Tag: infertility

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Infertility: How Can the Ovulation Function Be Restored?

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One of the most frequent is the existence of tumours that induce an over-secretion of this hormone. These women present with chronic infertility due to anovulation. Thanks to the work of the Inserm researchers from unit 693 “Steroid receptors: endocrinian and metabolic physiopathology”, the intimate mechanism of the hyperprolactinaemia alterations affecting reproduction in mice has been discovered.

This work has been published in the journal JCI.

Hyperprolactinaemia is a major cause of anovulation and is responsible for menstruation disorders and infertility. However, not much was know in detail of the mechanisms that cause this pathology. All that was known was that an increase in prolactin in women disturbed one of the most important hormones affecting reproduction and fertility: GnRH .

Up until now, we had been unable to understand this inhibition of prolactin in the GnRH neurons, because most of these neurons did not express the prolactin receptor.

So the researchers put forward another hypothesis: what if it was due to the indirect action of other molecules? Read full article.

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BPA May Worsen Women’s Fertility Problems

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Exposure to the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) may reduce fertility among women who already have fertility problems, a new study suggests.

The study involved women trying to conceive children through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility treatment that includes taking hormones to stimulate egg production. These eggs are then collected, and researchers attempt to fertilize them in a laboratory.

In the study, doctors collected 24 percent fewer eggs from women with high levels of BPA in their bodies, compared with women who had low levels of the industrial chemical.

Women with high BPA levels also had fewer eggs that were successfully fertilized. Read full article.

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Orange City Mother Beats Infertility With Weight Loss

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ORANGE CITY— When it came to having a baby, Holly Hancock wasn’t having the same success as her family and friends.

Hancock, 33, had struggled with weight her entire life, and by her early 30s she reached 257 pounds. After several failed attempts to conceive, Hancock learned that she had polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that affects a woman’s fertility and hormones. Many women who have weight issues struggle with PCOS, which causes a hormone imbalance that can make it difficult to lose weight. Read full article.

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New Strategy May Boost Fertility Clinic Success Rate

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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.

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Infertility is a Special Kind of Hell for Military Couples

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WASHINGTON — Army Maj. Marc Bailey and his wife, Sallie, never thought they’d have to wait this long or spend this much to have a baby.

As of June, the couple had spent three agonizing years and $35,000 unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant. The effort has nearly exhausted their retirement savings and their patience.

“This is hands down the worst thing we’ve ever been through,” Sallie said. “When you start having fertility problems, it consumes your life.” Read full article.

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Couples Who Smoke Banned from IVF by NHS Fife – Scotland

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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.

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Catholic School Teacher Fired Over In Vitro Backed

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(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.

 

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Britain considers three-parent fertility treatments

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LONDON — Britain launched a public consultation Monday to ask whether controversial “three-parent” fertility treatments should be available to families hoping to avoid passing on incurable diseases.

The potential treatments, now only at research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States, would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women for the first time.

The techniques have become known as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

They are designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases — incurable inherited conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide. Read full article.

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Want a Side of Infertility With Those Eggs?

brigitte

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.

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Is China Running Out of Sperm?

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Infertility is a growing problem in China. In southern Guangdong province, 14 percent of the population, which numbered 104 million in 2010, cannot conceive — and the fact that the province has only one sperm bank doesn’t help. Couples generally have to wait at least a year to have their names called. The sperm shortage has even prompted a desperate plea from a government official, according to one Chinese-language news site, asking college students to donate.  ”Donating your sperm is healthy,” said Luo Wenzhi, the head of Guangdong’s family planning commission, in an interview. “It won’t hurt you nor kill you.” Read full article.