Author: brigitte

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Is infertility a disability?

brigitte

Is infertility a disability?
‘Disabilities are an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives’.

If you use the above definition. Is infertility is a disability?  To help you to make your decision, I include a few facts. As many members are male, it may seem that descriptions are over emotive. Infertility is an emotive subject. I have written this as honestly as I can in the hope that reading it will cause people to think before they respond with unnecessary harshness and insensitivity.

Infertility is often caused by very painful physical gynaecological problems. Endometriosis and polycystic ovaries being the most common. Most doctors will tell any woman that the best known cure for these problems is to have a pregnancy. Some women have been given IVF solely for this reason and it has worked. Symptoms have reduced significantly after she’d had a child. Read full article.

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Kansas Wants Sperm Donor to Pay Child Support

brigitte

The state of Kansas is seeking child support from a man who says he signed away all parental rights when he donated sperm to a lesbian couple.

“It came out of the blue. He was absolutely floored,” attorney Ben Swinnen said of his client William Marotta.

Marotta, 46, met Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner in 2009 when he responded to a Craigslist ad from a lesbian couple in Topeka, Kan., who were offering $50 per sperm donation, according to legal documents. Marotta and his wife met with the women and he agreed to donate to them without accepting the money, Swinnen said.

All three signed a sperm donor contract that stated that he would have no paternal rights and would be in no way responsible for any child that resulted from the donation.

“Jennifer and Angie further agree to indemnify William and hold him harmless for any child support payments demanded of him by any other person or entity, public or private, including any district attorney’s office or other state or county agency, regardless of the circumstances or said demand,” the agreement read. Read full article.

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Reproduction without sex, a liberating future

brigitte

(CNN) — Last year on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the contraceptive pill its inventor Carl Djerassi spoke of the coming dramatic changes to reproductive options — of the technologies that will have just as big an impact on society in the 50 years to come.

After sex without reproduction, reproduction without sex.

In an article in the UK’s “traditional values” tabloid, the Daily Mail, titled “A Terrifying Future for Female Fertility,” Djerassi said, “There are an enormous number of well-educated, proficient women who, when facing the biological clock, first pay attention to their professional ambitions…in the next 20 years, more young people will freeze their eggs and [sperm] in their 20s, and bank them for later use. They will do away with the need for contraception by being sterilised, and withdraw their eggs and sperm from the bank when they are ready to have a child via IVF.”

That is certainly one option as we develop greater capabilities to store eggs more reliably and safely so that they are not damaged by the freezing/thawing process meant to preserve them. But in the next 20 years, there could be other developments on their way to the clinic. For example — also to avert damage — freezing strips of ovarian tissue instead of eggs, or tapping into recently identified reserves of ovarian stem cells that could be turned into a fresh supply of eggs for a woman, at any age; or even creating to order eggs (or sperm) from skin or bone marrow stem cells of men and women.

Early experiments with mice have shown that both sperm and eggs can be generated from the stem cells of males, and eggs from that of females, and that they can be fertilized to produce viable young. Read full article.

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ASRM Applauds International Court of Human Rights Overturn of Costa Rica’s IVF Ban

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Statement attributable to Linda Giudice, MD, PhD, President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

“We are pleased that the International Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has cleared the way for Costa Ricans suffering from the disease of infertility to access assisted reproductive technology treatments without having to travel from their home country.

In finding that Costa Rica violated human rights laws in its 12-year ban of in vitro fertilization, the court recognized the importance of the right to have children and a family and that conception dates from implantation.  Like all diseases, infertility strikes unfairly.  And for Costa Rican patients prevented access to one of the most effective infertility treatments, the injustice was exacerbated. All patients need to have access to the most effective treatments appropriate for them. We applaud the court for restoring hope for those suffering from infertility in Costa Rica.”

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, founded in 1944, is an organization of 8,000 physicians, researchers, nurses, technicians and other professionals dedicated to advancing knowledge and expertise in reproductive biology.  Affiliated societies include the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, and the Society of Reproductive Biologists and Technologists. Read full article.

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ASRM Applauds Senate Action on Veterans Infertility Legislation

brigitte

Washington, DC – “Today the U.S. Senate approved legislation to provide access to infertility services for our nation’s veterans. The “Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act of 2012’’ would direct the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to furnish fertility counseling and treatment, including the use of assisted reproductive technology, to severely wounded, ill or injured veterans whose infertility was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.  Female veterans, the spouses of veterans and surrogates would be eligible.

