Two new drugs are the first to treat endometriosis without harming fertility. Researchers hope they will one day help the 10 per cent of women of reproductive age who suffer from the condition, which can cause infertility and chronic pain, and costs the US $20 billion dollars each year.
Month: February 2015
German Supreme Court Grants Children Of Sperm Donation To Learn Father’s Identity At Any Time
The German Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in favor of children of sperm donors’ right to know the identity of their biological father. As gray areas to the preexisting law have now been clarified, the BGH asserts that the child’s right to know holds “generally a greater weight” than the requests of anonymity by the donor. This marks the first time the BGH has taken a firm stance in favor of one side.
Safety First: MPs Are In a Quandary Over a Vote on a New IVF Technique
It has been a long-standing rule in fertility treatment that no
scientist should attempt to modify the genes of a human embryo if that
modification can be passed on to subsequent generations through the
“germline” – the eggs and sperm of the future person. Now Parliament is
about to consider another form of germline modification, so-called
“three-parent embryos”, this time involving the genes of the
mitochondria, described as the tiny “power packs” of the cell, which
exist outside the nucleus.
Technical officer
Geir Lie is an Economist with The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). He specializes in work on accountability, and finance and economics. Geir joined PMNCH from the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing at the World Health Organization in Geneva, where his work centered on resource tracking for health. Prior to WHO, Geir was a Senior Analyst for Abt Associates, where he focused on health accounts and costing. Geir has experience as a Coordinator for the Innovation Working Group of the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health where he analysed areas of innovative approaches responsible for making cost-effective contributions to health care systems around the world. He also worked for the Health, Nutrition, and Population Anchor of the World Bank where he assessed fiscal space for health, analysed the impact of the financial crisis on health expenditures and health outcomes, and examined data on development assistance for reproductive health and nutrition. Geir holds a Master’s degree in Health Economics and a BA in Economics from the University of Oslo.
First Infants Born Following Novel Genetic Screen
The first three babies screened at the embryonic stage with karyomapping, a novel screening tool for genetic disease, have been born, said the company providing the service.
Woman Born With No Womb Gives Birth to Twins After Treatment Breakthrough
A woman born with no reproductive organs who was told she could never have children has given birth to twin girls.
Carl Djerassi, 91, a Creater of the Birth Control Pill, Dies
Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as “the pill,” died on Friday at his home in San Francisco. He was 91.