BABY FERTILE

HRT could have triggered pregnancy in world's oldest mum

2012-01-24T02:13:00.000-08:00

Dawn Brook, this year now 69

When Dawn Brooke became the world's oldest natural mother at 59 it left doctors with a mystery to solve.
How was it possible for the British housewife, who was well beyond the average age for the menopause of 51 and was not having any fertility treatment, to produce the egg that allowed her to conceive?
Now the Daily Mail can reveal that Mrs Brooke, who gave birth to a healthy son, Harry, was on hormone replacement therapy when she conceived.
This, the experts believe, may have led to the astonishing pregnancy and birth in 1997 - which the family kept secret for a decade.
HRT is normally taken after a woman has gone through the menopause and is unable to conceive.
However, fertility doctors believe in rare cases it is possible that the hormones in the medication can cause the ovaries to release a few last eggs.
There have been a number of previous cases of women, who had already gone through an early menopause, falling pregnant while on HRT.
A family friend said: "She had upped her dose before a romantic weekend away when she thinks she became pregnant with Harry.
"She wasn't on any fertility treatment or IVF but she was on HRT at the time and they think it might have been the thing that caused the pregnancy."
The world's oldest mum, Dawn Brooke, in 1980
Dr Geeta Nargund, head of reproductive medicine at St George's Hospital, London, said: "There are rare cases of spontaneous ovulation for women on HRT.
"In the past we've seen it happen with women who have gone through early
menopause. There's a very small chance of that happening.
"It's possible for ovulation to continue on and off around the age of menopause but not once a woman is completely postmenopausal."
Mrs Brooke married Harry's father, Raymond Brooke, now 74, at their £1million home in Guernsey in the summer of 1997.
A few weeks later she gave birth by caesarean at the island's Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
Mrs Brooke was desperate to keep her record a secret.
A friend said: "She was completely shocked when she realised that she was the world's oldest natural mother and didn't want anyone knowing about it.
"She looks very young for her age and so most people were probably unaware that she was 59 when she gave birth."
Even the couple's close friends did not know.
John Trowbridge and his wife, Jean, who are Harry's godparents and who were also witnesses at the Brookes' wedding, were not told.
Mr Trowbridge said: "We never knew Dawn's age and they never mentioned anything about her being the world's oldest natural mother to us. It's a big surprise."
Details of the record finally emerged last month when the family spoke of their happiness at
having a son so late in life.
They told how Harry was an exceptionally bright boy who excels at maths.
Like many 10-year-olds, he is also a fan of Harry Potter.
London-born Mrs Brooke has a daughter, Lisa Loftus-Otway, 39, who lives in Austin, Texas, and son Nick Otway, 33, from a previous marriage.
Her mother, Gladys Chivers, lives in a nursing home in Sussex and turns 101 next week.
Mr Brooke was born in Yorkshire and worked in computers in California for 25-years before settling in the Channel Islands.
He has two adult daughters from his first marriage. They live in the U.S.
Doctors say it is extremely rare for a woman to have children once past their mid 50s - and it is very unusual for a woman over 54 to be ovulating.
The world record for the oldest non-IVF births was held by Ruth Kistler who, at 57, had a daughter in Los Angeles in 1956.
The British record for the oldest birth without fertility treatment was set by Kathleen Campbell of Kimberley, Nottinghamshire.
She was 55 when her son Joby was born in 1987.
The world's oldest mother is Carmela Bousada who gave birth last December, seven days before her 67th birthday, after she lied to doctors about her age to undergo IVF treatment.
Patricia Rashbrook, 62, became Britain's oldest mother last July when she gave birth to a boy conceived through IVF.

Laparoscopic Excision Surgery For Endometriosis Frees Patients From Chronic Pain And Complications

2011-11-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

padma lakshmi

Almost 10 million American women of childbearing age are affected by chronic pelvic pain, gastrointestinal and urinary tract difficulties and infertility due to endometriosis, a strange condition, in which cells normally forming the lining of the uterus (endometrium) start colonizing other organs and tissues beyond the uterus. This year's annual meeting of gynecologic laparoscopic surgeons explores endometriosis from both the patient's and the physician's perspective in a Keynote session (8:00 to 10:00 AM Tuesday, November 8) at the 40th AAGL Global Congress of Minimally Invasive Gynecology that takes place from November 6 to 11, at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, FL. Keynote speaker and women's health advocate Padma Lakshmi, an international supermodel and TV show host, who co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America to encourage research to help other women to avoid her ordeal, declares: "Endometriosis is one of the most treatable, but least treated of women's health problems. Like me, many women suffer debilitating pain and other symptoms for as long as a decade before receiving an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment." Many women suffer silently or use painkillers, sometimes for years. Because pelvic pain can have many different causes, including appendicitis, bowel obstruction, ovarian cysts, pelvic inflammatory disease, diverticulitis, ectopic pregnancy, fibroids, IBS and many others, correct treatment can often be delayed further, as endometriosis is sometimes not immediately diagnosed. For example, in women with endometriosis on the intestines, symptoms may prompt a physician to suggest GI tests, which will not reveal the true problem. Lakshmi continues saying: "If a woman wants to have children, it's critical to get an accurate diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible. Endometriosis is one of the top three causes of infertility. Many women are delaying childbearing into their 30s and even 40s these days, but if you have had untreated endometriosis for many years, it may be too late. And that is a real tragedy." The currently most effective treatment is laparoscopic excision surgery as alternative medical therapies for endometriosis are extremely limited. Although the cause of endometriosis is unknown, researchers suspect a strong genetic component, as daughters of women suffering from the condition have a seven times higher risk of developing the disease themselves. During the AAGL meeting, members will present research on abnormal expression of Homeobox (HOX) genes (2:45 PM, Tuesday, November 8) in both the uterine lining and in the lesions of women with endometriosis. Homeobox genes play a major part in cancer and infertility. A better understanding of these genes could explain how and why endometriosis develops.

source: medicalnewstoday

WAYS TO INCREASE FERTILITY

2011-05-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sex Frequency
Many women baby-dance (have sex) everyday hoping to conceive. Believe it or not, it is NOT recommended.
This will affect your partner's quantity of semen.
*It is best to have sex every other day or the 3rd day.

Sex Positions
Though it has not been proven by scientific fact, missionary position is the best sex position when TTC. If your uterus is uterus or tilted, it may help to lie on your stomach with hips propped up by pillows for at least 15 minutes after sex.

Sperm-Friendly
Avoid douching, scented tampons, or vaginal sprays.
It increases the chance of getting a vaginal infection, and it makes the uterus sperm-UNfriendly. A specially formulated personal lubricant like PRESEED can provide a more sperm friendly environment.

The Secret To Conceiving Successfully

There's one important fact that many women who are trying to conceive fail to take note of.
By knowing this fact, you could increase your chance of conceiving by as much as 50%.

Babydance or have sex a few days before your ovulation happens

Here's the reason why:

*Sperm can survive for several days in the vagina.

Therefore when an egg is released during ovulation and the sperm is already there, you are more likely to get pregnant easily!

Is Female Orgasm Important To Get Pregnant?

2011-02-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Whether or not female orgasm can help you get pregnant is unclear. Obviously, you can get pregnant without female orgasm. It happens all the time. But could female orgasm improve your chances for conception?

Answer:

Researchers have wondered about the purpose of female orgasm in humans for quite some time, with some theorizing it's just for fun and others saying it definitely helps a woman get pregnant.

If female orgasm can help you conceive, how might it work? And should you "go for the gold" during babymaking sex?

What the Research Says on Female Orgasm and Getting Pregnant

There are two main hypothesis on how female orgasm may help with getting pregnant. One is known as the "poleaxe" hypothesis. This says that the purpose of orgasm in women is to make them feel relaxed and sleepy, so they will lie down after sex. By lying down, this may help the sperm reach their destination more easily.

It isn't clear whether or not lying down after sex can help you get pregnant. In one study that specifically studied orgasm and sperm retention, researchers found that just lying down did not seem to improve sperm retention.

On the other hand, a study of IUI treatment found that women who remained horizontal after insemination were more likely to conceive.

The other theory of how female orgasm may help with pregnancy achievement is called the "upsuck" theory. This hypothesis is that the contractions of the uterus help "suck up" the semen that gets deposited in the vagina, near the cervix. The orgasm then helps to move the sperm through the uterus and fallopian tubes.

One study actually measured the amount of semen "flowback" (how much semen leaked out after sex), and found that when female orgasm occurred a minute or less before male ejaculation, sperm retention was greater. They also found that this retention was higher when the woman had an orgasm up to 45 minutes after male ejaculation.

This study also found that a lack of orgasm or female orgasm that took place more than a minute before male ejaculation led to lower sperm retention.

This study did not, however, look at pregnancy rates. If pregnancy rates are higher with female orgasm, it's unclear by how much.

Achieving Female Orgasm During Babymaking Sex

So, after reading this, perhaps you're thinking you'd like to "go for the gold" during babymaking sex. There are plenty of good reasons to have an orgasm, of course. Orgasm is fun, pleasurable, and an excellent stress buster.

However, if your desire for orgasm is completely wrapped up in your desire to get pregnant, you may find yourself feeling pressured. Feeling pressured may then lead to you having difficulty achieving orgasm, adding frustration to your babymaking sex.

The best way to improve your chances of orgasm during sex? To just enjoy your intimate time with your partner. No goals, no pressured-orgasms, no guilt. Just passionate, loving sex. If you have an orgasm, great. And if not, that's OK, too.

