have abnormalities in their eggs that make them impossible to fertilize.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital infertility researchers examined nearly 300 eggs that failed to fertilize during IVF in both severely obese women and those with a normal body weight. They found that severely obese women were far more likely to have abnormally arranged chromosomes within their eggs compared with women who weren’t overweight, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction. Read full article.

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Senate Panel OKs Veterans Infertility Bill

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate commitee on Wednesday approved legislation that expands access to infertility treatment for seriously injured veterans.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization and other advanced reproductive technologies for veterans and their spouses. It cleared the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

‘‘Our single-most important duty must be to do right by our veterans,’’ Murray, D-Washington, said in discussing the bill. Read full article.

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Senate Panel Takes Up Bill Expanding Access to Fertility Services for Disabled Veterans

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WASHINGTON — A Senate commitee on Wednesday approved legislation that expands access to infertility treatment for seriously injured veterans.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization and other advanced reproductive technologies for veterans and their spouses. It cleared the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Read full article.

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Want a Side of Infertility With Those Eggs?

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We all do it. The minute after we decide to move out to a home of our own, we’re tapping away at a registry imagining creating the perfect meal in the perfect kitchen outfitted with the perfect pots and pans.

For most of us — myself included — that means a 10-piece set that includes everything from a giant roasting pan to a teeny-tiny frying pan that goes from the box to the cupboard and never sees the light of day after that.

Typically, these inexpensive cooking sets are coated with a nonstick surface like Teflon. And we love them because we can make an egg and it’ll slide right off the pan onto the plate.

 But there’s something else that comes with those eggs: infertility.  Read full article.

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Semen Protein Acts as a Master Regulator for Females

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Working with fruit-flies (Drosophila melanogaster), University of East Anglia scientists have observed “remarkable” changes in female gene expression after exposure to a protein in semen. The researchers say the effects, which may also exist in other species, include altered fertility, immunity, libido, eating and sleep patterns. Published in the journalProceedings of the Royal Society B, the new findings add to the growing list of intriguing physiological effects triggered by exposure to semen. Read full article.

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Smoking Pot Linked to Testicular Cancer Risk

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Smoking marijuana may increase young men’s risk of testicular cancer, a new study suggests.

In the study, marijuana users were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with testicular cancer compared to those who had never used marijuana. The link was particularly strong for the types of testicular cancer that tend to have a worse prognosis, the researchers said. Read full article.

 

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Rabbis Urge Single, Orthodox Women to Freeze Eggs at 38

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Rebecca, an Orthodox Jew from California, was two weeks away from her marriage to the son of a respected rabbi when medication she was taking for migraines triggered a debilitating stroke.

She fell to the floor of the emergency room where she was working as a manager and broke her neck, suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries. When her fiance saw the extent of her disability, he called off the wedding.

“We did everything the Orthodox way,” she said of their three-month engagement after being matched by family members. “I was in the hospital on my wedding day and they got out the wheelchair, and he was so frightened he backed off.” Read full article.

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Ovarian Cancer Screenings Not Effective, Panel Says

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Tests commonly recommended to screen healthy women for ovarian cancer do more harm than good and should not be performed, a panel of medical experts said on Monday.

The screenings — blood tests for a substance linked to cancer andultrasound scans to examine the ovaries — do not lower the death rate from the disease, and they yield many false-positive results that lead to unnecessary operations with high complication rates, the panel said. Read full article.

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Frozen Egg Donor Banks Sprout in Wake of New Technology

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You’ve heard about sperm banks. Now, at long last, make room for their genetic equivalents: egg donor banks.

After years of failed attempts to effectively freeze donor eggs, a revolutionary technology has finally fine-tuned the process, giving birth to a cottage industry of banks with a growing national catalog of healthy donor eggs. Read full article.