Author: brigitte

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IVF twin pregnancies riskier than singletons: study

brigitte

REUTERS – Having twins as a results of in vitro fertilization (IVF) carries higher risks of complications for both mother and babies than having two single babies from separate IVF procedures, according to a Swedish study.

The extra concerns that come with multiple births are nothing new. Btu even as many fertility clinics have stopped regularly transferring more than one embryo, debate has continued over whether having twins through IVF is really a bad thing for couples desperate for children.

“The neonatal and maternal outcomes were dramatically better for women undergoing two IVF singleton pregnancies compared with one IVF twin pregnancy after double-embryo transfer,” wrote lead researcher Antonina Sazonova in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

“These results support single-embryo transfer to minimize the risks associated with twin pregnancies,” added Sazonova of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The researchers analyzed data from fresh and frozen embryo transfers done at Swedish IVF clinics between 2002 and 2006. Those records included 991 women who ultimately gave birth to twins after a double embryo transfer and 921 mothers with two children born through separate rounds of IVF. Read full article.

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Department of Justice: Put a hold on contraception suits

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There’s no reason to try legal challenges to the contraception mandate brought by religious employers who are now protected from it until HHS decides how it will try to accommodate them, government lawyers told federal appellate court judges Friday.

Arguing in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Department of Justice attorney Adam Jed said Health and Human Services will release a proposed rule on the contraception accommodation in the first three months of 2013 and finalize it by August before the safe-harbor protection expires. Since that rule is on the way, there is no cause for cases to move forward now, he said.

Two religious colleges, Wheaton and Belmont Abbey, are appealing lower-court rulings that dismissed their suits as premature because they are protected by their safe-harbor status.

But their attorney, Kyle Duncan, argued that the case should go forward because those provisions won’t block private lawsuits that could be brought as soon as Jan. 1 under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. He also said the contraception policy remains an affront to their First Amendment rights. Read full article.

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I think of my egg donor every day

brigitte

In the last few years, the backdrop to egg donation has changed a lot. Since 2005, sperm and egg donors remain anonymous to the intended parents, but the child can now find out non-identifying information about its donor at 16, and more detailed information, including name and address, when it reaches 18. Although the numbers of egg donors didn’t collapse after this, as feared, fewer new donors registered and there has been a shortage as demand has increased – around 1,300 women every year in the UK are treated with donated eggs – with waiting lists of around a year at some clinics, which has resulted in many women and couples seeking treatment abroad. Earlier this year, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) introduced a £750 compensation fee to women who donate their eggs – a recognition of the invasive and time-consuming process – which has resulted in shorter waiting times at many clinics.  Read full article.

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HPV infections return at menopause in women of sexual revolution

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Signs of the cancer-causing human papilloma virus in women near or at menopause may be a reawakened dormant infection, suggesting a risk for women who came of age in the “sexual revolution” in the 1960s and 70s.

About 77 percent of the infections were detected in women who reported five or more sexual partners in their lifetime, according to a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. The findings released today suggest that reactivation of the sexually transmitted virus may increase around age 50 and be responsible for more later-life infections than new ones, researchers said.

The data raises a new concern for women now entering menopause, suggesting a significantly higher risk for HPV infections than those of the previous generation, researchers said. The findings may mean that women need to continue routine screening after age 40, said Patti Gravitt, one of the study authors.

“If we confirm this, we may want to re-evaluate our screening strategies and confirm they’re sufficient,” said Gravitt, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a telephone interview. “If populations change their sexual behaviors, that will contribute to how we see age-specific HPV prevalence.”

HPV is found in about a quarter of teenage girls and about half of women 20 to 24, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. There isn’t a good test for men. Previous studies have found that the virus isn’t detected in samples after about two years. Read full article.

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Nation’s First Sex-Ed Standardized Testing Shows Students’ Gaps

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The District of Columbia has released results for the nation’s first-ever standardized test that includes sex-education, showing that fifth- and eighth-graders have a lot to learn about their bodies.

The test, known as the 2012 District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS), was administered to fifth-graders, eighth-graders and high school students throughout the city. Results were posted today, and show that even though students answered an average of 62 percent of questions correctly, they have work to do.

“The results that we received will be very helpful in determining the improvements needed to be made for teacher professional development training and create challenging material that can further student’s  interest and knowledge in personal health,” Ayan Islam, communications specialist for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, told ABC News.

Islam says the test is part of landmark state legislation passed in 2010, requiring agencies to provide more in-depth reporting and engagement of various community stakeholders with different interests.

More than 11,000 students from fifth-grade through high school were enrolled in health courses and then selected to take the 50-question exam in April. The exam measured students’ knowledge in health-related categories, including wellness, disease prevention, physical education and healthy decision-making. Read full article.

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Male Fertility Countdown

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Yet another study suggests sperm numbers are falling in rich countries.