Encouraging Results For Rocking The Cradle After 45

2010-12-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

Career women who put babies on hold until after 40, or even 45, will be reassured by new research from Tel Aviv University. Even though there are associated risks for babies when postponing child-bearing, the neonates can overcome them, says Prof. Yariv Yogev of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine and the Hospital for Women at Rabin Medical Center.
Working as a clinician in Israel, a country that supports in vitro fertilization (IVF) in older women, Prof. Yogev and his colleagues investigated the outcomes for mothers of 45 or more and their children. They personally assessed adverse health risks so they could more effectively advise future patients of any foreseeable dangers. "I'd been an attending physician in a delivery ward to a woman over 60 who had twins. I wanted to know if it's ethical to treat older women like this - I wanted to know if it's safe for both mother and child," Prof. Yogev explains.
In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Prof. Yogev reports on evidence collected on more than 200 births in older women. Included in the study were 177 women over the age of 45 and 20 above the age of 50.
A natural center of older moms
There are more complications in pregnancies for older women, Prof. Yogev explains, but the risks are considerably lessened in a good birthing center. Most older women, he says, will deliver a healthy child, and the majority of complications that arise in women over 40 are health risks such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. For the most part these risks do not affect the newborn after three days have passed.
Frequent IVF cycles are covered by the social health insurance system in Israel, which provided Prof. Yogev with extensive data on pregnancy outcomes. Also, he says, a growing number of women past 50, when Israel's coverage stops, are opting to fly abroad for insemination by an egg donor.
While Prof. Yogev does not encourage waiting later than 40 to start having children naturally - the rates of female fertility drop considerably after this point - the results show that would-be mothers can still give birth to healthy babies even if mom is 45 or even 50.
Blessings and risks: The hard numbers
The complications that mothers over 40 can expect include a 300% greater chance for gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during their pregnancies. Older women also have higher rates of preterm births and placenta previa, a condition in which the placenta blocks the opening to the birth canal. Prof. Yogev's study found that nine percent of older moms had high blood pressure, which affects only 3% of younger mothers. And an advanced age shortened the pregnancy to less than 37 weeks, compared to the normal 40 week gestation period. Severe bleeding after birth, and metabolic problems in the newborns were additional risk factors found in greater rates among older moms.
After 50, the risks and complications in women became more severe. But the babies themselves, Prof. Yogev says, overcame the risks in the short term.
The study was conducted on women at Rabin Medical Center in Israel, where Prof. Yogev is a practicing gynaecologist/obstetrician.

source: medicalnewstoday.com

Prevent OHSS During IVF Treatments

2010-10-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

A common side effect of ovarian stimulating drugs given during a normal IVF treatment is Ovarian HyperStimulation Syndrome or OHSS. This condition annually affects more than 40,000 women who are undergoing IVF treatments. While in many cases this syndrome is mild, causing only bloating, weight gain, or abdominal pain, in some cases OHSS can be life threatening leading to serious blood clots, kidney damage or ovarian damage. A new study out of England now says that in order to minimize the risk of OHSS, women should drink a strong cup of coffee with every IVF cycle as caffeine just may help to prevent the onset of OHSS.
SOURCE: sharedjourney.com

More Healthy Women Freeze Eggs To Delay Childbearing

2010-06-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

As more women delay childbearing until their 30s and 40s, a growing number are freezing their eggs in a process known as oocyte cryopreservation, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The process is most commonly used by women undergoing medical treatments that could affect fertility. However, the procedure is now being marketed as an option for healthy women who want to delay having children.
Nicole Noyes, co-director of the Oocyte Cryopreservation Program at the New York University Fertility Center, said that women lose much of their natural fertility between ages 35 and 40 and that the quality of their eggs decreases with age, which can increase their chances of miscarrying.The two- to three-week oocytpe cryopreservation process involves taking fertility medications that mature multiple eggs in the ovaries. Those eggs are then extracted, gently dehydrated and stored in liquid nitrogen. When the woman wants to become pregnant, the eggs are thawed, fertilized and transferred to the uterus as embryos.The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says that the process is "experimental" and warns that healthy women should not use it as a way to defer reproductive aging until there is more "proven scientific information" on it.Glenn Schattman, associate professor of reproductive medicine at Cornell University's Weil Medical College and co-author of the ASRM guidelines, said that about 50% of fertility clinics offer egg freezing.
There is no national registry to track how many pregnancies derived from previously frozen eggs, but according to a 2009 study, 936 infants have been born from frozen eggs throughout the world without any increased rate of birth defects.According to Noyes, the freezing process costs about $9,500 with some private clinics charging an addition $1,000 to $3,000. The thaw cycle costs between $3,500 and $5,000 (Deardoff, Chicago Tribune, 4/2).

Strong Period Pain and Excess Weight in Childhood Increases Risk of Endometriosis, Study Finds

2010-03-12T02:20:00.001-08:00

scientists have identified a new link between strong period pain experienced in adolescence and early adulthood and the risk of endometriosis.

Researchers from QIMR's Gynaecological Cancer Laboratory have found having strong period pain often at an early age doubles a woman's risk of developing endometriosis.

The study also found that girls starting their menstrual cycle after 14 years old had a significantly decreased risk of endometriosis.

Researchers analysed information from more than 500 Australian women -- making this one of the largest studies of its kind. Information about early menstrual characteristics in women with moderate to severe endometriosis was compared to data from women who had not been diagnosed with endometriosis.

"Although the relationship between menstrual characteristics and endometriosis has been studied extensively, most research has focused on the recent menstrual cycle characteristics of women with the disease. Our research is one of the first studies to look at the factors contributing to the development of endometriosis long before symptoms and diagnosis occur," said Dr Christina Nagle from QIMR.

In a related study last year, Dr Nagle and her team found that being overweight at 10 years of age also doubles the risk of developing endometriosis in later life.

"Our research aims to better understand the signs and symptoms before the disease develops and to help identify women at higher risk. Early intervention will result in better health outcomes for women with this condition."

To date, there is no known cause or cure for endometriosis, which affects 10% of women, causing severe pain and reduced fertility, in many cases. Disease symptoms can be managed through pain medication, hormone treatment or surgery, or a combination of each.

Signs of Ovulation

2010-01-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

Ways to Detect Signs of Ovulation
By Rachel Gurevich

Signs of ovulation aren’t difficult to notice, once you know what to look for. Some signs of ovulation help warn you that ovulation is approaching, allowing you to time sex for pregnancy. Other signs of ovulation let you know that ovulation has passed. While there are many methods below, don’t think that you should use them all.

As ovulation approaches, your cervical mucus changes in amount and consistency. When you’re not ovulating, cervical mucus may appear sticky or creamy, or may be entirely absent. As ovulation approaches, cervical mucus become more abundant, takes on a watery to raw-egg-white-like consistency, and stretches up to an inch or more between your fingers.
Pros:
· 100% free.
· Considered to be one of the most accurate indicators for timing sex for pregnancy.
· Get to know your body better.
Cons:
· Some people are grossed out by the idea.
· Not a definite sign. You can have fertile cervical mucus, and not ovulate. (Common in women with PCOS.)
· Clomid or antihistamines may dry up your cervical mucus, which may make detection difficult.
More about ovulation and cervical mucus:
· How to Check Your Cervical Mucus
· What Is Hostile Cervical Mucus?

Sign of Ovulation #2 – Increased Sexual Desire
Turns out nature does know what it’s doing (sometimes, anyway.) Research has shown what many of us already notice: Women experience an increase in sexual desire when they are most fertile. This is a couple days before you ovulate, which is the right time to have sex if you want to get pregnant.
Pros:
· Doesn’t require any know-how. Just being in tune with your feelings.
· Worse comes to worse, if you have sex and you weren’t about to ovulate, you still (hopefully) had a nice time with your partner. Nothing lost!
Cons:
· The stress of trying to conceive can squash sexual feelings. Also, depression or anxiety, common in couples coping with infertility, can lower sexual desire.
· It’s not a definite sign of ovulation. You may notice an increase in sexual desire at any time in your cycle, including right before your period, or even after watching a great Johnny Depp or Pierce Brosnan movie. (Or maybe that’s just me.)
More on ovulation and sex:
· In the Mood? You May Be Ovulating!
· Are You Timing Sex Right for Pregnancy?
· How Often Should You Have Sex To Get Pregnant?

Sign of Ovulation #3 – Body Basal Temperature Changes
Body basal temperature charting is perhaps the most popular method of tracking ovulation among women trying to get pregnant. Your body basal temperature will rise by a few tenths of a degree, and stay elevated, after ovulation. This rise in temperature is caused by the hormone progesterone, which increases immediate after ovulation. By charting your body basal temperature, you can detect this increase in temperature.
Pros:
· If your temperature rises, you can be almost positive that you ovulated.
· It’s low cost, and almost free (except for the purchase of a thermometer, which you probably already have).
· May help your doctor make a diagnosis.
Cons:
· Won’t warn you that ovulation is coming, but only confirm that it has passed.
· If your sleep patterns are unusually erratic, or you work the nightshift, body basal temperature charting will probably not work for you.
· Some women feel overwhelmed by taking their temperature every morning. Also, worrying about every little fluctuation in temperature can make some women more anxious than they already are. It can easily become a bit of an obsession.
More on body basal temperature charting and ovulation:
· Step-by-Step Instructions on Charting Your Body Basal Temperature
· How to Take Your Body Basal Temperature
· Everything You Need to Know About BBT Charting

Sign of Ovulation #4 – Changes in Cervical Position
Just as your cervical mucus changes as ovulation approaches, your cervical position also goes through changes. When you’re most fertile, your cervix will be higher, softer, and more open.
Pros:
· It’s free.
· Get to know your body better.
· May help you figure out if you’re ovulating, even when your cervical mucus is drier from Clomid or antihistamines.
Cons:
· Takes practice to get a feel (no pun intended) for the differences.
· Some people are grossed out by the idea.
· Not a definite sign of ovulation. Like with cervical mucus, you can have fertile cervical signs but not actually ovulate.
More on cervical position:
· How to Check Your Cervical Position
· Where Is Your Cervix?

Sign of Ovulation #5 -- Breast Tenderness
Some women experience tenderness in their breasts just before or after ovulation. This is related to the hormones rushing in your body, getting ready for the potential of pregnancy. For me personally, the last confirmation I have that ovulation has occurred is breast tenderness.
Pros:
· It’s free.
· Helps you get to know your body better.
Cons:
· It’s by no means an accurate indicator of ovulation.
· Breast tenderness may come before or after ovulation, as well as right before menstruation and as a side effect of some fertility drugs.
· Getting too obsessed about how tender your breasts feel can lead obsessing over imaginary pregnancy symptoms.
More on imaginary pregnancy symptoms:
· Feeling Pregnant? All About Imaginary Pregnancy Symptoms
· Two Week Wait Survival Tips
· Early Pregnancy Signs
Another common way of detecting ovulation is with an ovulation predictor test kit. Ovulation predictor kits, sometimes referred to as OPK tests, require you to either pee on a test stick, or dip a special paper into a cup of collected urine, once a day for a week before you expect to ovulate. There are two lines on the test strip. Whenever the test line is darker than the control line, the test has detected an LH surge. (This is the exact same hormone that causes fertile cervical mucus.)
Pros:
· If body basal temperature (BBT) charting is not an option, an ovulation predictor kit can be used. Also, if cervical mucus is dried up from medications, OPK tests can help.
· As opposed to BBT charting, you ideally only need to bother with the tests for a week before you expect to ovulate.
· When BBT charting gives unusual or confusing results, some women use ovulation predictor kits as an additional confirmation of ovulation.
Cons:
· Expensive compared to other methods of ovulation detection. An ovulation predictor test kit for one cycle costs anywhere from $10 – 20 dollars. Over a year, that can add up.
· Determining when the test line is darker than the control line isn’t always easy.
· You can miss the LH surge and never see a darker line. For example, if you test Monday morning, and your LH surged Monday afternoon, by Tuesday morning, when you test again, it may be over already. (Some women test more than once a day for this reason – raising the cost.)
· If you ovulate irregularly, you may need more than one kit per cycle.
· Not a definite sign. You can have positive OPK results, and not ovulate. You can also have more than one LH surge detected per cycle, but only the last of those surges correlates to possible ovulation. (Common in women with PCOS.)

