Month: April 2013

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

In gay marriage case, justices focus and trade laughs on fertility question

brigitte

In Tuesday’s oral arguments over whether California’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, a few of the liberal Supreme Court justices took aim at one of the central arguments made by gay marriage opponents: that the ability to naturally procreate is key to the definition of marriage.

Charles Cooper, the attorney representing proponents of California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, argued that allowing same-sex nuptials would fundamentally change the definition of marriage for the worse.

“The concern is that redefining marriage as a genderless institution will sever its abiding connection to its historic traditional procreative purposes, and it will refocus the purpose of marriage and the definition of marriage away from the raising of children and to the emotional needs and desires of adults,” Cooper said.

Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, pressed Cooper on that argument, asking him why then the government could not bar couples who are both over the age of 55 from marrying, on the assumption that they are infertile. Read full article.

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Choices after genetic mutation finding affect fertility

brigitte

The baby shower had a nautical theme. The navy-blue tables were outside the home near Grove Isle. Red roses in silver buckets had a small sign with a sailboat that read “It’s a Boy!”

Some of the guests were friends I had spent time with at nightclubs and parties in Miami in years past. Some were pregnant.

“I was nauseous and felt so sick at first,” one said. “My back hurts. I hope it’s a girl,” another said.

A beautiful little girl dressed in white stole most of my attention. For a moment, it was all too much. I was glad I was wearing sunglasses and discreetly excused myself to the bathroom, where I sat on the floor and cried. If I had not have been diagnosed with cancer, I would be where they are.

Instead, my current dilemma was whether or not I should wait to remove my ovaries.

Having a family is important to me. When I got diagnosed with breast cancer at 33, I was at a place in my life where I felt ready to head in that direction. One day I was healthy and beautiful and the next my life had taken an abrupt turn.

My friend, Michael Maryanoff, 26, a cancer patient, sent me a message that I have thought about often. Read full article.

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Long Quest for Pregnancy Ups Neuro Risk for Child

brigitte

The more years spent trying to achieve pregnancy, the greater the risk of conceiving a child with neurological dysfunction,researchers found.

The time to pregnancy — used as a proxy for the severity of subfertility — was significantly longer for children who had minor neurological dysfunction compared with those with intact neurological function (median 4.1 versus 2.8 years, P=0.014), according to Mijna Hadders-Algra, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues.

The difference remained significant after adjustment for gestational age, parental age, and parental education (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.61) and largely reflected deficits in posture and muscle tone, the researchers reported online in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

“This implies that factors associated with subfertility may play a role in the genesis of neurodevelopmental problems,” they wrote. “Further exploration of the associations between subfertility and health outcome in offspring is necessary for the correct counseling of subfertile couples.” Read full article.

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ND lawmakers define life as starting at conception

brigitte

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota didn’t set out to become the abortion debate’s new epicenter.

It happened by accident, after a legislative caucus that once vetted abortion bills languished, leaving lawmakers to propose a flurry of measures — some cribbed from Wikipedia — without roadblocks.

Long dismissed as cold and inconsequential, North Dakota is now trying to enact the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation. The newly oil-rich red state may soon find itself in a costly battle over legislation foes describe as blatantly unconstitutional.

“It had to happen some place,” said Sen. John Andrist, a Crosby Republican who has served in the Legislature for more than two decades.

“I’m from the group who hates voting on abortion issues and who don’t like to play God,” said Andrist, who describes himself as “moderately pro-life” and has voted for some but not all of the restrictions North Dakota has taken up this year. “But we have some strong-willed people in this state who do.”

Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House’s approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state’s constitution in November 2014. Read full article.

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New Nanoparticle Chemo Is Gentler On Fertility

brigitte

RestingEggFolliclesUsing nanoparticles as “Trojan horses”, scientists have designed and lab-tested a way to deliver an arsenic-based chemo drug that ferociously attacks cancer, but is gentler on the ovaries. They hope the new method will help to protect the fertility of women undergoing cancer treatment.

The team also developed a rapid way to test existing and new chemo drugs for their effect on ovarian function, so doctors and their female patients can make treatment decisions that minimize damage to ovaries and thus increase the chance of having a future family.

The new nanoparticle chemo drug they designed is the first cancer drug to be tested while in development for its effect on fertility using the new rapid toxicity test.

Advances in cancer therapy means more patients are surviving, but many female patients often face a temporary or permanent loss of fertility after undergoing traditional chemotherapy. Read full article.

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Risk Factors For Autism Accumulate Over Generations

brigitte

It was already known that men who father children later in their life are much more likely to have autistic children than younger men, but new research has found that this effect extends to their grandchildren also. This new research shows that risk factors for autism can accumulate over generations, much in the same way as radiation damage and chemical exposure can.

The new findings are the result of a collaboration between King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia.

“By using Swedish national registers, researchers identified 5,936 individuals with autism and 30,923 healthy controls born in Sweden since 1932. They had complete data on each individual’s maternal and paternal grandfathers’ age of reproduction and details of any psychiatric diagnosis.” Read full article.