The protein necessary for fertility in both sexes performs distinctly different roles in male and female gametes, according to a groundbreaking study, which included researchers from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Known as BRWD1, the protein controls gene expression in maturing sperm while promoting chromosome condensation and stability in female cells called oocytes, which become eggs.
Tag: eggs
Toronto Fertility Clinic Offers Controversial Egg Treatment For Women That Can Extend Child-Bearing Years
A Canadian fertility clinic has become the first in North America to offer women a way to add new life to old eggs, extending her child-bearing years and stirring fresh controversy in the largely unregulated world of assisted baby making.
Planning for the Future: Technology Advances Fertility Options
Freezing eggs and embryos for infertility treatment and family planning has become more successful thanks to advances in technology. But the practice comes with many questions parents must consider.
Should More Young Women Consider Freezing Their Eggs?
It’s a complex and rather fraught issue that has many women wondering whether they should put all their eggs into (fate’s) one basket or take advantage of available technology.
What Problem Is Quebec’s IVF Bill Trying to Solve?
Discussions surrounding Quebec’s proposed reforms to its laws relating to assisted procreation have focused on its decision to eliminate its program of funding three cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF). But this narrow focus ignores other significant changes in Bill 20: notably, its decision to prohibit women over the age of 42 from using IVF and the requirement that Quebeckers using donated sperm or eggs undergo a psychosocial assessment prior to accessing treatment.
Longer Sperm Better at Fertilising Eggs: Study
Long sperm is more likely to reach and fertilise eggs compared to short sperm, even if the short sperm is given a ‘head start’, a new study on birds has found.
For Women in Tech, Egg Freezing Parties Are New Post-Work Event
In Silicon Valley, where many tech employees put in long hours, Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh wants women to think about freezing their eggs — after work, and over drinks.
Apple, Facebook Spring for Egg Freezing for Employees
Facing calls to diversify their largely white and male ranks, Facebook and Apple are offering their female employees a new perk: freezing their eggs.
Chemotherapy Can Cause Premature Menopause, Infertility
Women are increasingly freezing their eggs and embryos before cancer treatment begins, because the treatment can cause premature menopause and infertility. Women are increasingly freezing their eggs and embryos before cancer treatment begins, because the treatment can cause premature menopause and infertility.
Freeze-Storage Egg Banking for Egg Donation Treatment
The rapid freezing technique of vitrification is set to revolutionise egg donation as a fertility treatment by enabling freeze-storage egg-banking. The cryopreservation of eggs was one of IVF’s continuing challenges until the widespread introduction of vitrification; the older slow freezing methods induced the formation of ice crystals, which could cause damage to several structures of the egg. Thus, as demand for egg donation increases as a treatment for age-related infertility, egg banking with vitrification can theoretically provide a large pool of donor eggs without the present need for collection, fertilisation and transfer in a “fresh” treatment cycle (in which the donor and recipient’s cycles are hormonally synchronised).