HIGH FIBRE INTAKE MAY INTERFERE WITH OVULATION

2009-11-21T01:12:00.000-08:00

Women who get the recommended amount of fiber in their diets may have lower estrogen levels and ovulate less often than women who eat less fiber, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among 250 women ages 18 to 44, those who reported eating the recommended amounts of fiber had the lowest blood levels of estrogen and other reproductive hormones.
Higher fiber intake, particularly from fruit, was also linked to a higher risk of having anovulatory menstrual cycles -- where the ovaries fail to release an egg.
The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, do not mean that eating fiber-rich foods is a bad thing.
High-fiber diets are associated with numerous health benefits, including lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and breast cancer. Experts generally recommend that adults get 20 to 35 grams of fiber each day, depending on their calorie intake.
However, the current results do "call into question" whether those recommendations are best for women who are trying to become pregnant, write the researchers, led by Audrey J. Gaskins of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, Maryland.
Anovulation can have various causes, including excessive exercise, having either too little or too much body fat, thyroid gland dysfunction and polycystic ovarian syndrome -- a hormone disorder that is a common cause of infertility.
Women who are not ovulating regularly often have irregular menstrual periods or none at all. However, some women do continue to have periods.
All of the women in the current study were healthy and having regular menstrual periods. Still, those who reported the highest fiber intake -- 22 grams per day or more, in line with general recommendations -- were more likely to have at least one anovulatory cycle over two months. The researchers gauged anovulation by measuring the women's reproductive-hormone levels over two menstrual periods.
Of the total menstrual cycles in this group, 22 percent were anovulatory, compared with 7 percent among women with lower fiber intakes.
When the researchers accounted for other factors that could affect ovulation -- including body weight, race, exercise levels and calorie intake -- high fiber intake itself was linked to a roughly 10-times higher risk of anovulation.
Looking at specific sources of fiber, the researchers also found that fiber from fruit, specifically, was most clearly associated with anovulation.
The results do not prove that fiber, per se, disrupts some women's ovulation. However, it is biologically plausible, Gaskins and her colleagues point out.
High-fiber diets, they explain, decrease activity in certain intestinal enzymes, leading to less estrogen reabsorption in the colon. Fiber can also cause more estrogen to be excreted from the body in feces.
In line with that, the researchers found that women with the highest fiber intakes generally had the lowest estrogen levels over the course of their menstrual periods. They also had lower levels of other reproductive hormones, including progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone.
The findings, according to Gaskins and her colleagues, raise the possibility that women who are trying to conceive should lower their fiber intake. However, they write, more studies are needed before any recommendations can be made.SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2009.

Increased sex daily can help couples get pregnant - according to new study

2009-08-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Most couples using fertility procedures to help them become pregnant have followed the belief that abstaining from sex prior to ovulation cycle can help increase sperm count and the chances of becoming pregnant. A new study from Australia presented to the 25th annual European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting in Amsterdam, supports that quality is better than quantity.

Dr. David Greening took 118 men with high levels of DNA sperm damage and had them sexually relieve themselves at least once daily for seven days. The results supported his hypothesis that men who increase sexual activity have decreased levels of DNA damage in their sperm. The decreased damage was in amazing 81% of the men. The belief is that the sperm has less time to get damaged in the body before being released.

The question is how this news can affect a couple’s relationship. The study suggests that couples should have sex for at least a week before the ovulation date. At first thought this sounds great. But as a person dives into the psychology of a couple dealing with fertility treatments the news may not be as jovial as one thought.

The stress a couple is already facing in this relationship can become compounded with the added layer of responsibility. The prescription to have sex seven days before ovulation date takes away the romance and connection a couple generally feels in intimacy. Frankly speaking it can become a chore and further stress the couple out. In worse case scenarios this stress can cause performance anxiety.

While there is still some work to be done in seeing how this can affect a woman getting pregnant; the study has merit and value in the fertility world. But understanding should come into play regarding the stress levels and the effects this can have on an already strained relationship.

Some suggestions to help reduce stress would be:
• Meditation is always a good way to reduce stress. You can use different meditative techniques which include yoga and tai chi.

• Keep a journal and write positive thoughts, affirmations, and what you are thankful for.

*Laughter is the best medicine; this statement rings true in regards to relieving stress. Laugh with your partner and make life easier on both of you.

• Exercise is a great stress reliever. Some people like to exercise in a gym, exercise in the great outdoors or even participate in extreme sports. Find what works for you and let your mind focus on something other than the pressures of getting pregnant.

• Communication is a great stress reliever. Many people bottle their emotions, feelings, and thoughts up inside themselves and allow these components to build on top of each other. Learning to effectively communicate with your partner can make the relationship better and also reduce stress.

The thing to focus on is that for couples struggling to get pregnant and spending thousands of dollars on fertility treatments this is really great news. This suggested treatment is fun and free. There is still more research but in my estimation fertility treatments are moving in the right direction. Back to good old nature.
SOURCE: examiner.com

INTERESTING PIECE BELOW!

2009-06-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks too for considering it worthwhile enough to add to your favourites lists! You’ve probably noticed some interesting titles scrolling by on the news widget but I’d like to share Pamela Madsen’s piece (Our Vaginas, Ourselves) if you haven't read it already. It’s quite interesting and I’m ‘capturing’ it for you before it disappears into archives. -Omo Franca.

OUR VAGINAS, OURSELVES

2009-06-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

So...sometimes I feel like I am a little late to enter "The Conversation". But that has never stopped me before! After all, I really just discovered Daphne Merkin after reading her cover story on depression in The New York Times, "A Journey Through Darkness" a few weeks ago, Daphne is a fearless writer who has written on many controversial topics in her own voice and through her own eyes. Daphne puts it out there and invites controversy. Bravo. I love fearless.

After I read the piece in The Times online - my eyes stumbled on to several related links - other writings by Merkin. And these writings have been talked about for several years in the online commentary that I recently found. But I just have to weigh in...of course I do!First there was the piece that ran in The New Yorker on sensual spanking ("Unlikely Obsession"), which apparently raised a few eyebrows and no doubt a few skirts - and then there was another controversial piece that ran in The New York Times, called "Our Vaginas, Ourselves,"- where Merkin talks about the new world of, shall we call it, "The Cosmetic Vagina" and female self-loathing.

Merkin talks about the world of Brazilian waxes, hymen reattachment, labia reshaping and shortening and what it says about how we view our female genitals. I celebrate the fact that she writes it all - through her eyes - and that the NY Times publishes it. But Merkin misses the mark when she says,
"Truth be told, I always considered myself lucky to have escaped coming-of-age at the height of the consciousness-raising era, when anatomical self-examination took on the aspect of a collective ritual. Those were the days when women felt obliged to convene in sisterly circles with mirrors and flashlights the better to study their bodies, themselves. Never having been one to enjoy group activities of any sort, the thought of becoming more closely acquainted with my private parts in a public setting seems potentially traumatizing rather than liberating or, God knows, celebratory".

Actually, that is the problem. The problem is that most women do not know what female genitalia past the pubic mound looks like. And if we as women don't know our bodies and have a healthy self-image, how are we supposed to have sexual pleasure and a healthy relationship with our own bodies? It is through the not seeing and the not knowing where women often self-destruct as sexual beings.

Women don't grow up like young boys, stealing glances in the locker room to see what is going on with other same-sex bodies. We have no idea of the diversity of the vagina and we can't even agree on what to call female genitalia, a subject that gets most sexologists screaming that "the vagina is the birth canal" and not a good descriptor of a woman's sex organs.
Perhaps if women could see more of other women's inner sexual landscapes - if it was alright for women to look - we women would get it that each vulva is a unique work of art. Instead, the only pictures of female genitals that most women see are the air brushed and clipped versions in the journals of Playboy.
Women don't get to see images of real women.

For Merkin to celebrate the fact that she missed the age of the brave pioneering women who came together to explore the great unknown - mirror and flashlight in hand - is truly a disservice to those that came before her. The fact is that there are still rare opportunities, and few books outside of medical manuals that give women the opportunity to see the diversity of vulvas celebrated. If they did, Dr. David Matlock's practice of "Vaginal Rejuvenation" wouldn't be so popular.

There is a part of me that hates myself for criticizing Merkin at all. Look, she is out there and she is at least sparking the conversation in very reputable publications about female sexuality in a way that is real and in the first person. That takes courage. And for her reward, she gets to not only take it on the chin for her bravery by "sexual conservatives," but also by well-known outspoken sex activists like Susie Bright and Dr. Betty Dobson, for example, in this excellent and scathing commentary, "Daphne Merkin Needs to get Spanked Again."
But it is the fact that I can take her on that is so wonderful! Daphne is a big girl, and she is putting it out there. I suspect she can take care of herself. And she is doing a service to all of us by taking this conversation, whether you agree with her or not, into publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times so that there is a public discourse on issues that are never talked about.

This morning, as I was researching this blog, I came upon "How to Have Baby Making Sex" on one of my favorite fertility blogs, "How to Make a Family" . At first I was all excited! A fertility blog other than mine was talking about sex! But in a nano second, I became incensed by the introductory language of the piece, and I quote:
"If getting pregnant hasn't been so easy for you, maybe you're not doing "it" right." Doing it right? It almost didn't matter what came next in the blog - the shadow of a past insult and shame came flooding back in an instant. It didn't matter if the off-hand remark which was made with too many beers in hand happened over 23 years ago.

It was the only time my husband ever became inflamed over our infertility experience with a family member. It was when his brother asked him if "we were doing it right." My mild- mannered husband stood up and punched his brother in the jaw. To this day, I have never seen my husband raise a hand to anyone before or since!

Why begin a conception sex tip piece with a knock to our sexual self esteem? It is insulting. And it's why many men don't want to see a reproductive specialist - because they are worried that they will be told that they are not doing it right.
Look, it's hard enough already for couples who are living through "conception sex." Do they need to have that particular myth reinforced that perhaps they are not doing it right?
And what does any of this have to do with Daphne Merkin and "My Vaginas, Ourselves"?

Well, Daphne has taken it on the chin for what may be seen as taking hidden issues to the main stream, and here is How to Make a Famiy taking a stab at sexuality and conception. And instead of giving them snaps for being a fertility blog uttering the word "sex," I am stomping around my apartment.

So, we don't all agree, but at least we are starting to talk about sex in a new and open way. Right? Even the fertility blogs.
I wonder who I am provoking this morning?

Pamela Madsen is one of the nation's most outspoken and recognized fertility and sex educators. The Fertility Advocate, Ms. Madsen's Blog has become the must-read for all members of the fertility and sexuality community, with hundreds jacking into Ms. Madsen's funny, insightful and provocative posts every day. Ms. Madsen is The founder of The America Fertility Association and works with East Coast Fertility as the Director of Public Education. Ms. Madsen is reaching out to women - and men — to integrate all aspects of the reproductive continuum from sexuality, infertility prevention, protection and treatment into the general health care of all women.

EAT TO BOOST FERTILITY!

2009-06-24T04:13:00.003-07:00

Having trouble getting pregnant? Experts now believe that following the right diet could be the single most important factor for successful conception.

A Spanish study recently found that men could boost their sperm counts by eating less red meat and fatty food, and more fruit and veg.

Meanwhile, research at Harvard University also found that women who made dietary changes reduced their risk of infertility by as much as 80%.
“The food choices you and your partner make can have a major effect on improving fertility,” agrees fertility expert Dr Zita West, whose client list includes actresses Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett and Davina McCall.

