Infertility Options
Sydney: Australian researchers may have come closer to developing a male contraceptive pill.
They have discovered a way to cut off the fuel supply to the “motor” that drives human sperm, greatly reducing their swimming ability and opening a new avenue to developing a male pill.
The finding also throws new light on the little-understood reasons for infertility in men, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Read full article.
British scientist John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for experiments separated by almost 50 years that provide deep insight into how animals develop and offer hope for a new era of personalized medicine.
“Their findings have revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop,” the Nobel committee said in the prize announcement. Read full article.
ORANGE CITY— When it came to having a baby, Holly Hancock wasn’t having the same success as her family and friends.
Hancock, 33, had struggled with weight her entire life, and by her early 30s she reached 257 pounds. After several failed attempts to conceive, Hancock learned that she had polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that affects a woman’s fertility and hormones. Many women who have weight issues struggle with PCOS, which causes a hormone imbalance that can make it difficult to lose weight. Read full article.
Women who have their ovaries and uterus removed – to treat fibroids, for example – tend to gain more weight in the years afterward than those who only have their uterus taken out or don’t have surgery at all, a new study hints.
The findings suggest that surgery to remove the uterus, called a hysterectomy, doesn’t have much effect on weight on its own – contrary to what many women may believe, according to Patricia Moorman, a women’s health researcher at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Read full article.
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that hormone replacement therapy, used to relieve hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, might be safe for younger menopausal women when taken in smaller doses for short periods of time.
Women have shied away from this type of therapy since the landmark Women’s Health Initiative study found elevated risks of breast cancer, heart disease and other health problems among women taking estrogen plus progestin, a synthetic form of progesterone. That study was halted early because of the results, published in 2002. Read full article.
Scientists in Japan report they have created eggs from stem cells in a mammal for the first time. And the researchers went on to breed healthy offspring from the eggs they created.
While the experiments involved mice, the work is being met with excitement — and questions — about doing the same thing for humans someday.
“Wow. That’s my general reaction,” said Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University who studies stem-cell science. “Repairing hearts, repairing brains, repairing kidneys, that’s all good and important, and we’d all love to be able to do that. But this involves making the next generation.” Read full article.
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed numerous bills into law this weekend that will create new protections for LGBT people and their families. Though Proposition 8 held back LGBT equality for the state, these new laws are raising the bar for ensuring an equal opportunity in society for same-sex couples and LGBT youth. Read full article.
As an infertility counsellor, I see a lot of clients who are using third-party family building strategies. This includes using sperm or egg donation and/or a gestational carrier.
For some, the decision to use donor egg or sperm is a no-brainer: they want children, they cannot use their own gametes, so they use someone else’s. For these individuals the desire to parent is so strong, that they are unconcerned with the lack of biological tie that they themselves, or their partner, will have with the child. Read full article.
U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.
But there may be a silver lining: The decline in 2011 was just 1 percent — not as sharp a fall-off as the 2 to 3 percent drop seen in other recent years.
“It may be that the effect of the recession is slowly coming to an end,” said Carl Haub, a senior demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. Read full article.
What if a quick, cheap and relatively painless procedure could double the chances of becoming pregnant through in-vitro fertilization? British researchers say a simple scratch to the uterine lining might do just that, but some experts are skeptical.
A new review of eight previously published studies suggests women who have their wombs gently scraped a month before starting IVF are twice as likely to having babies. The procedure, called local endometrial injury, takes about 15 minutes and costs as little as $200. Read full article.