Author: brigitte

Fertility Clock Blog, My Future Baby Blog

Increase Your Pregnancy Odds …

brigitte

In high school, sex ed teachers may have told you that you could easily get pregnant any time you had unprotected sex. Now that you’re actually trying to conceive a baby, you might be second-guessing their warning. In some situations, it takes more than just throwing out your birth control to get pregnant. The better you understand your menstrual cycle the more likely you’ll be to identify your fertile window and increase your chances of conception:
 

The Average Menstrual Cycle

The average woman will have a 28-day menstrual cycle, with ovulation occurring around cycle day 14. However, there are wide variances in the normal cycle. According to Womenshealth.gov, a normal cycle can last anywhere from 21 to 35 days long, and ovulation can occur anytime between cycle day 13 and cycle day 20. After an egg is released and ovulation occurs, women who have a normal cycle will have a period within 14 to 16 days. If you’re thinking about trying to conceive, consider keeping a calendar of when you get your period each month to understand what the normal cycle length is for you.

Signs of Ovulation

Ovulation is notoriously difficult to predict, largely because it does not always occur on the same day each month. Keep an eye out for signs of ovulation as you approach the middle of your cycle each month. Some women feel cramping around the time that they ovulate, while others will notice a change in cervical mucus. According to the Mayo Clinic, cervical mucus becomes clear and slippery just before ovulation occurs. It is sometimes said to resemble a raw egg white. Take note of your cervical mucus consistency throughout the month to help you have an idea of when you’re going to ovulate.

Chart Your Fertility

Charting is a great way to identify your own personal cycle patterns and discover when your fertile window is each month. If you chart for several months, you will often notice that a pattern emerges. According to Womenshealth.gov, there are three main methods for charting your fertility:

  • Test your basal body temperature using a basal body thermometer
  • Calculate ovulation using an online ovulation calculator
  • Track your cycle by monitoring your cervical fluids

 
Consider combing all three methods to get an accurate idea of when you’re most likely to conceive each month.

Causes of Infertility

Many factors contribute to infertility, including age, general health disorders and environmental surroundings. According to Womenshealth.gov, the most common cause of infertility is a woman’s failure to ovulate each month. Web MD notes that there are a variety of treatments available to treat infertility. There are fertility drugs on the market designed to stimulate ovulation. In addition, women can undergo fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization. During in vitro fertilization, eggs are removed from the woman and a male partner donates sperm. The egg is fertilized and then subsequently implanted into the woman’s uterus resulting in pregnancy. If you feel you may have fertility issues, set up an appointment with your doctor.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Breakthrough for IVF? Selecting the Most Promising Embryos

brigitte

Embryo4A recent study in Reproductive BioMedicine Online on 5-day old human blastocysts shows that those with an abnormal chromosomal composition can be identified by the rate at which they have developed to blastocysts, thereby classifying the risk of genetic abnormality without a biopsy. In a new study the same group has undertaken a retrospective study, using their predictive model to assess the likelihood of any embryo transferred resulting in a successful pregnancy, with very encouraging outcomes.

One of the greatest challenges in assisted reproduction is to find the one embryo, which can develop successfully. Now, combining time lapse imaging of IVF embryos cultured for 5 days to the blastocyst stage with trophoblast biopsy, it has proved possible to correlate the rate of blastocyst formation with chromosomal abnormalities. Such an approach should allow early and widely accessible non-invasive identification of the best embryo to place in the uterus. Read full article…

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Another Painful Period…Or A Problem? Understanding Endometriosis

brigitte

EndometriosisFor some women, painful periods are a part of life. But many women experiencing painful periods do not know their pain is signaling a larger health issue.

Approximately 176 million women and girls worldwide are diagnosed with the chronic disease endometriosis. Many women do not know they have endometriosis because some can only be diagnosed through surgery.

In honor of National Endometriosis Awareness Month this March, we are seeking to empower and educate women on this disease.

The cause of endometriosis remains unknown, and a permanent cure may be difficult. Building awareness of this disease is critical in aiding effective diagnoses, pain management and infertility treatment for women.

What is endometriosis?

Every month during menstruation, a woman sheds the endometrial lining in her uterus. When the endometrium tissue normally found in the uterus grows outside the uterus or in other places of the body, it is known as endometriosis.

Each month, endometrial tissue continues to break down and shed as it would during a normal menstrual cycle. Endometrial tissue in other parts of the body follows the same pattern, causing period-like symptoms such as cramps and discomfort. Without the ability to drain through the uterus as it would during menstruation, the endometrial tissue is released into the body, causing pain, inflammation, and scar tissue. Read full article.

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

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.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Can environmental contaminants cause lower sperm count?

brigitte

sperm countThe amount of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that mothers had in their blood during pregnancyaffected their sons’ semen quality at 20 years old. These findings appear in a recent study from Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, in which the Norwegian Institute of Public Healthparticipated.

Researchers had proposed hypotheses that increasing exposure to hormone-disrupting substances in the environment may be a contributory factor to reduced sperm quality. Therefore this study was initiated and found the following:

  • The sons of mothers with the highest concentrations of PFOA in the bloodduring pregnancy had a lower sperm concentration and total sperm count than the sons of mothers with the lowest PFOA levels.
  • A positive association was also found between PFOA exposure before birth and elevated levels of luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in the sons’ blood. Read full article.