Here are the foods you – and your partner – need to eat...
How to do it:
The first step to better fertility is to ensure you have a balanced diet and don’t cut out any major food groups. “Make sure you both get adequate protein from lean meat and fish, essential fats from fish, nuts and seeds, wholemeal carbohydrates and lots fruit and veg,” says Zita.
Once you have the basics right you can then add the specific superfoods that researchers have found can boost egg and sperm production. But be patient: you will both need to stick to a diet plan for at least three months before you will know if it has had any effect.

Here’s what you should be eating...

For him
Oily fish.This is the best source of essential fatty acids (EFAs), omega-3 and omega-6 oils – all of which are vital for sperm development. They also enhance sperm quality and mobility.* Eat: Salmon, mackerel and sardines are all types of oily fish. Men should eat between one and four portions a week.
Oysters.A great source of zinc, which is needed to make the outer layer and tail of the sperm. Nutritionists believe just 15mg a day can help repair sperm that have been damaged by chemicals absorbed from the environment.

* Eat: If you can’t stomach or afford oysters, you’ll find plenty of zinc in beans, nuts, seeds and eggs.

Garlic.This is a great source of selenium, an antioxidant, which helps maintain strong healthy sperm.* Eat: Add chopped garlic to stir-fries, pasta sauces and curries. Garlic breath may not be very romantic but it can be easily neutralised by chewing a little parsley afterwards.

Spinach.This and other leafy greens are rich in folate, which improves sperm production. A study by the University of California found men with high intakes of this nutrient had up to 30% healthier sperm.

* Eat: Steam spinach lightly with garlic and chilli or eat it raw in a healthy salad.

Avocados.A rich source of vitamin E, which improves the quality of sperm. Avocados are also an excellent way to absorb unsaturated fats, which are crucial for healthy hormone function.

* Eat: Make your own guacamole as a dip for carrot sticks. Scoop flesh out of a couple of avocados and mash it up, adding a little garlic and lemon juice.

For her
Full-fat dairy. A fertility study by Harvard University found women who eat at least one serving of full-fat dairy a day reduce their risk of infertility by more than a quarter. It’s thought that the fat in dairy helps improve ovarian function.

* Eat: Consider changing low-fat dairy foods for full-fat while you are in the process of trying for a baby. A glass of milk a day is plenty.

Water. If you don’t drink enough water the reproductive system will lose out as the body ensures that the most vital organs receive the water that they need first.Water is needed for plump egg follicles and a strong blood supply to the womb lining. If you’re dehydrated, your cervical fluid (the stuff that helps the sperm find the egg) also becomes sluggish.

* Drink: Aim to have about eight glasses per day. Try mixing water with fruit juice or a squirt of lemon to liven it up.

Orange fruit and vegetables. Peaches, apricots, carrots and mangoes all contain beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A and which helps to produce the female sex hormones important for ovulation.

* Eat: Start the day with a mango and peach smoothie, and have a bag of chopped carrots to snack on at work.

Chicken.Getting enough protein is vital for egg production. Meat is the best source of protein but go for chicken rather than red meat – as it is much lower in fat.

* Eat: Women need about 45g of protein a day but don’t have more than this. As Zita West warns: “High-protein diets aren’t good in the lead-up to pregnancy, as there’s evidence that ammonia, a by-product of excessive protein, may interfere with embryo implantation.”

Oily fish, nuts and seeds.These are all extremely rich in essential fatty acids, which are crucial for healthy ovulation. According to Zita, eight out of 10 women are currently deficient in EFAs.

* Eat: You need to eat about 30g of nuts and seeds a day – enjoy them as a snack, sprinkle them on your cereal or mix into a healthy salad. Also try to eat about 300g – or roughly two portions – of oily fish a week.

SOURCE: MIRROR.CO.UK

Healthy eating can help perk up fertility

2009-05-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

IT IS estimated that one in seven couples have trouble conceiving despite regularly having unprotected sex.

But the number of couples who are classed as infertile in the UK remains relatively low.

There are a number of conditions, which can cause infertility, although in just under a third of cases the cause is unknown.

However there are a number of factors which, while not causing infertility, can affect men and women’s chances of conceiving.
Being overweight, or obese, for example, reduces both male and female fertility. In women, it can affect ovulation.
Being underweight can also impact on fertility, particularly for women, who will not ovulate if they are severely underweight.

Smoking not only affects a person’s general and long-term health, it can also affect fertility and stress can reduce sexual desire, reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse. Severe stress may also affect female ovulation and can limit sperm production.

Nutrition – what people are eating – also has an impact on fertility. Many of us will be aware of the importance of folic acid for women trying to conceive, or that zinc is good for healthy sperm, but the role of nutrition in fertility goes beyond this.

While there are no specific foods or beverages that will definitely make anyone more fertile, a person’s overall nutrition has a subtle, but powerful effect on all of the body’s systems, including the reproductive system.

Kay Clarke, a nutritional therapist at the Natural Health and Fertility Clinic, in Cardiff, said: “Nutrition is very important for the reproductive organs not least because they are often at the bottom of the list in terms of the body’s needs.
“Nutritionally people seem to be unaware of the basics.
“The nutritional status of a person is an individual thing, which we need to assess but there are some general points, including eating five to nine portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day.
“They are full of vitamin C which helps in the production of eggs and sperm. The oils – omega three, six and nine – are also important because they have an anti-inflammatory reaction on the body and help to balance reproductive hormones.
“But if you are eating a lot of saturated fats, such as butter, cheese, and fatty meats these foods have an inflammatory effect in the body and therefore the action of the good oils is diminished.
“It is important that you get a balance of good oils over the bad fats. Couples who are trying to conceive should limit saturated fats to just part of one meal a day.”

SOURCE: walesonline.co.uk

SET TO BECOME BRITAIN’S OLDEST MOTHER!

2009-05-19T04:24:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Adeney is 66 years old. She will celebrate her 67th birthday one month after the birth of her first child this June. The British Ms. Adeney is the oldest mom in Great Britain, and maybe in the world.

The British business woman says she wants a child to inherit her wealth. Adeney is the managing director of a plastics and textiles company in Mildenhall, Suffolk. She says she is fitter than many of the younger women who work for her…some days she feels like she is 39 and other days 56. According to friends, “she is in perfect health,” and “has had a pretty good pregnancy,” and has worked a regular work week throughout her pregnancy.

It is believed after numerous failed fertility treatments, Ms. Adeney underwent IVF treatment in the Ukraine using donor eggs and sperm. British clinics will not accept applicants for in vitro treatments over the age of 50.

An IVF expert, Dr. Severino Antinori, refused to comment on Adeney. Older mothers have an increased risk of complications and even death. Rumors are that health officials were shocked to learn of the pregnancy and Elizabeth Adeney’s advanced age. While the cutoff age for treatment is 50 in Great Britain, fertility treatment for those over 40 is not recommended.

Ms. Adeney has a supporter in her own physician, Dr. Patricia Rashbrook, who had a son through in vitro at the age of 63. Elizabeth will beat Rashbrook’s age by four years, and when her child has her 20th birthday, Adeney will be turning 87 shortly after.

This single mum is fully capable of supporting her child. She has a $910,000 (USD) home, a full-time live-in nanny and a deep desire for a child. Said to be one “feisty” woman, she was a debutante and an airline hostess. Elizabeth married Robert Adeney but the union was short lived.
The title of “oldest mom” is controversial too.

Some say Adeney will be the oldest mother in the world, not just Britain, because Rajo Devi Lohan, a woman claiming she was 70 years old in July 2008, gave birth to twins in India. Problem is, reports say, Lohan cannot produce her birth certificate. Her age is in dispute with some officials, but not with others.

Spainard Carmen Bousada gave birth to twins in December 2007, and was considered the world’s oldest mother at that time at age 66. Bousada is a pensioner and never married. She lied about her age - said she was 55 years old - to receive the IVF from an American clinic in Los Angeles. Bousada paid $60,000 for the treatments. She gave birth in Barcelona.

Less than three weeks before the twins first birthday, she told the press she had been diagnosed with a serious illness, which is thought to be cancer. In an interview, Carmen says she does not expect to die anytime soon, but if something should happen to her, the children will be cared for by her nephew and the twin’s godfather.

Elizabeth Adeney says she knows she is in the news but she doesn’t care.

'I’m a private person and while I appreciate there may be some publicity I will just ignore it. This has been a very personal decision.'

Yoga reduces stress for women receiving fertility treatment

2009-04-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Marsha Mezger and her husband, Doug, have been trying to have a baby since July 2006.First, Mezger took three rounds of Clomid, a fertility drug, with no success. Then they moved on to in vitro treatments at Mid-Iowa Fertility in Clive. The first two tries resulted in miscarriages; the third time, Mezger didn't get pregnant.Now the West Des Moines couple is trying another round of in vitro. But this time, Mezger - a big believer in integrating Western and Eastern medicine - also took a new class offered at The Family Tree in Des Moines called "Yoga for Fertility."

"I thought, 'Why not? It's not going to hurt,'" said Mezger, 29. "If anything, yoga is going to help me relax."Sandi Hoover, co-owner and instructor at The Family Tree, said she believes this is the first class of its kind in Iowa.The class is open to all women trying to conceive, said Hoover, a registered nurse who has been a yoga instructor since 2001. Some of her students have had medical diagnoses of polycystic ovary syndrome or endometriosis, both of which can cause infertility.

"For me, personally, yoga has been a source of stress reduction and balance," she said. "And for a lot of people struggling to conceive, there's that underlying stress. The focus (of the class) is clearly going to be inviting that reproductive energy in through a combination of breath, meditation and movement."When you're under constant stress, Hoover said, your body puts out stress hormones that deal more with survival functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. Those hormones also shut down reproduction.

Hoover said new research shows that yoga and other alternative health techniques can serve as antidotes to the harmful effects of stress on the reproductive system.Extreme stress can interfere with a woman's ovulation and reduce the number of eggs, agreed Dr. Don Young, medical director at Mid-Iowa Fertility. For men, stress can negatively affect sexual performance.Young said he has recommended yoga to his patients to relieve stress."As far as any yoga moves improving fertility, there's no evidence to support that at all," he said. "There's no yoga poses that will, say, open up fallopian tubes or improve ovulation."

Young said studies have shown that acupunture may help increase the number of eggs, embryo quality and pregnancy rate for patients undergoing in vitro treatments.Hoover's class includes specific yoga poses that help increase overall health, which will increase the overall likelihood of getting pregnant, she said. They also help improve the total alignment of the body and increase energy and stamina. The moves support the muscles in the reproductive area.

The class also serves as a support group. Topics vary weekly, ranging from letting go of obsessive thoughts to finding holistic help, through group discussion and sharing, Hoover said.Mezger said being surrounded by pregnant co-workers, pregnant women at the mall and new moms pushing strollers made her feel like she was the only one going through this."I left (the class) calm and centered," she said, "and it was certainly a way for me to be proactive in this journey and be productive. It was certainly a release - and more than once. I released buckets of tears right there in the middle of (class)."

