Two companies announced Monday that they have received the first approval to test a Zika vaccine on humans. While the approval from the Food and Drug Administration is early in the long process of approving a vaccine for widespread use, it is a step forward in finding a vaccine for the virus, which has become a global health emergency.
Month: June 2016
5 Surprising Facts About Egg Freezing
A city in Japan has announced that it will pay a large part of the cost of egg freezing for women who live there, as part of a program aimed at raising the country’s low birth rate. Egg freezing is the process of extracting egg cells from a woman’s ovaries and storing them for later use.
Vermont Insurers Must Now Cover Vasectomies
Vermont has become one of several states working to make sure vasectomies are among the birth control options couples can afford.
Blood Test for Endometriosis May be Possible Researchers Say
Surgery is required for a doctor to confirm a woman has endometriosis, though scientists think a blood test may prove to be effective at diagnosing patients without cutting them open. Measuring women’s lipid profiles may allow doctors to diagnose the often painful condition with a blood test, according to studies with mice conducted by scientists at Penn State University.
Blood Test for Endometriosis May be Possible Researchers Say
Surgery is required for a doctor to confirm a woman has endometriosis, though scientists think a blood test may prove to be effective at diagnosing patients without cutting them open. Measuring women’s lipid profiles may allow doctors to diagnose the often painful condition with a blood test, according to studies with mice conducted by scientists at Penn State University.
How a Transgender Woman Could Get Pregnant
When Mats Brännström first dreamed of performing uterus transplants, he envisioned helping women who were born without the organ or had to have hysterectomies. He wanted to give them a chance at birthing their own children, especially in countries like his native Sweden where surrogacy is illegal. He auditioned the procedure in female rodents. Then he moved on to sheep and baboons. Two years ago, in a medical first, he managed to help a human womb–transplant patient deliver her own baby boy. In other patients, four more babies followed.
How a Transgender Woman Could Get Pregnant
When Mats Brännström first dreamed of performing uterus transplants, he envisioned helping women who were born without the organ or had to have hysterectomies. He wanted to give them a chance at birthing their own children, especially in countries like his native Sweden where surrogacy is illegal. He auditioned the procedure in female rodents. Then he moved on to sheep and baboons. Two years ago, in a medical first, he managed to help a human womb–transplant patient deliver her own baby boy. In other patients, four more babies followed.
GOP Objection kills Senate Funding for Military Fertility Program
In January the Pentagon launched a pilot program that allowed U.S. troops to freeze their sperm and eggs before deployment. Defense Secretary Ash Carter lauded it as a way that service members could preserve their reproductive cells in case they suffered catastrophic wounds or merely wanted to put off having children. Now the program might be heading for a quick demise: On Tuesday, the Republican-led Senate voted 85-13 to approve a $602 billion military spending bill for 2017 that stripped funding for the program.
Gaps In Women’s Health Care May Derail Zika Prevention In Texas, Florida
Mosquitoes bearing Zika — a virus that can cause birth defects when contracted by pregnant women — are expected to reach the United States as soon as this summer, with Florida and Texas likely to be among the hardest-hit states.
Rethinking Embryo Research Rules
For more than 35 years, there has been broad international agreement that no scientist can experiment on an embryo that is more than 14 days old. This red line was established as scientific guidance in the United States in 1979, and it was incorporated into British law after the 1984 Warnock inquiry into in vitro fertilization. Other nations, including Australia, Sweden and China, have since adopted the same limit, either in law or through scientific regulation.