A city in Japan has announced that it will pay a large part of the cost of egg freezing for women who live there, as part of a program aimed at raising the country’s low birth rate. Egg freezing is the process of extracting egg cells from a woman’s ovaries and storing them for later use.
Tag: ovaries
Female Reproductive Tract Not a Sterile Environment, Study Finds
Researchers have found bacteria in women’s ovaries and fallopian tubes — locations previously believed to be sterile. The investigators also discovered that women with ovarian cancer have a different bacterial population in these locations than women without the cancer. This finding raises the question of whether bacteria in the upper reproductive tract might play a role in the development or progression of ovarian cancer.
Level of Hormone Can Predict Bone Loss in Menopause, Study Says
Lower levels of a hormone produced by the ovaries is associated with a woman’s risk for bone loss during menopause, according to a recent study. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found testing levels of anti-mullerian hormone in women who are pre- or early-menopausal shows their likely rate for bone loss, suggesting early intervention may be possible to slow or prevent the condition.
Breast Cancer Gene Might Lower Women’s Fertility
The BRCA1 gene mutation, which raises the risk of breast cancer by 80 percent, may be linked to having fewer eggs in the ovaries as a woman ages, the Australian investigators said. But a cause-and-effect relationship was not proven.
My Last Embryo’s Peculiar Path to the Miracle of Childbirth
People reminded me that I was lucky to be married to a younger pair of ovaries. But we were also shackled to fertility clinics and quests for donated sperm. We spent $15,000 in one year for 20 intrauterine insemination attempts – and no baby.
Stem Cell Breakthrough Reverses Infertility After Cancer
Scientists from Egypt’s Mansoura Medical School show it is possible to restore fertility by injecting stem cells directly into the ovaries
Healthy Living: Male Infertility: The Other Half of the Equation
When you think about the subject of infertility, it is customary to focus on the challenges faced by women who may have to suffer though an expensive and physically demanding process known as In-Vitro Fertilization. This long road entails procedures to harvest the eggs from the ovaries, implant the embryos in the uterus and then carry a stressful pregnancy, frequently complicated by multiple gestations and the risk of miscarriage to term. However, as we all know, it ‘takes two to tango’ and often there is less discussion and awareness of the male side of the equation. Indeed, it is estimated that 40-50% of human infertility can be explained by ‘male factors’, and science is increasingly gaining insight into the requirements necessary for healthy male fertility.
Trying For Test-Tube Baby? Risks to Mom Are Rare, Study Says
Complications are uncommon for women undergoing test-tube fertility procedures: A new 12-year U.S. study shows the most frequent involve drugs used to stimulate ovaries, but it suggests problems are rarely fatal.
SOFT Yields Hard Data on Hormone Therapy
For decades, we have been wondering whether suppression of the ovaries in addition to tamoxifen would improve the outcomes of women with hormone-receptor–positive premenopausal breast cancer. The SOFT trial was designed to address that question on the basis of a lot of data that suggested that it might help, especially in very young women.
Why Do We Stigmatise Men and Their Sperm?
Men account for half of all fertility issues among couples, yet the social and scientific spotlight remains fixed on women and their ovaries, writes Jonny Cooper