AS HEALTH scares go, the idea that sperm counts are plummeting across the industrialised world, probably as a result of chemical pollution that has an adverse hormonal effect, takes some beating. In 1992 a meta-analysis of 61 papers, published in the British Medical Journal, suggested they had fallen by half in the preceding half-century, from 113m per millilitre of semen to 66m. Since then, the decline has apparently continued. The most recent paper, just published in Human Reproduction, by Joëlle le Moal, Matthieu Rolland and their colleagues at France’s Institute for Public Health Surveillance, is also one of the most comprehensive yet.

Its conclusions are stark. The sperm count of the average Frenchman, say the researchers, fell by 32.2% between 1989 and 2005. At the same time, the proportion of properly formed sperm also fell, from 60.9% to 52.8%.

This paper is an important contribution to a lively debate. For although the idea of falling sperm counts has entered the public mind as an established fact, fertility experts remain divided about just how big the effect really is. Not all studies have found drops. Though one of Parisians in 1995 suggested that counts were indeed falling, by about 2.1% a year, another, carried out in Toulouse, suggested that they weren’t. Read full article.

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Senate moves bill covering fertility care for vets

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Wounded veterans and their spouses who want to have children could get the government to pay for treatments such as in vitro fertilization under legislation beginning to move through Congress in the waning days of the session.
By voice vote, the Senate passed a bill Thursday to update the Veterans Affairs Department’s medical coverage for one of the signature wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: trauma to a soldier’s reproductive organs.
Nearly 2,000 service members suffered such wounds between 2003 and 2011. But when wounded veterans went to the VA for medical help in starting a family, they were told the VA doesn’t provide that kind of care.
A similar bill is pending in the House. Supporters said the Senate’s action increases its chances of becoming law before Congress adjourns.
The chief sponsor, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she has heard from veterans whose marriages have dissolved because of the stress of infertility, in combination with the stresses of readjusting to civilian life after severe injury.
“Any service member who sustains this type of serious injury deserves so much more,” she said.
With both chambers deadlocked on budget issues, even Murray was surprised the bill didn’t raise a single objection in the Senate. Any objection would have quashed it for the year.
As Murray spoke, Tracy Keil of Parker, Colo., watched from the gallery. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Matt Keil, was paralyzed from the chest down after he was shot in the neck in Iraq. The Keils were able to afford the nearly $32,000 it cost for in vitro fertilization and now have 2-year-old twins, Matthew and Faith. But knowing that many families cannot afford that on their own, the Keils have been lobbying Congress to expand the VA’s coverage. Read full article.

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Who’s Mom? Legally, biologically, it’s no easy answer

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Artificial reproductive technologies have made familiar terms outdated and inadequate. Supreme Court could clarify parents’ rights later this year with rulings in two gay marriage cases.

In a classic 1960 children’s book, a baby bird toddles up to one critter after another asking, “Are you my mother?”

For some babies today, there’s no simple answer — biologically or legally.

Advances in artificial reproductive technologies, mean a baby could have three “mothers” — the genetic mother, the birth mother and the intended parent, who may be a woman or a man.

Mother here may not be mother there. Mother nowmay not be mother later. Statutes on surrogacy, adoption, divorce and inheritance vary state by state, court by court, decision by decision. For non-traditional couples, the patchwork of laws makes it even more complex. New York allows gay marriage but forbids surrogacy, while Utah permits surrogacy but bans gay marriage. Read full article.

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‘Hidden’ HPV May Reactivate in Older Women, Study Suggests

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(HealthDay News) — Many older women infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) in their youth may not “clear” it from the body as completely as once thought, a new study suggests.

The research hints that HPV infection in older women is often the reactivation of a strain picked up years ago, rather than a newly acquired sexually transmitted infection.

The study authors also found that HPV may be difficult to detect in the body more than one to two years after the initial infection.

“Women who fail to ‘clear’ [HPV] infections are known to be at high risk for cervical cancer, but what are the true long-term risks for the vast majority of women who appear to clear their initial infection? The current study addresses what does ‘clearance’ really mean,” said Dr. Rhoda Sperling, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She was not connected to the new study. Read full article.

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Finding A Child Online: How The Web Is Transforming Adoption

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When Eric James and his partner, Zerxes Spencer, decided to adopt last year, they signed on with Adoptions Together, a reputable agency close to their home in Maryland. They attended the agency’s seminars to learn about the process, met other “waiting parents” and formed personal bonds with the staff. But there was just one problem.

“When we entered the pool, we were looking at generally a two- to three-year wait,” says James. “And about six months in they reached out to let us know the wait actually would be probably much longer than that.”

Why? He was told that many pregnant women are bypassing agencies and seeking prospective parents across the country through the Internet.

In fact, a new study that’s among the first of its kind finds that the Internet is transforming adoption by opening up the way would-be parents and birth mothers find each other. Some welcome the shift, although the report also suggests it raises ethical concerns.

James’ predicament shows how even people who don’t intend to can find themselves using the Internet for adoption. To speed up their search, his agency advised him and Spencer to get online. Read full article.