The bill also allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide veterans with reimbursement for costs associated with up to three adoptions as long as the expenses do not exceed the expense of one cycle of in vitro fertilization.

The first fertility treatments would likely not be covered before late 2014 because the Department of Veterans Affairs would have up to 18 months to establish program rules.

It is nothing but unjust to send our military personnel into harm’s way and to not provide health care services to address health care needs that arise due to their service and dedication to our country. We encourage the U.S. House of Representatives to pass this bill so that it can be sent to the President without delay.”  Read full article.

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Justice won’t block Obamacare’s required emergency contraception coverage

brigitte

(CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday turned down a request that she block part of Obamacare that would require companies’ health plans to provide for coverage of certain contraceptives, such as the morning-after pill.

Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Mardel, Inc. and five family members involved in ownership and control of the corporations had protested the requirement, which is to kick in January 1.

The applicants said they would face irreparable harm if forced to choose between paying fines and complying with the requirement. Read full article.

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Drug Stocks Prey for Insiders as Industry Resists Change

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At a time when more than one in five U.S. insider-trading cases involve health-care stocks, the industry’s companies say their policies designed to prevent abuse are sufficient — or they refuse to publicly discuss the issue at all.

Since 2007, 97 people charged or sued by U.S. regulators for insider trading gained their edge as a result of secret information about drugs, devices and the companies that make them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yet most drugmakers among 30 surveyed wouldn’t discuss their policies, and those that did saw no reason for change.

Francois Nader, the chief executive officer at NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NPSP), a biotechnology company, said insider trading is largely confined to “rogue cases from time to time,” a view shared by other executives in interviews. Critics, though, say it is a systemic problem that will undercut investor support if companies fail to step up.

It is “garbage” that drugmakers are doing all they need to do, said Bill Singer, a former regulatory attorney with the American Stock Exchange who is now in private practice at Herskovits Plc in New York. “The industry isn’t capable or willing to regulate itself.” Read full article.

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5 Reasons Teens Need Free Access to Contraception (Just Ask the French)

brigitte

Girls between the ages of 15 and 18 in France will be able to get birth control free of charge, and without parental notification, starting in January 2013.

The free consultation and contraception, which can take place at the family doctor’s office, will be covered by the state and not a girl’s insurance, meaning that she will be protected by a further layer of privacy. By doing this, the government hopes to increase contraception use and reduce the teen pregnancy rate, which they believe is due to ignorance, taboo and a lack of access to contraception.

Under current rules, most teenagers can get absolute anonymity with a doctor, but have to pay for the visit in cash without submitting a claim to get the money back. Read full article.

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Court Says Kids Aren’t Heirs In Frozen Sperm Case

brigitte

PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court says children conceived with frozen sperm from a deceased man can’t be considered his heirs.

The decision Friday means two Kalamazoo-area siblings won’t be collecting Social Security benefits that typically go to minor children of the deceased.

Pam Mattison of Portage is suing the Social Security Administration for benefits for her twins, who are 11. The children were conceived through artificial insemination in 2001 after her husband, Jeff Mattison, died.

A federal judge asked the state Supreme Court for its opinion of Michigan estate law. The court says the children can’t be considered heirs because they weren’t alive when Jeff Mattison died nor was their mother pregnant at that time.

Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh say the Legislature should change the law. Read full article.

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Aging Sperm? Not the End of the World

brigitte

Judith Shulevitz’s recent New Republic essay on how later parenthood is “upending American society” claims that delaying kids could lead us down a rabbit hole of genetic decline. The piece gathers much of its energy from new studies suggesting that male sperm quality decays with age.

While female infertility is old news (literally), issues with male fertility create a new cultural frisson. Apparently, genetic errors may be introduced into sperm every time they divide—which is often. So the children of some older men may have issues, cognitive and physical, that the kids of younger men don’t generally face (at least not due to their dad’s contribution to their DNA).

There’s a lot of emphasis on the word “may” in the New Republic piece—since most of the evidence it’s based on is inconclusive. And there’s a strong element of anecdote as well. Fertility catastrophizing is an ongoing sport. For instance, here are some other fertility scaremongering pieces of the past few years which turned out to be not the big problems the headlines suggested: the ovarian reserve scare; the later-parenthood autism scare; the childlessness scare; earlier this month we had the low-birth-rate scare (which turns out to really be about young women delaying kids in order to establish themselves—atime-lag effect). Read full article.