Infertility Options
Nordic Cryobank admits that one of its sperm donors carried a genetic disease but says it was right to delay informing fertility clinics about his condition.
“Two women received sperm from sick donor.”
“Sperm Bank covered up inherited disease.”
These were two of the headlines that public broadcaster DR ran earlier this week following an exposé on its program 21 Søndag about nine children, all conceived using the same donor’s sperm, all carrying a hereditary disease. Read full article.
A new study in monkeys provides the strongest evidence yet that an estrogen-like chemical called BPA could alter chromosomes, increasing the risk of birth defects and miscarriages, scientists say.
Although researchers have performed hundreds of studies of BPA in mice, there are far fewer studies in humans and their closest relatives, non-human primates. Read full article.
A Danish sperm donor passed a severe genetic disorder to five children after tests did not detect it and the fertilisation clinic failed to act on evidence that a baby had been diagnosed with the illness.
The man, known only as “donor 7042”, fathered 43 children, in breach of rules limiting the number to 25, after giving sperm to Copenhagen’s Nordisk Cryobank clinic.
But as well as fertilising the clinic’s clients, the donor was also transmitting the tumour-producing nerve disorder known as Neurofibromatosis type I (NF1) or Von Recklinghausen’s disease. Read full article.
London – More than half of women think not being able to have babies because they haven’t met Mr Right is as bad as being infertile, according to a survey.
One in five even say they would consider trying to conceive without a husband or partner by using donor sperm.
Another fifth have thought seriously about freezing their eggs so they could have children later on.
The poll of 3,000 women aged 28 to 45 also revealed that just over a third – 36 percent – were not yet sure if they ever wanted to start a family.
Another third did not think they had met the right partner. Read full article.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Teenage girls looking for birth control should be encouraged to consider the long-lasting “set and forget” methods, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In new guidelines, ACOG says IUDs and contraceptive implants should be considered “first-line” birth control options for teenagers. The group issued similar advice for adult women last year (see Reuters Health story of June 21, 2011).
IUDs, or intrauterine devices, are implanted in the uterus, where they release small amounts of either copper or the hormone progestin to prevent pregnancy. The contraceptive implant, about the size of a matchstick, is inserted under the skin of the arm, where it releases controlled amounts of progestin. Read full article.
(Reuters) – Egg cells can repair themselves from damage caused by radiation far better than doctors ever thought, a finding researchers say gives fresh hope in protecting women undergoing cancer therapy from infertility.
Although the experiments have only been in mice, researchers believe they have relevance for female cancer patients and women who suffer premature menopause, a condition that puts them at risk of early infertility, osteoporosis and heart disease.
In a paper to be published in the November 9 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, scientists in Australia found that egg cells, or oocytes, are killed not by radiation, but by two proteins — puma and noxa — which snap into action when they detect DNA damage to egg cells. Read full article.
Male infertility can be the result of sperm missing just one vital protein, which is necessary to activate the egg when the sperm fuses with it. But injecting that egg with the missing protein can “kick-start” the vital processes of embryo development, and dramatically increase the chances of a successful pregnancy.
These are the findings of a new study by a team at Cardiff University in the UK who write about their work in a paper being published in the journal Fertility and Sterility. They suggest the findings strengthen the case for the potential use of the protein in treating male infertility. Read full article.
The UK’s fertility watchdog has launched a public consultationon the ethics of IVF-based techniques designed to avoid serious mitochondrial diseases.
Around 1 in 200 children is born each year with a form of mitochondrial disease. Some children have mild or no symptoms but others can be severely affected and have a shortened life expectancy. Symptoms include muscle weakness, intestinal disorders and heart disease.
New techniques, known as mitochondria replacement, could enable women to avoid passing these diseases on to their children by using mitochondria from a donated egg to create a healthy embryo, which would then be used in normal IVF treatment. Read full article.
NHS Fife has been criticised for refusing IVF treatment to couples who smoke.
The health board said it would no longer provide treatment to couples if either of them smoked, or if doctors considered the woman to be overweight.
The charity Infertility Network said the health board had acted too quickly before new national guidelines on IVF were published at the end of the year.
The new rules come in to effect on 1 October 2012. Read full article.
Scientists reported Sunday that they have completed a major analysis of the genetics of breast cancer, finding four major classes of the disease. They hope their work will lead to more effective treatments, perhaps with some drugs already in use.
The new finding offers hints that one type of breast cancer might be vulnerable to drugs that already work against ovarian cancer.
The study, published online Sunday by the journal Nature, is the latest example of research into the biological details of tumors, rather than focusing primarily on where cancer arises in the body. Read full article.