Author: brigitte

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Scientists Create Fertile Eggs from Mouse Stem Cells

brigitte

Scientists in Japan report they have created eggs from stem cells in a mammal for the first time. And the researchers went on to breed healthy offspring from the eggs they created.

While the experiments involved mice, the work is being met with excitement — and questions — about doing the same thing for humans someday.

“Wow. That’s my general reaction,” said Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University who studies stem-cell science. “Repairing hearts, repairing brains, repairing kidneys, that’s all good and important, and we’d all love to be able to do that. But this involves making the next generation.” Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

California Governor Signs LGBT Bills For Fertility Treatment, Foster Parents, Ex-Gay Therapy

brigitte

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed numerous bills into law this weekend that will create new protections for LGBT people and their families. Though Proposition 8 held back LGBT equality for the state, these new laws are raising the bar for ensuring an equal opportunity in society for same-sex couples and LGBT youth. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Not a Biological Parent? How to Tell Your Child

brigitte

As an infertility counsellor, I see a lot of clients who are using third-party family building strategies. This includes using sperm or egg donation and/or a gestational carrier.

For some, the decision to use donor egg or sperm is a no-brainer: they want children, they cannot use their own gametes, so they use someone else’s. For these individuals the desire to parent is so strong, that they are unconcerned with the lack of biological tie that they themselves, or their partner, will have with the child. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Recession Contraception? Birth Rate Down in US for 4th Year

brigitte

U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.

But there may be a silver lining: The decline in 2011 was just 1 percent — not as sharp a fall-off as the 2 to 3 percent drop seen in other recent years.

“It may be that the effect of the recession is slowly coming to an end,” said Carl Haub, a senior demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Womb Scratching Technique May Boost IVF Success

brigitte

What if a quick, cheap and relatively painless procedure could double the chances of becoming pregnant through in-vitro fertilization? British researchers say a simple scratch to the uterine lining might do just that, but some experts are skeptical.

A new review of eight previously published studies suggests women who have their wombs gently scraped a month before starting IVF are twice as likely to having babies. The procedure, called local endometrial injury, takes about 15 minutes and costs as little as $200. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Infertility Treatment May Significantly Increase Multiple Sclerosis Activity

brigitte

Researchers in Argentina report that women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who undergo assisted reproduction technology (ART) infertility treatment are at risk for increased disease activity. Study findings published in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, suggest reproductive hormones contribute to regulation of immune responses in autoimmune diseases such as MS. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

How Some Parents Could Learn Adult Daughters’ Birth Control Habits

brigitte

The 2010 health law removes one of the big barriers to contraception for many young women: cost. But if they don’t feel confident that the care they will receive is confidential, these women may not take advantage of it.

Under the health care overhaul, most new health plans and those that lose their grandfathered status have to cover many women’s preventive benefits, including contraception without out-of-pocket costs. Copayments for monthly packs of brand-name birth control pills can run as much as $40 or $50. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

HPV Vaccine Gets a (Mostly) Clean Bill of Health

brigitte

A large study of the safety of the HPV vaccine has turned up no unexpected side effects.

The study, published Monday in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, did find that the vaccine caused some women to faint the day they received it, and some recipients also developed skin infections. Both problems are believed to be general side effects of vaccines, and unrelated to anything specific about the HPV shot. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

New Strategy May Boost Fertility Clinic Success Rate

brigitte

Fewer than half of women seeking help from a fertility clinic succeed at having a baby after just one treatment. Now, some researchers believe they have come upon a way to improve those odds.

There is growing evidence suggesting that freezing an embryo after fertilization and thawing it for use in the woman’s next monthly cycle leads to higher pregnancy rates, compared with using the embryo immediately. A recent scientific review of three small randomized and controlled studies found that 50% of women got pregnant after receiving in vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatment using a recently frozen embryo. By contrast, women receiving fresh embryos had a 38% pregnancy rate. The review is slated for publication in Fertility and Sterility, the journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Fed. Contraception Mandate Suit Dismissed in MO

brigitte

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge in St. Louis has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate of the federal health care law, one of nearly three dozen similar lawsuits filed across the country.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Frank O’Brien and his company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings LLC of St. Louis, challenges the constitutionality of regulations in the health care law. Among other things, O’Brien, a devout Catholic, claimed the requirement that workplace health plans cover birth control infringes on his religious beliefs. Read full article.