The class helped Mezger to be more patient, she said, and to focus on the future."Our time is going to come. Having a baby has not come yet, but it doesn't mean it's never going to come," she said.

Single career woman has twins using stored eggs

2009-03-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

A HIGH-flying woman in her 40s has controversially given birth to healthy twins after having her eggs frozen in case she was unable to form a relationship.

As insurance against "social infertility", the career woman, who rose to the senior ranks of a publicly listed company, paid thousands of dollars to have her eggs frozen at age 37 after being unable to develop a long-term relationship.

After turning 40, she had the eggs fertilised with donor sperm, and recently gave birth to twins.Egg freezing allowed the woman to give birth to her own genetic children rather than use donated eggs.Queensland Fertility Group clinical director David Molloy described the practice as a medical advance as profound as the contraceptive pill.

"The contraceptive pill enables women to delay their reproduction and not get pregnant on their honeymoon," he said. "It changed the way women were able to approach their careers, their lives, their sexuality, the whole thing."Social egg freezing is going to allow women who've got the resources to look at when they reproduce and how they structure their lives and their careers and still have a good chance of having children."Dr Molloy, who reported the woman's case in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, said he did not believe the practice was unethical."Here you've got someone who's financially very sound, who's now got the time to look after a child ... who's actually given up her job to say: 'I've reached the top, I've made enough money, now I can look after a child responsibly'," Dr Molloy said."Are we socially less responsible creating a pregnancy in that woman compared to the fact you've got 17-year-olds getting pregnant every day of the week because we don't have enough family planning teaching in our schools?
''This is a woman who's made it.
''She's not going to be a welfare burden on the community."However the practice is expected to be seen as controversial, given it will increase the numbers of single parent families.It does not attract Medicare funding and is expensive, costing up to $10,000 per cycle to extract eggs and another $300 a year to store them.Dr Molloy said the ideal age for women to consider egg freezing was between 31 and 35.

Too old to be a mom?

2009-02-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

PIX RIGHT:
Donna Broderick-Reich and her husband, J.R. Reich, are excited about the baby she will deliver in a few weeks. She is 56 years old and conceived by having an egg from her daughter that was fertilized with her husband's sperm implanted. She has six other children who are mostly adults. Donna and her husband play in a rock band and are shown at local bar called Sharky's near Ocala.

Donna Broderick-Reich lay on an exam table tilted at a 50-degree angle, and looked up at her feet for 45 minutes.

As uncomfortable as it was, and as much as she needed to use the restroom, she toughed it out. And she had a good reason.

At age 56, and after having gone through menopause, Reich lay prone in a Los Angeles fertility clinic hoping to give her husband, J.R. Reich, their first child.
She remained motionless as two tiny fertilized eggs donated from her 31-year-old daughter and fertilized by J.R.'s sperm in a Petri dish found their way to a snug corner of her uterus.

One of the two did, and the couple, who live in Oxford near The Villages, are now expecting a baby boy.
Donna gets a wide range of reactions to her pregnancy, now in its 32nd week.
Her 32-year-old husband is anxious and can't believe he's going to be a father. Most of her six grown children are happy for her, although they worry about her health. Donna no longer speaks to her mother. Some strangers raise their eyebrows and shake their heads.

And in the larger scheme of things, bioethicists wonder if older women should have children, since in many cases they won't be around long enough to care for them.

Scientists say there have not been enough studies to show that older wombs are fit to carry babies, even if the donor eggs are from young women; and in the meantime, there are are no hard and fast regulations on the assisted reproductive technologies industry, which includes IVF.

The fertilization specialists who perform the procedures say they put their clients through a battery of tests and make sure they're in good health and have a solid support network. Some don't perform the procedure on older women who are single, even if they're in good health.

But to Donna the issue is deeper than the science and ethics of it all.
"For all those people who look at me strange, come up and ask me why I'm having this baby, cause I'm not out there to populate this world," she says.
When Donna met J.R., she had already divorced three husbands and had raised six children. She was 40. He was 18. The two got married two years later and got pregnant when Donna was 45. But the baby's heartbeat stopped when Donna was four and a half months pregnant. At that point the two put the idea of having children to rest.

So they focused on their new family and their music careers. They eventually formed a band called SSnakeyez and still perform on Friday and Saturday nights in local bars.

It wasn't until early last year that Donna began thinking of having a child again. Donna's daughter, Madina, and her three small children had moved in with her temporarily, and Donna found herself baby-sitting and talking about babies.
There was a part of her that worried about J.R. She knew he would outlive her, "and I was afraid that he was going to be alone," she said. "I'm his best friend and I'm still here with him and I wanted to raise his child. I wanted to leave a part of me behind"

So she did some Internet research and learned that she could get pregnant through in vitro fertilization and by using a donor egg. She found a willing doctor at Pacific Fertility Center of Los Angeles. Then there was the matter of money for the procedure, which she could raise by refinancing her home in Oxford in Sumter County.

It was at that point she approached J.R. with the idea.
There is no mandatory cutoff age for IVF, but most centers stop at 50, which is an average age for menopause. In almost 90 percent of the cases, the eggs are donated from younger women because the older the eggs, the higher the risk of complications and miscarriage.

Although the uterus of an older woman can be revived by hormones and will produce hormones on its own a few weeks after pregnancy, the body of an older woman might not be fit to go through the process. Older women who get pregnant are at a higher risk for cardiovascular problems, gestational diabetes and hypertension.

"Every program sets their own limits," said Dr. R. Stan Williams, chairman of tje Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida. "The central questions are: What is the health of the woman? Is she capable of going through the pregnancy safely? And as the child is growing up, how likely is it for the mother to be around?"

Dr. Vicken Sahakian, medical director and owner of Pacific Fertility Center of Los Angeles, is well-known for performing IVF in women as old as 67.
"It's not rocket science. I don't have a magic potion. I am a women's advocate. I do think a 54-year-old woman has as much right to have a child as a 54-year-old man," he said in a recent interview. "The argument that a woman is not meant to have kids at 54 can go for cancer. If the technology is there, why not use it?"
Some bioethicists raise other issues.

"There are just differences between older and younger people when it comes to reproduction in terms of risks, safety and ability to raise children," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. "When older dads have babies, historically, the woman is young enough to carry the baby."

He added that with donor-egg IVF, "All you're achieving is pregnancy. It's not your own child. Then why go through these risks, when all you're going to achieve is a pregnancy? So if you're going to use a donor egg, why not hire a surrogate mother?"

Donna's daughter said she didn't want to carry the pregnancy.
"I was afraid I would be too close to the baby," she said.
And Donna said she wanted the baby inside of her.
To the family, indeed, this baby - which will be a boy - is Donna's and J.R.'s and they will raise it together as mom and dad.
Donna laughs about all the jokes around the house.
"I'll be getting a senior citizen discount when he gets a happy meal," she quipped. "And I'll be on my Hoveround when he's on his bike."
Then she gets serious.
"I believe that [the doctor] instrumented the baby, but it had to be God to say that, 'I'm going to allow you to go through the pregnancy despite all adversities.' "

SOURCE: OCALA.COM

N.H. PETA billboard shows veggies as 'food of love'

2009-02-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A new billboard in New Hampshire from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is showing some creative use of vegetables.

PETA has coupled the findings of a Harvard University study suggesting that vegetarian foods may increase fertility with the face that New Hampshire has one of the lowest birth rates in the country.

The billboard shows various vegetables arranged to mimic certain parts of the male and female anatomies next to tagline "Veggies: The Food of Love. Going vegetarian may make you more fertile."

In their book, "The Fertility Diet," Harvard researchers urge people to consume more vegetable protein and less animal protein if they hope to have children.

source: seacoastonline.com

Common Chemicals Linked to Infertility

2009-02-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

Could your cookware and cleaning supplies make it harder for you to have a baby?

In the current issue of Human Reproduction, researchers suggest that chemicals called perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs for short, might be linked to delays in getting pregnant. But study authors and experts in the field caution that the findings are preliminary and mainly highlight an area that needs more research.

"The finding is interesting," says one of the study's authors, Joseph K. McLaughlin, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. "We need to know more about these chemicals because they are long lasting and have had effects in animals."
And until more is known, the researchers say, changes in health policy are unlikely.

"This is the first study in the world that has looked at this particular association," says lead study author Dr. Jorn Olsen, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. "Normally we don't base our conclusions on public health information on one study. We need to wait for other studies to make policy recommendations."

Soy protein renders womb unsuitable for pregnancy.

2009-01-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

A soy protein, genistein, long known to affect fertility can change how pregnancies start and progress in female mice treated with it as newborns. The changes make it harder for fertilized eggs to implant and grow, possibly contributing to infertility. The effects were observed at levels comparable to those experienced by human infants feeding on soy formula.

The researchers then retrieved either unfertilized eggs or fertilized embryos from the female mice to assess egg health and reproductive organ development .They set up a series of experiments to ask several questions:

First, could unfertilized eggs grow to early development?
Second, could naturally fertilized embryos grow properly in a normal, untreated mouse?

Third, could fertilized embryos taken from untreated mice grow normally in the treated female mice?

What did they find?
Genistein impaired the implantation process in the female mice that were treated as newborns and mated after sexual maturity. After mating, the number of embryos retrieved from genistein-treated mice was about half the number of those collected from control mice.

Fewer implantation sites were present in the uterus of genistein-treated mice compared to control.

Together, these findings suggest that the reproductive tract environment in the genistein-treated mice is likely not optimal for embryonic development.
Tested in vitro, treated and control eggs were equally capable of being fertilized. However, embryos from genistein-treated females developed more slowly than controls. Over time this difference disappeared.

What does it mean?
Genistein affects the uterus and the reproductive tract -- not the egg quality -- of the adult female mice that were treated with the soy phytoestrogen while in the womb. Fertilized embryos developing in the treated females did not attach and thrive as well as embryos in the control animals, even though eggs from genistein-treated females were as healthy as those from their unexposed counterparts.

The genistein-treated mice also lost more embryos early in their development. Embryo death means fewer births and higher rates of infertility.

Together, the results suggest that the uterus may be an important factor in genistein-induced infertility.

These findings pinpoint one actual cause of the observed infertility of early life exposure to genistein. They also highlight the need for a much better understanding of how soy infant formulas and other products fed to newborns and infants may influence a developing baby's reproductive life.

Egg quality was not affected by newborn genistein treatment. The immature eggs from genistein-treated mice developed normally and produced fertile female mice just like in the controls.

These findings add to a growing body of evidence that implies that newborns that eat soy-based products may be predisposed to lower reproductive success as adults.

SOURCE: environmentalhealthnews.org

Hormonal disorder leading cause of infertility

2009-01-19T17:20:00.000-08:00

Most women have never heard of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), yet it is the leading cause of infertility in women and affects about one in 10 women in the United States.

PCOS is a widespread hormonal disorder found in premenopausal women. It can be treated, so it is important for women experiencing the symptoms of PCOS to see their health care provider for diagnosis and treatment.

Obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Tracie Traver, who is on the active medical staff of Blount Memorial Hospital, says that common symptoms of PCOS include irregular or missed menstrual periods, infertility, increased hair growth, obesity and ovarian cysts. "PCOS is caused by an excess production of a hormone class called androgens. Androgens are male hormones that all women produce, but that women with PCOS produce in excess.

There is nothing that can be done to prevent PCOS or lower the risk, although weight control may have a positive effect on it."Women with signs of androgen excess who are not ovulating are considered to have PCOS. "Sometimes lab tests are ordered to be sure there is nothing else causing these symptoms," Traver adds. "An ultrasound may be done to look for small cysts on the ovaries, however, there are some patients who have the classic presentation for PCOS, yet the ultrasound doesn't show these cysts."Traver explains that treatment of PCOS helps control symptoms and can help prevent endometrial cancer, diabetes and heart disease. "Daily exercise of at least 30 minutes can help women with PCOS by improving insulin function as well as relieving other symptoms. Also, weight loss may lower insulin levels, which will help with restoring ovulation, and may slow new hair growth."

Medications used to treat PCOS include some medicines typically used by diabetics to help with insulin function. Birth control pills also may be used to control irregular cycles and lower endometrial cancer risk. Other medications are used to cause ovulation for women with fertility issues.

There also are medications available to control the hair growth.Traver recommends that women who are experiencing PCOS symptoms such as irregular periods, difficulty getting pregnant and excess hair growth schedule an appointment with an obstetrician/gynecologist for diagnosis and treatment. "In severe cases, PCOS can lead to balding, lowering of the voice and bigger muscles," she adds. "Some women have a problem with their insulin levels or function, which leads to weight gain and difficulty losing weight. They also have an increased risk of endometrial cancer, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease."If you would like to schedule an appointment with an obstetrician/gynecologist, call the Blount Memorial HEALTHLINE at 981-3983 for a free physician referral.

SOURCE: thedailytimes.com

Woman has triplets against infertility odds

2009-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

A woman who was told she could never have children has given birth to triplets. Sam Paciuszko, 31, gave birth 14 weeks early to two girls and a boy, each weighing just 2lb.

Mrs Paciuszko was told there was only a 30 per cent chance of all three surviving but they are now gaining weight and "doing well" as they are treated in three different hospitals for specialist treatment.
This has meant the couple making 400-mile round trips to see each one in turn.

The babies, Martha, Evie and Harry, are still in incubators in intensive care and are not expected to return home until March, the month they were originally due.

Mrs Paciuszko had been told she would never conceive because her body was not producing eggs but she began fertility treatment when she married her husband Andrew, a postman.

After three years of failure, Mrs Paciuszko had virtually abandoned hope until she fell pregnant last year. She gave birth by caesarean section on Dec 6.
Mrs Paciuszko, from Truro, Cornwall, an administration manager for Marks & Spencer, said doctors had performed "miracles".

She said: "It was a very lonely Christmas for Andrew and I because we spent it apart in different hospitals and eating microwave meals.
"We have not seen each other for three weeks. Nobody can give us a guarantee that they (the babies) will be OK but it is looking very good.
"The fact our babies are here at all is a miracle because we were told we could never have children. We just want to keep them safe."

During the pregnancy, the couple were given the option to terminate one foetus to ensure they had at least two healthy babies, but they declined.
Mrs Paciuszko gave birth at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon. A 20-strong specialist medical team delivered 1lb 13oz Harry at 10.12am, 2lb 2oz Martha at 10.14am and 1lb 12oz Evie at 10.16am.

Harry remained at Derriford while Martha was transferred to Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, Bristol, for an operation on a perforated gut. Evie was taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, to be near her home.
Harry and Evie are now both in incubators in Truro and Martha was expected to join them soon.

Hospital managers said the triplets had been moved to different units because they needed specialist care.

SOURCE: theafa.org

Assisted reproduction leads to 27 live births for every 100 IVF cycles: report

2009-01-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

TORONTO — A new report says fertility clinics in Canada achieved a success rate of 27 live births for every 100 IVF cycles in 2006, the latest year for which statistics are available.

And the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society says the pregnancy rate for in vitro fertilization was 35 per cent in 2007, up nine percentage points since 1999, when the group first started collecting these statistics.
It was too soon to say what the rate of live births was for 2007, though it is generally expected that some of those pregnancies would have ended in miscarriage.

The report says about 15 per cent of pregnancies initiated using assisted reproduction through the society's 26 member clinics ended in miscarriage in 2006.
The live birth rates varied substantially by age, with 34 per cent of women under age 35 and 26 per cent of women aged 35 to 39 having a baby using IVF.

The rate dropped sharply, though, in women over age 40, with only 11 per cent of IVF cycles leading to a live birth.
How do the Canadian rates compare to those of fertility clinics in similar countries?
"Very well. They are very comparable," says Dr. Roger Pierson, chair of the communications committee of the society and director of the University of Saskatchewan's reproductive biology research unit.

The figures are the aggregate results of the country's 26 fertility clinics, which the clinics voluntarily provide. Pierson says that while some clinics will post their own rates on their websites, the society is not a regulatory body and does not release clinic-specific data.

He says the sector expects that when the Federal Assisted Human Reproduction Agency completes the task of drawing up its regulations, it will collect and publish clinic-specific results.

The 2006 data show that 70 per cent of babies born with the help of IVF were singletons and of the multiple births, 95 per cent were twins.
Over the years assisted reproduction has led to an explosion of multiple births. Experts have called for limits on the number of fertilized embryos implanted in each cycle with the aim of reducing the chances an IVF pregnancy will lead to multiple births.

The report says the proportion of babies born with congenital abnormalities was not elevated among IVF-assisted births.
Canadian women went through 8,278 cycles of IVF in 2006 in 25 fertility clinics across the country. In 2007 there were 9,019 treatment cycles performed through 26 clinics. The service costs between $6,000 and $15,000 a cycle, depending on the individual clinic and the type of procedure needed.

Fertility and Your Sex Life

2008-12-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

What sex life?
For couples who are trying to conceive, sex can become a mechanical process. One of the challenges couples face is the loss of spontaneity and romance when it comes to having sex while they are trying to have a baby. Fertility treatment can also change a couple's sex life.

When trying to have a baby, sex becomes a task necessary for conception. This "conception sex" can involve scheduled sex and specific sexual positions that are believed to improve the chances of getting pregnant. For many couples, these factors can make sex feel like a chore.

A couple who has been trying to conceive for some time may forget that sex can be intimate and that there is a difference between sex for pleasure and sex for conception. Couples need to recognize that the ability to conceive does not define their sexuality.

Feelings of intimacy and privacy can be lost once a couple undergoes fertility treatment. These issues often come up when discussing personal details of their sex life with their doctor, or when undergoing tests such as a semen analysis (to measure sperm counts) or the post-coital test (to assess the interaction between the sperm and the cervical mucus). Keeping a sense of humour can go a long way to help ease the frustrations and challenges you may be going through.

A couple's sex life doesn't have to suffer and become unromantic when they are trying to conceive. Communicate with your partner about your sexual desires and needs. Continue having spontaneous sex during the rest of the month, as if you weren't trying to have sex to conceive a baby. Couples who communicate and stay physically and emotionally connected can continue to have a healthy sex life.

Your doctor or fertility specialist can answer any concerns you may have about fertility and your sex life. Though it may be uncomfortable to talk to your fertility specialist about it, they are trained experts who can help with some of the challenges that couples may face while going through fertility treatment.

New test tells women how long to delay having children

2008-11-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

Sarah North has decided to have a newly available fertility test to see if she should start having babies straight away.Miss North, a 31-year-old pharmaceutical company representative who lives with her partner at Laingholm in West Auckland, is certain she wants children - two, three, possibly even four.But she also has a mortgage. So, like many women around her age, she is weighing the benefits of delaying childbearing - such as greater financial security - against the risk that if she waits too long she might need IVF fertility treatment or not be physically able to have them at all.

"Ideally I picture myself at about 35 having children rather than right at this minute."But how long can she wait?The blood test she plans to have next week should give her an idea. A check of her level of an ovarian hormone called anti-Mullerian will show how many eggs she has left, a predictor of her chances of becoming pregnant.The new test - more sensitive than the existing method, which checks the level of follicle stimulating hormone - has been available overseas for several years. Now two chains of private fertility clinics in New Zealand have started offering it: Repromed, at a cost of $85, and Fertility Associates, at $45-$50.A woman's number of eggs is set at birth and declines naturally during her life. Egg quality also starts declining, then this accelerates in the 30s. Both factors affect fertility, which is at its peak around the age of 28.In the mid-20s, it takes on average three months to become pregnant, rising to six months in the mid-30s and a year at 40.

At least 10 per cent of women in their early 30s have an abnormally depleted reserve of eggs, but most do not know.The existing test can reveal this abnormal depletion only once the quality of the eggs has deteriorated significantly.The new test can also help to predict the risk of miscarriage and to tailor the dose of fertility drugs in IVF, but Fertility Associates director Dr Richard Fisher expects its main use will be to help women with a reduced egg count for their age decide when to try to start a family.

Repromed Auckland's medical director, Dr Guy Gudex, said he often saw couples who had been together for many years who, had they known they were going to have difficulty conceiving, would have started trying sooner."Just a couple of years can make all the difference."If a woman's anti-Mullerian hormone level was low, "we might encourage a couple to plan their family earlier."* The testA blood test to measure the level of an ovarian hormone called anti-Mullerian.It helps assess a woman's biological clock - fertility of ovaries' remaining eggs - better than existing tests.

101 Babies Expected After New Infertility Treatment

2008-11-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

After suffering the heartbreak of years of infertility, scores of US couples claim their dreams came true due to a newly developed therapy. Over one hundred babies have been born or are expected by women diagnosed infertile after receiving a new physical therapy treatment, similar to a deep massage. The new treatment uses no drugs or surgery, according to its developers, physical therapist Belinda Wurn, and massage therapist Larry Wurn.

It was first used in Florida as an adjunct to medical treatments. Developed to treat infertility and pain, the patent protected Wurn Technique® is becoming available at clinics throughout the US. Cathleen, a Florida nurse, was given a five percent chance of ever becoming pregnant. She underwent four IVF attempts without success, then had a natural pregnancy and childbirth after receiving the new therapy. "It is exactly what my body needed. I was amazed to become pregnant naturally, a few months after the therapy!" Manhattan resident Julie said, "Both of my fallopian tubes were blocked with adhesions before therapy. Two months after therapy, I became pregnant at 42 years of age for the first time in my life!" Julie and Cathleen both delivered healthy baby girls.

Published medical studies "Medscape General Medicine" (6/04) examine the technique's effectiveness. 71% of infertile women in one small study conceived naturally after treatment; a larger controlled study showed that women who received the therapy before in vitro fertilization (IVF) had a 67% pregnancy rate with IVF - much higher than the control group. "Some successes in the natural therapy study were remarkable," said Richard King, MD, gynecologist and Medical Director of Florida Medical and Research Institute. "We had natural pregnancies and births in women diagnosed with adhesions, endometriosis, hormonal problems, and blocked fallopian tubes." Women in both studies averaged 5 years of infertility before the treatment. The therapy has an unusual side effect in some women: increased orgasms.

