Veterans whose war injuries prevent them from having children would get coverage from the Department of Veterans Affairs for reproductive treatment options like in vitro fertilization under new federal legislation.
Tag: in vitro fertilization
High Tech Incubator May Help Fertility Outcomes
CLEVELAND (WKYC) — Ed and Caroline Marks fell in love in college and eventually married. Like so many couples, they hoped for children. But after a year of trying without success, they did some investigating. A genetic test showed Ed had a chromosomal defect that makes conception difficult.
They went through two rounds of Invitro Fertilization without success. That’s when they became candidates for something new in the world of reproductive science at Cleveland Clinic.
It’s called an Embryoscope. It’s not a magic bullet, but it is a high-tech incubator and time-lapse camera that captures the beginning of life.
“Imagine you’re able to see every minute of the embryo’s development, even before it’s transferred to the uterus, before it implants on the uterine wall you’re able to see this embryo. It’s never been possible before,” says Dr. Nina Desai. Read full article.
Is There an Age Limit to Male Fertility?
The world’s oldest new dad, who, at the reported age of 96, just fathered a baby boy in India, says he’s done having kids. But if he wanted to break his record again in a couple years, would biology allow it?
Though sperm production does usually keep up until a man’s dying day, it’s a misconception that “biological clocks” are only of concern to women.
The effects of aging on fertility have been studied far less in men than in women, but research shows that both volume and quality of semen generally fall off as a man gets older.
A 2004 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that, among a sample of couples using in vitro fertilization, every additional year of a man’s age corresponded to an 11-percent increase in the odds that a couple would not achieve a pregnancy. Read full article.
New Discovery to Improve Success Rates of IVF
Researchers from the University of Otago, Christchurch, are collaborating with clinicians at Fertility Associates in Christchurch to develop a test to significantly improve the success rate for in vitro fertilisations implantations.
Christchurch obstetrics and gynaecology researcher, Dr Gloria Evans, has just published a paper in the international journal Fertility and Sterility which shows positive results for a test to determine the optimal time to implant a fertilised embryo through IVF. Read full article.
ASRM Files Amicus Brief Supporting Teacher Fired for Having Infertility Treatment
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine announced today that it has filed an amicus curia (friend of the court) brief in the case of Herx v. Diocese Fort Wayne -South Bend. Ms. Emily Herx of Fort Wayne, Indiana is suing the diocese for firing her from her job as a high school literature and language arts teacher after it became known that she suffered from infertility and had used in vitro fertilization in an attempt to overcome her disease and build a family.
Catholic School Teacher Fired Over In Vitro Backed
(CBS/AP) FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Two national groups are throwing their support behind a former parochial school teacher who claims she was fired for trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization.
The Journal Gazette reports that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Civil Liberties Union filed friends of the court briefs Monday in support of Emily Herx.
Herx filed a federal lawsuit in April against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend claiming that she was discriminated against for a disability when her teaching contract wasn’t renewed. Read full article.
European Court Rules Against Italian Law Prohibiting Embryo Screening
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Italy violated the rights of a couple by preventing them from screening in vitro fertilization embryos to avoid giving cystic fibrosis to a child. The couple found out that they were carriers of the disease after their first child was born with it. Read full article.
The Woman Who Wants to Abolish Sex
The woman who wants to abolish sex: Genetics expert urges us to embrace a future of virgin births (for women AND men) in which sex and marriage are redundant.
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it … The wonderful Cole Porter song, Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love, lists many of the species who enjoy pairing off: ‘Even Pekineses at the Ritz do it!’
The Pekineses are not alone: 99.9 per cent of higher animal species reproduce themselves sexually. Species capable of reproducing themselves without contact between male and female are in the distinct minority.
Whiptail lizards and some hammer-head sharks apparently do it. Or rather, don’t do it. But so far no one has written a song about them and their lonely sexual endeavours.
But a research geneticist from Imperial College London, Aarathi Prasad, has tried to do the next best thing. Not only has she written a celebration of those eccentric creatures who are capable of reproducing by themselves without sexual contact, she controversially claims that sexless reproduction is the way of the future for humans, too.
A generation ago, test-tube babies were the stuff of science fiction: now, we accept these things as realities. In the same way, suggests Prasad, we could well be looking at a future in which human babies could be born without any sperm donors, let alone contact between the sexes. The future is sexless. Read full article.
Danger, ‘In Vitro’ Fertilized Children May Be Born With Malformations
(MADRID, Spain) – According to a recent study, infants conceived with the techniques used in fertility clinics are four times more likely to have certain birth defects and malformations than children that are naturally conceived.
Among the malformations that were detected are heart problems, cleft lips, cleft palates and abnormalities in the esophagus or rectum. These diseases appear once in every 700 births.
These dangers were increased by the use of assisted reproductive techniques such as fertilization ” in vitro”, which requires doctors to work with embryos and sperm outside the human body.
“I think it is important to consider the fact that there is a risk of birth defects,” says Jennita Reefhuis, epidemiologist from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Disease and author of a study published in the online journal “Human Reproduction”.
The doctor also said that although her study linked fertility procedures to birth defects, it was not able to neither prove the connection nor explain it. If the connection is real, it is unclear whether the procedures increase the risk of these malformations, or whether infertility itself increases these risks.
Moreover, Dr. James A. Grifo, director of the fertility clinic at the Medical Center of the University of New York, more research is needed to test these findings, since the study was only conducted on 281 women who had undergone the fertility treatment. Nevertheless, Dr. Grifo explains that the results are troubling, but a larger study must be conducted with a small group of patients. Read full article.
Three Birthdays One Day of Conception
For Joyce Mallon, the births of her three children are “a miracle.” Conceived on October, 26, 2007, in a lab by in vitro fertilization, the embryos were implanted into her uterus at two-year intervals, giving her and her husband three children conceived on the same day but born years apart.
“They are my Tripblings!! Triplets via conception, siblings by actual birth,” she wrote in an e-mail sent to CNN. “I believe our story to be an exciting and intriguing one, that NO ONE in the U.S. (to my knowledge), has any claim to.”
Fertility experts say while the Mallon births are exciting, they’re not a first. With better freezing techniques, many babies have been born by doing what the Mallons did: creating a group of embryos, using some to start one pregnancy, and then freezing the rest for future pregnancies. Three babies born this way aren’t triplets, but rather three genetically unique siblings conceived on the same day and born years apart.