At 33, Candice Ismirle is battling an aggressive, metastatic breast cancer. She and her husband, who live in Washington, conceived the twins through in vitro fertilization. Candice’s cousin Erin McKenney, also 33, a nurse at the hospital in Upland, served as a gestational surrogate, carrying and delivering the babies.
Month: November 2014
Starting a Family Against the Odds
At 33, Candice Ismirle is battling an aggressive, metastatic breast cancer. She and her husband, who live in Washington, conceived the twins through in vitro fertilization. Candice’s cousin Erin McKenney, also 33, a nurse at the hospital in Upland, served as a gestational surrogate, carrying and delivering the babies.
How Adoptive Families Can Prepare for National Adoption Month
By Kathy Brodsky, L.C.S.W.
November is National Adoption Month and celebrates adoption, adoptees, birth and adoptive families. There are national education campaigns, governmental advocacy efforts and state Adoption Days, all focused on …
Single Mutation in Beta-Catenin Gene Can Lead to Infertility
Scientists from the RIKEN BioResource Center in Tsukuba, Japan, have discovered that a single mutation in the beta-catenin gene, which codes a protein known to be deeply involved in a number of developmental and homeostatic processes, can lead to infertility not through a disruption of the production of egg or sperm cells, but rather by leading to abnormalities in the morphology of the sexual organs, making natural reproduction impossible.
Emergency Contraception Not Covered by Health Plans
Emergency contraception, also known as the morning after pill or “Plan B”, is available over the counter. This means that you do not need a physician’s note to get it. It also means that health insurance plans generally do not cover it, along with other over-the-counter medicines like those for heartburn or urinary tract infections. The cost of emergency contraception ranges from $50 to $70.
Everyday Shrinkage: 5 Ways Your Testicles Are Getting Smaller And How To Prevent It
Testicles: they don’t call them a man’s jewels for no reason. After all, they’re the source of all our manliness, producing testosterone daily, which gives us muscle definition, the hair on our faces, and the ability to perform sexually. This should explain, then, why we prize them so much, and why it hits so close to home when people like Tom Green and Lance Armstrong are diagnosed with testicular cancer — both of them got a testicle removed, and Green even had his operation televised.
Illinois Voters Handily Approve 2 Constitutional Amendments, 3 Advisory Issues
The contraceptive-coverage question, which had 66 percent approval, responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that craft-store chain Hobby Lobby is not required to pay for birth control. Advocates for coverage say the decree guts Illinois’ 2003 law requiring it.
Researchers Reconstruct Early Stages of Embryo Development
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have managed to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing that a critical mass of cells – not too few, but not too many – is needed for the cells to being self-organising into the correct structure for an embryo to form.
Personhood Movement Loses Both State Initiatives
The anti-abortion personhood movement failed key tests Tuesday in North Dakota and Colorado, with voters rejecting amendments to grant the unborn constitutional rights.
Arizona School District Cutting Contraception from High School Biology Text
School district staff here will “edit” a high-school honors biology textbook after board members agreed that it does not align with state regulations on how abortion is to be presented to public-school students. The book in question, Campbell Biology: Concepts & Connections (Seventh Edition), has a chapter that discusses abstinence, birth-control methods, tubal ligations and vasectomies and drugs that can induce abortion.