In a third study published in "Medscape General Medicine," (12/04) the therapy was shown to significantly increase desire, arousal and orgasm, and decrease sexual intercourse pain in study participants. The 20-hour therapy program can be completed in five days at Clear Passage clinics in Florida, Iowa, California or New York. See http://www.clearpassage.com. Free phone consultations are available at 1-866-BABYHERE (866-222-9437).

Acupuncture 'helps women have babies'

2008-10-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

Acupuncture could help women undergoing fertility treatment become pregnant, new research has found.
One in three women given the ancient Chinese therapy - which involves the insertion of needles into specific points on the body - alongside their IVF treatment successfully conceived, scientists from the University of Southampton discovered.
The success rate among those who did not combine fertility treatment with acupuncture was one in five.
IVF treatment involves "embryo transfer" - when an egg has been fertilised in a laboratory is put into a woman's womb.
The study, which involved more than 2,000 women, discovered that the chance of the embryo implanting successfully, triggering pregnancy, increased if the patient was treated with acupuncture at about the same time as the transfer.
Its authors, however, found there was no discernible benefit if the acupuncture took place days after the fertility treatment.
They concluded: "Acupuncture around the time of embryo transfer achieves a higher live birth rate of 35 per cent compared with 22 per cent without active acupuncture."
Dr Ying Cheong, from the university's reproductive medicine unit, who led the research, said the findings would offer encouragement for the 33,000 women who embark on IVF treatment each year.
"Our research is good news, because it shows that acupuncture can help with fertility in patients undergoing IVF," Dr Cheong said.
"Whether or not acupuncture helps women achieve a live birth is a controversial issue, and opinion has been divided on it.
"We show that acupuncture, performed at the right stage, can have significant benefit. A woman who does so has a much greater chance of having a live birth than a woman who doesn't have acupuncture."
Acupuncture therapists claim that by inserting very fine needles into points on people's "energy channels", they can stimulate the body's natural healing system. However it is controversial, and many medical experts remain sceptical over its claims. Dr Cheong's research was welcomed by charities that campaign for people suffering from fertility problems.
Susan Seenan, from Infertility Network UK, said: "These results appear to show that acupuncture given with embryo transfers can help improve success rates and we look forward to further research in this area to confirm this.
"Anything that helps improve the success rates for people going through infertility treatment is good news.
"Many of our members report that alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, can help them to cope with the treatment and the general stress."
SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk

BBC to pay £½m costs in IVF libel case

2008-10-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

IVF libel case:

The BBC yesterday abandoned its claim that a Panoroma investigation into the country’s top fertility doctor constituted “responsible journalism”.
It now faces having to pay out at least £500,000 of taxpayers’ money to Mohamed Taranissi, who is suing the corporation after the flagship current affairs programme accused him of pressuring patients into paying for unnecessary treatment.
BBC lawyers in the High Court ditched a 15-month-old claim that the corporation was protected from the doctor’s libel action by qualified privilege, which shields journalists so long as they carry out “responsible journalism”.
The BBC is still defending the claim on the ground that the Panorama allegations were substantially true.
Richard Rampton, QC, Mr Taranissi’s counsel, said that the corporation had “thrown in the towel” after months of hard work and hundreds of thousands of pounds incurred by both sides. “It follows as a matter of justice, as night follows day, that they should pay,” he said.
Giving judgment, Mr Justice Eady agreed, saying that the BBC must bear the financial burden of that part of the case — estimated by Mr Taranissi’s lawyers to have cost at least half a million pounds.
Adrienne Page, QC, representing the BBC, said that the corporation continued to “stand behind its journalists and its programme and expects both to be vindicated at trial”. Mr Rampton accused the BBC of “grossly exaggerating” the number of medical sources that supported the programme’s allegations that Mr Taranissi offered “unnecessary and unproven” treatment and manipulated the success rates of his two London clinics.
“It’s Alice in Wonderland stuff,” he said. “One of the so-called medical experts was actually an administrative assistant.” He also criticised Panorama for “misleading” viewers, which the BBC denied.
The development came as Mr Taranissi was named as the UK’s most successful fertility doctor in annual figures released yesterday by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. His Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre had comfortably the highest success rate of any British clinic in 2006, with 61 per cent of patients aged under 35 having a baby after IVF treatment with their own fresh eggs. The national average for this patient group was 31 per cent.
The doctor’s other centre, the Reproductive Genetics Institute, took second place in the table, with a 50 per cent success rate for women under 35.
The results are embarrassing for the authority, which has been engaged in a long disciplinary action against the doctor over claims that he treated patients at the Reproductive Genetics Institute without the correct licence. Last year the watchdog declared Mr Taranissi unfit to be the “person responsible” for his main clinic, but it annulled the ruling last month after a legal challenge. The High Court also found that the authority used unlawful warrants to search the two clinics last January.
The General Medical Council is currently hearing complaints against Mr Taranissi from two patients, which he contests.
IVF success rates
1 Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, London, 61% 2 Reproductive Genetics Institute, London, 50%3= Lister Fertility Clinic, London, 44%3= UCH, London, 44%5 Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, 42%6 Nurture, Nottingham, 41%7= Cromwell IVF and Fertility Centre, London, 39%7= Shropshire and Mid-Wales Fertility Centre, 39%9= Bath Fertility Centre, 38%9= CRM London, 38%9= Guy’s Hospital, London 38%

Source: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (for women under 35 using own fresh embryos)

New master switch found in the brain that regulates appetite and reproduction

2008-09-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

LA JOLLA, CA – Body weight and fertility have long known to be related to each other – women who are too thin, for example, can have trouble becoming pregnant. Now, a master switch has been found in the brain of mice that controls both, and researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies say it may work the same way in humans.

Findings from the study, published ahead of print in the Aug. 31 online edition of Nature Medicine, suggest that variations in the gene that produces this master switch, known as TORC1, could contribute a genetic component to obesity and infertility, and might be regulated with a novel drug.
"This gene is crucial to the daisy chain of signals that run between body fat and the brain," says Marc Montminy, Ph.D., a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, who led the study. "It likely plays a pivotal role in how much we, as humans, eat and whether we have offspring."

It is just as important as leptin, the well-known star regulator of appetite, Montminy says, because leptin turns on TORC1, which in turn activates a number of genes known to help control feeding and fertility.
Judith Altarejos Ph.D., first author on this study, had been trying to understand human energy balance, and what can go awry to promote obesity, diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. In this study, she looked at the signals that travel from body fat to the brain, informing the brain of how well fed the body is. The primary hormone that performs that function is leptin, which travels through the bloodstream to the hypothalamus in the brain (the appetite center), keeping the brain aware of the body's nutritional status.

"Leptin tells the brain that times are good, your body is full, and that it is not necessary to eat more at the moment," Montminy says. The hormone also is known to play a role in reproduction - although, until this study, no one understood what is was. (Very thin women often do not have periods.)
"Controlling appetite and reproduction together provides a big evolutionary advantage," Montminy says. "If there is no food, the brain believes the body should not reproduce because without body fat, a baby's growth in the womb could be stunted, and without food to replenish the body's energy reserves, there will be nothing to feed the offspring."
"Leptin works remarkably well to give the brain a good indication of how much food has been eaten; 99.9 percent of the time it balances food intake with energy use," he says. "The problem is that no machine works 100 percent of the time, and that slight bit of inefficiency can lead to extra body weight."

Obesity results when the brain becomes "deaf" to the leptin signal, so one goal of Montminy's research is to "try to make a way to make sure the brain signals are being heard." But to do that, he and his research team first have to understand all of the signals involved in the satiety pathway.

Through years of research, they have uncovered a family of genes that act as energy switches, turning other genes on or off. One gene, TORC2, acts like a fasting switch that flips on the production of glucose in the liver when blood glucose levels run low, usually during sleep. During the day, the hormone insulin normally shuts down TORC2, ensuring that blood sugar levels don't rise too high. Problems along the pathway, however, can help lead to diabetes.
In this study, Altarejos looked at the function of TORC1, which she knew was produced in the brain – unlike TORC2 and TORC3 – but didn't know what its function was. To do this, she created mice that lacked one or both copies of the TORC1 gene – the first such "knock-out" mice to be developed.

Mice born without TORC1 looked fine at birth, but at about eight weeks, they began to gain weight and became persistently obese in adulthood, with two to three times as much adipose fat as normal mice, and they also became insulin resistant. "Their hormones and blood sugar resembled that seen in humans with these disorders," Montminy says.

They also discovered, to their surprise, that mice of both sexes were infertile; the uteri and ovaries in female mice were anatomically dysfunctional, for example. "We don't study infertility, but we put two and two together," he says. "We knew leptin is the critical hormone for regulating body weight, and that it is also very important for regulating reproduction."
Altarejos discovered that TORC1, which is found within nerve cells, responds to signals from leptin, which binds to receptors on the outside of the same cells. TORC1 then turns on a spate of genes, two of which are well known. One is the CART (Cocaine and Amphetamine Regulated Transcript) gene that is known to stifle appetite. The other, KISS1 (named by its discoverers at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center) is required for reproduction; mutations in the gene produce human infertility.

So when leptin binds with its receptor on brain cells, it turns on TORC1, which, in turns activates CART to suppress appetite, because more food is not needed, and KISS1, signaling reproduction can now commence in this well-fed body. Conversely, when leptin is not activating brain receptors, TORC1 is turned off, as are CART and KISS1.

They also discovered that when mice inherit only one TORC1 gene (instead of the normal two, one from each parent), fertility is restored but the mice gain more weight than normal mice. "This suggests that half of the dose of TORC switch is enough to cause problems in leptin signaling in the brain, and it may be that subtle mutations in TORC1 in humans could be responsible for an inheritable risk factor for gaining weight," Montminy says.
Tweaking mutated and inefficient TORC genes may be possible through drug therapy, he adds. "TORC1 is regulated by phosphate handling enzymes called kinases, and kinases often make for very good drug targets," Montminy says.

SOURCE: eurekalert.org

FIRST IVF BABY TURNS 30 By Jennifer Rogers

2008-08-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Happy 30th, Louise.

As I approach my 30th birthday, having delayed marriage and children, the social and biological clock of keeping time for childbearing ticks louder. However, thanks to another 30-year-old woman, it's possible for me to feel at ease. That woman is Louise Brown, the first child born via IVF. Last week marked not only her 30th birthday but thirty years of success in giving many women and men a second chance to have a biologically-related (at least, in part) child of their own.

In fact, over 3 million babies worldwide have been born using IVF -- with over 52,000 infants born in the US, accounting for 1 percent of all births in the country.

In conversations with my close friends, it's been comforting to hear that we share the same concerns about starting a family later in life. We joke that after years of being on birth control--from condoms to pills to patches and rings and back to condoms again--diligently trying to avoid an unplanned pregnancy, we're fearful that we may, in fact, experience infertility.

