Monday, Vanity Fair published an article questioning why a potentially lethal product, NuvaRing contraception, remains available for sale. Yet the real question is: Why do so many doctors, who fully understand the potential health risks, continue to prescribe life-threatening contraceptives to women?
Tag: health risks
Super-ovulation fertility drugs need better monitoring, doctors warn
Canadian fertility doctors are calling for tighter controls on the use of super-ovulation fertility drugs that in some cases are being used merely to make women pregnant faster.
The drugs, a class known as gonadotropins, stimulate a woman’s ovaries to produce multiple eggs for fertilization. But they also carry a high risk of multiple births, as well as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, where the ovaries keep expanding, growing so fat and swollen they can twist from the sheer weight and leak fluid into the pelvis and abdomen. In rare cases, the syndrome can lead to blood clots, kidney failure, heart failure and death.
Gonadotropins are often used in combination with artificial insemination, or IUI, where sperm is inserted directly into the womb. The appeal for couples is that it costs thousands of dollars less per cycle than in vitro fertilization, which involves retrieving eggs from the woman, mixing them with sperm and transferring the resulting embryos back into the uterus. Read full article.
Infertility and Childhood Asthma
(dailyRx News) When a couple has trouble conceiving, they may use infertility treatments to get pregnant. New research suggests there could be a connection between these treatments and childhood asthma.
The study found that children born to parents who sought treatment for fertility issues were more likely to experience asthma, wheezing and to be taking asthma medication at the age of 5 than children who were conceived without medical intervention.
The researchers did not find that the parents’ infertility treatments caused asthma in their children, but rather that there is a slightly higher chance that children born after fertility treatments might develop asthma. More research is needed to better understand the link.
Claire Carson, PhD, a researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford (UK), and colleagues led the study to find out if there was a link between parents’ infertility treatments and the likelihood that their children would develop asthma.
The study authors used data from a larger study called the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to perform their research. The MCS has followed over 18,000 children in the United Kingdom born between 2000 and 2002.
The children were recruited into the MCS at nine months of age. Interviews were performed with their caretakers to get demographic information. Health data for both parents and children was also gathered, including information about the pregnancy and any infertility treatment. Read full article.
BPA substitute could spell trouble for hormones
A few years ago, manufacturers of water bottles, food containers, and baby products had a big problem.
A key ingredient of the plastics they used to make their merchandise, an organic compound called bisphenol A, had been linked by scientists to diabetes, asthma and cancer and altered prostate and neurological development. The FDA and state legislatures were considering action to restrict BPA’s use, and the public was pressuring retailers to remove BPA-containing items from their shelves.
The industry responded by creating “BPA-free” products, which were made from plastic containing a compound called bisphenol S. In addition to having similar names, BPA and BPS share a similar structure and versatility: BPS is now known to be used in everything from currency to thermal receipt paper, and widespread human exposure to BPS was confirmed in a 2012 analysis of urine samples taken in the U.S., Japan, China and five other Asian countries. Read full article.
Women with migraine with aura advised of contraception risk
Certain types of modern contraception could be risky for women who have migraines with aura, a new study has found.
According to research unveiled at this year’s meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, these females are more likely to experience deep vein thrombosis and other blood clot complications. Women have therefore been urged to bear this in mind when deciding how to proceed with family planning.
Dr Shivang Joshi, a specialist at Brigham and Women’s Falkner Hospital in Boston, commented: “Women who have migraine with aura should be sure to include this information in their medical history and talk to their doctors about the possible risks of newer contraceptives, given their condition.”
The study also showed that migraine with aura is second only to high blood pressure as the biggest cause of heart attacks and strokes. Read full article.
Cell Phone Exposure During Pregnancy Related to Fetal Brain Development Problems
Avoiding cell phone exposure during pregnancy may be a necessity in protecting your unborn child, according to Yale School of Medicine. According to a recent study, cell phone radiation may lead to brain development problems including hyperactivity in children amongst other things.
“This is the first experimental evidence that fetal exposure to radiofrequency radiation from cellular telephones does in fact affect adult behavior,” said senior author Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, professor and chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences.
A control group case study using pregnant mice exposed to an active but muted and silenced cell phone revealed more “hyperactive and had reduced memory capacity” in their offspring. The study measured brain electrical activity in adult mice exposed to the radiation as fetuses against those not exposed. Dr. Taylor’s study reveals that the development of neurons in the fetus prefrontal cortex region is adversely effected, when exposed to cell phone use during pregnancy. Read full article.
Sex Problems Common With Breast Cancer Drugs
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women treated with hormone-blocking drugs to stave off breast cancer recurrences are often dissatisfied with their sex lives, a new study from Sweden has found.
More than half of older women treated with so-called aromatase inhibitors said sex was almost always painful and they frequently had “insufficient lubrication,” researchers reported in the journal Menopause. Read full article.
Sperm Bank: Broadcaster’s Allegations are Wrong
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.
BPA Damages Chromosomes in Monkeys
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.
Want a Side of Infertility With Those Eggs?
We all do it. The minute after we decide to move out to a home of our own, we’re tapping away at a registry imagining creating the perfect meal in the perfect kitchen outfitted with the perfect pots and pans.
For most of us — myself included — that means a 10-piece set that includes everything from a giant roasting pan to a teeny-tiny frying pan that goes from the box to the cupboard and never sees the light of day after that.
Typically, these inexpensive cooking sets are coated with a nonstick surface like Teflon. And we love them because we can make an egg and it’ll slide right off the pan onto the plate.
But there’s something else that comes with those eggs: infertility. Read full article.