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On Thursday evening, January …
Month: January 2013
Va. Supreme Court sides with sperm-donor father
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia law concerning sperm donation was not intended to deny parental rights to a man who conceived a daughter with his girlfriend through in-vitro fertilization, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The court ruled that the law, which says unmarried sperm donors have no parental rights, had been intended to ensure married couples could seek a sperm donor without fearing the donor would claim parental rights.
The decision was a victory for Virginia Beach attorney William D. Breit, who is seeking enforcement of a custody and visitation agreement he and his former girlfriend signed shortly after the birth of a daughter who was conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The couple signed the agreement as well as an affidavit establishing Breit as the biological father. Read full article.
Study: Female premature orgasm is uncommon but awful
First-ever study on the issue finds that 3 percent of women experience chronic premature orgasms
Make room! We have another female “sexual dysfunction” to add to the list.
The first and only study on female premature orgasm has found that 40 percent of the women surveyed experienced rapid climax at least once in their sexual life, with around 3 percent chronically reaching orgasm too soon. Researcher Serafim Carvalho of Hospital Magalhães Lemos in Porto, Portugal, was surprised by the findings, but deeply sympathetic, noting, “For this group, female premature orgasm is more than bothersome. We think it’s as serious a distress as it is in men.” Read full article.
Pap Test Could Help Find Cancers of Uterus and Ovaries
The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests.
For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test.
But the research is early, years away from being used in medical practice, and there are caveats. The women studied were already known to havecancer, and while the Pap test found 100 percent of the uterine cancers, it detected only 41 percent of the ovarian cancers. And the approach has not yet been tried in women who appear healthy, to determine whether it can find early signs of uterine or ovarian cancer. Read full article.
Tips on Coping with Miscarriage and Negative Pregnancy Results
It is a new year and we enter it with wishes, resolutions, and expectations about what we will encounter. One of the toughest things you may have faced last year was a negative pregnancy test …
Paul Ryan Cosponsors New Fetal Personhood Bill
Despite the deep unpopularity of fetal personhood bills in 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has again decided to cosponsorthe Sanctity of Human Life Act, a bill that gives full legal rights to human zygotes from the moment of fertilization.
Ryan, who reportedly has 2016 presidential ambitions, had to de-emphasize his opposition to abortion without exceptions during the 2012 election to align his position with presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But this year, Ryan has been tapped as a keynote speaker for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List’s sixth annual Campaign for Life Gala, and he is re-upping his support for the most extreme anti-abortion legislation in the country.
The personhood bill, first introduced in 2011 by Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and reintroduced by Broun last week, specifies that a “one-celled human embryo,” even before it implants in the uterus to create a pregnancy, should be granted “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” Similar legislation has been rejected by voters in multiple states, including the socially conservative Mississippi, because legal experts have pointed out that it could outlaw some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization as well as criminalize abortion at all stages. Read full article.
Court allows patenting of stem cell technologies
A court in Germany has given a “glimmer of hope” to inventors hoping to patent human embryonic stem cell technologies in Europe.
In interpreting a landmark decision by the European Court of Justice, the German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that technologies involving cells derived from human embryonic stem cells that do not directly involve the destruction of human embryos can be patented.
The court upheld a patent awarded to University of Bonn professor Oliver Brustle, which had been disputed in a legal challenge by Greenpeace under the EU Biotechnology Directive, which bans the use of human embryos for industrial and commercial purposes.
In a decision in October 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that technologies that have at any stage involved the destruction of a human embryo could not be patented, leading stem cell researchers to fear that translational research in Europe might suffer. There is thought to be no similar restriction on patenting outside Europe.
However, in interpreting this ruling on 27 November 2012, the German court determined that in vitrocells derived from the blastocyst stage of embryo development did not themselves have the capability to develop into people, and therefore did not count as human embryos. Read full article.
Woman Wins Custody of Frozen Embryos
A Maryland woman has gained custody of nine frozen embryos she created with her ex-husband, according to an attorney working on the case.
Godlove Mbah of Greenbelt and his ex-wife, Honorine Anong of Upper Marlboro, were divorced in May 2012, but disputes have continued over the couple’s stored embryos and a 3-year-old daughter previously conceived from one their embryos.
Though Mbah asked to have them destroyed, according to The Daily Record, Maryland Circuit Court Judge John Paul Davey signed an order in December giving sole custody of the embryos to Anong—a first-of-its-kind ruling in Maryland.
Davey found that the commercial contract the couple signed at the Shady Grove Fertility Clinic in July 2008—prior to the procedure—was valid, according to attorneys involved in the case.
That contract said the embryos would be given to Anong in case of a separation. Nataly Mendocilla, Mbah’s attorney, argued that her client’s signature wasn’t notarized. Read full article.
Nigeria: ‘By Freezing Their Eggs, Women Can Extend Their Fertility’
Miranda, a 29-year-old mother of two has just had her eggs frozen and stored. The decision was not by chance but by choice, she told Good Health Weekly last week at her Lagos home.
Miranda is one of the fast growing group of Nigerian women who opt for egg freezing and storage for the pupose of bearing children in future. The decision to take this revolutionary step was borne out of necessity.
She was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year and hopes to continue to bear children from the frozen eggs as soon as she completes the series of radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
Biologically, a woman’s fertility declines in her 30s. Thanks to egg freezing, the ticking biological clock can be quietened.
The origins of egg freezing in fertility treatment go back to the late 60s, with experiments on mice.
The first successful pregnancy from a frozen egg occurred in 1986, in Australia. But while the procedure was developed by doctors to help cancer patients and women at risk of an early menopause, however, fertility experts believe that more and more women flocking to fertility clinics in Nigeria may be doing so more for medically advised reasons than for social reasons. Read full article.
Moscow bankrolls fertilization treatment
Starting in 2013, in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients will receive free treatment as part of the basic compulsory health insurance program (CHI). Izvestia was informed of this decision by Moscow’s deputy mayor for social issues, Leonid Pechatnikov. In this way, Muscovites will be able to resolve their fertility problems for free, with the option of undergoing treatment in commercial clinics that are covered by Moscow’s CHI system.
According to Pechatnikov, in Moscow there are currently around 2,500 couples on the waiting list for IVF treatment in 2013. Each round of IVF treatment will require 106,000 rubles ($3,500) from the budget; in private clinics, this figure varies from 100,000 to 250,000 rubles.
The vice mayor was not able to specify the exact amount of budgetary funds that would be put toward IVF treatment. He says that treatments will only be partially financed by the fund, and some of the cost will be covered by the Moscow budget. Read full article.