Because of assisted reproduction and the tremendous successes gained in the past three decades, the clock is not ticking as loudly for me as it was for my mother. Instead, my generation has grown accustomed to this $3 billion industry--most of us know at least one friend, family member or colleague who has been through IVF. But this familiarity brings with it a whole new set of concerns. What are the ethical, moral, legal and financial impacts of this field? How do we grapple with these issues as a women's community, before others tell us what's best for our bodies and for our children? We've seen it before, and it will happen again.

It is incumbent upon the women's reproductive health community, particularly those who face these issues daily, to foster this debate. We might begin with the following concerns:

Number 1: Why is my generation of women and men more infertile than our parents? Currently, in the US, 1.2 million (or 2%) of women of reproductive age (defined by the CDC as age 10 to 49) have an infertility-related medical appointment each year; 10% receive infertility services at some point in their lives. As I've alluded, a big factor is age. To simplify things greatly, as more women gained equality in education and in the workplace, we also began to delay childbearing--for many reasons, including lack of maternity leave and inflexible work schedules.

But to highlight only age would be misleading. With so many individuals experiencing infertility (and in cases in which the underlying causes are never found), we cannot ignore the tremendous role that environmental contaminants are playing in this problem. Exposure to ubiquitous dioxins, such as cigarette smoke, lead, mercury and some agricultural pesticides are direct threats to a couple's ability to conceive or have a healthy pregnancy. And, more troubling, new research suggests that a broader range of chemicals--including many that are associated with everyday products such as household cleansers, flame retardants, personal care and beauty aids, and even plastic water bottles--could have a complex and far-reaching impact on fertility.

Number 2: Are these procedures--the hormones, the retrieval of eggs, the implantation of one or multiple embryos--safe for women and their children? The answer, for the most part, is that we don't know. While IVF has generally been accepted as safe by the American public, there are in fact very little published data, let alone quality, standardized data, on the short and long term safety of these procedures on women and children's health. As we see an increase in women going through these procedures for either their own reproduction or to donate their eggs, how can we fully inform them of the potential risks and benefits?

Number 3: The growth of this industry and the growth in the numbers of assisted fertility clinics (now at 475 in total) have increased the demand for women's eggs. While most clinics offer women an average of $3,000 to $8,000, some "baby brokers" have offered as much as $50,000-80,000 for specific egg donors. (The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's (ASRM) guidelines allow for women to be compensated for their time and risk up to $5,000 or $10,000 in some cases, but this is neither mandated nor regulated by either state or federal law.) This issue poses its own ethical and moral dilemmas: should a woman be compensated for donating her eggs? Can payment create a coercive or exploitative situation? What are the race and class implications of who demands and who gets solicited for their eggs?

As with many momentous events in my life, as I approach my 30th birthday, I'm asking myself more questions than I know answers. I have found that asking questions--and listening to a broad range of voices who have their own personal and insightful answers--is the first step in the process in advocating for change.

We must grapple with these issues and then propose solutions that follow our values and morals. So, in that vein, my parting question: what policies will empower all women to make their own decisions about having a child and yet protect her health? The answer to this will be the best 30th birthday present for me and Louise.

PIONEERING TECHNIQUE ENDS BABY WAIT

2008-08-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

A couple who tried for a baby for seven years are celebrating the birth of a daughter thanks to a pioneering new technology.

Ian and Rebecca Bloomer attended the IVF clinic at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. In August last year, the hospital began using a new technology to freeze unused embryos through "vitrification".

This method, offered to the Bloomers, gave the embryos a better chance of surviving the freeze so they would be available again as soon as the couple were ready to try again.

Mrs Bloomer fell pregnant almost immediately using one of these embryos and became the proud mother of a healthy baby girl on July 23.
The childhood sweethearts, from Cwmbran, South Wales, had wanted a baby since they married in 2001. But tests revealed that Mrs Bloomer, 28, had endometriosis, a condition which was making it difficult for her to conceive.

Mrs Bloomer said: "We were willing to try anything really, we'd both always wanted children.

"It's overwhelming. I'm still staring at her now thinking 'wow, she's ours - it's actually happened for us'.

"I hope that if anybody going through treatment sees us and sees Evie it gives them one last little bit of hope to go for it.

"It's been a real emotional rollercoaster. There's been ups and downs, but you get through it and, to have Evie now, you forget what you went through. It makes it all worthwhile."

Lyndon Miles, head of embryology and andrology for IVF Wales, said: "The first published study on babies born from vitrification shows no adverse effects of the technique and there are no implications to Evie's health as a result of the vitrification process."

SOURCE: The Press Association

INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE BLOG ON INFERTILITY

2008-07-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT LOLLIPOP GOLDSTEIN'S INTERESTING BLOG ABOUT INFERTILITY AND PREGNANCY LOSS, AN EXPLORATION OF ADOPTION AND DONOR GAMETES, A BITCH SESSION ABOUT DAILY LIFE AND BOOKS, ETC at:
http://www.stirrup-queens.blogspot.com

HOW DO COUPLES COPE WHEN IVF FAILS?

2008-07-26T00:08:00.000-07:00

Broke, babyless and in need of help. John Naish examines the taboo question of how couples cope when it all goes wrong:

Across Britain next Friday, thousands of couples will brace themselves for a welter of “miracle-baby” stories as the world marks the 30th birthday of Louise Brown, the first test-tube child. In the shadow of assisted conception's many successes are the 75 per cent of women patients for whom the gruelling medical process never works. The vast majority are neither monitored nor offered counselling but, it seems, are expected to slink away, marked “failed.”

Caroline Gallup is among the 25,000 women each year whose fertility treatment proves fruitless, often after spending all their available funds and putting their relationships under perilous strain. Rather than quietly grieving, Gallup is campaigning for the NHS and high-earning private clinics to give support after assisted conception has failed and to fund studies into what happens to these people's lives.

Very little research has been done, but in 2000 a small study of 76 women by the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast found that five years after their unsuccessful treatment they suffered “significant psychological dysfunction”, particularly stress and depression. The research, published in the journal Human Fertility, concluded: “There is a strong need to prepare women better for treatment failure and to ensure that counselling is available when further treatment is no longer appropriate.” This echoes the findings of a Hull University study three years earlier. Both recommendations have fallen on deaf ears.

The government watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, says that it sees issues about follow-up monitoring and counselling as outside its remit, because it regulates only the process of infertility treatment itself.

Hence Gallup's campaigning. “I see the routine provision of post-treatment counselling as a moral duty,” says the 44-year-old Londoner. “When you are treated, you have to believe that a baby will grow. When it doesn't, the crash is awful, but you're buoyed as long as you can go through another cycle. I think it's only morally right for clinics to carry on with ‘after-sales service' when that hope has disappeared.”

COUPLES HAVE THE UTMOST OPTIMISM
“The clinics do tell you at their open days that there is a 76 per cent failure rate across the board, but couples aren't in a position to take that in,” says Gallup. “The only way you can enter into something so grim is with the utmost optimism.” Indeed, a study in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist journal found that although clear information on success rates is given to couples, “the majority believe that they will be the minority who achieve pregnancy”.

Gallup and her husband decided to stop trying after they had paid £8,000 for private treatment. “It was partly down to money - we'd run out - and partly the fact that it was wrecking our relationship. My husband said he didn't want to go through it any more. It was turning me into a total obsessive,” she says, adding: “Blame can play a really big part in relationships after treatment failure. It's one of the big reasons why counselling is needed.”

Four years after the treatment ended, she says: “My husband and I are still dealing with it. I have had to reinvent myself. I didn't know what my identity was after we had finished. That's a huge psychological thing.” Now she has taken a less demanding job in her career in events management to spend time lobbying interest groups and politicians. She is also trying to develop a career as a writer, having published a book on her fertility treatment experiences, Making Babies the Hard Way.

Emerging from fertility treatment babyless, broke and in need of professional support to get back on the rails is a common experience, according to the British Infertility Counselling Association. “A lot of people come out of the process highly stressed and they think they can go for free counselling, but there is no such thing,” says a spokeswoman. “Funding is a big problem for most people. They may well not be able to pay for private counselling because they have spent all their money on treatment.”

One of the few organisations to provide social support is More To Life, which helps involuntarily childless people to develop networks and swap advice. Membership costs £20 annually and has grown rapidly in the two years since it was established, says Susan Seenan, one of the organisers. “Social life can be difficult for infertile couples, especially women,” she says. “Wherever you go - barbecues, parties, christenings - everyone has children.
“It's difficult to talk about infertility and childlessness. It's seen as a stigma. But with more people leaving it until later in life to try for children, there is bound to be more infertility, more treatment, and more disappointed couples.”

It is not only infertile women who face bereavement and loss of purpose. David Downage regularly attends More To Life social events. He and his wife went through treatment in the NHS and privately, but ultimately decided that their hopes were beyond slim. “It was a traumatic decision, but the danger is that you go on trying too long and damage your relationship,” he says. “So we decided to move on.”

The Downages joined More To Life to extend their social network beyond old friends with their new families. “We had to find it by searching the web,” he says. “It's strange that clinics can't point you to organisations like this after the treatment has failed,” says David, 47, a property developer. “For a man, discovering that you're going to be childless raises questions about what you are doing with your life. Once you can pay the bills, what is there after that? My wife and I came to view it as an opportunity to do other things. She is keen to get involved in charity work with children. We plan to retire early and, hopefully, be able to put some of our money into building children's schools. Certainly we will be able to do that as a legacy.”

Finding renewed purpose is one of the best survival strategies, says Jacky Boivin, a researcher at Cardiff University's School of Psychology. She has followed more than 100 women undertaking IVF over seven years, and is running a five-year study of 818 couples in Denmark.
“There is not much research into what happens to people in the long term after unsuccessful treatment, but our data indicates that about 40 per cent of couples are highly distressed at having to stop. After they have made the decision, around 5 to 10 per cent remain stuck in that state. People who come to the end of the IVF treatment and feel they could have had more are often seized with resentment.

“You have to reinvent a life that is not about having a family,” she stresses. “You have to look for the positive while acknowledging the negative. People have to regain a sense of control over their lives, after having it taken over by regimens that tell them exactly when they should be having sex. And they need to look at the experience as an opportunity to renew life interests. Sadly, the lack of post-treatment counselling means people don't have support in this.”

AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS
There is one surprise. Boivin says: “Oddly, the divorce rate is much lower among couples whose fertility treatment failed than for the general population: 10 per cent versus 50 per cent. We don't know why. There is life after infertility treatment. Not always an easy one, but most people will go on to find contentment, though the experience will always carry a sting.”
SOURCE: THE TIMES ONLINE

Science thinks big for better IVF

2008-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

A new IVF technique involves selecting sperm with a shape and size that indicate good genetic quality. The best are injected into eggs to fertilise them. Results show improved pregnancy rates.
Infertile men can more than double their chances of fatherhood with a new IVF technique, according to the most comprehensive study of the procedure yet conducted.

The results of a major trial of the approach, which builds upon the technique of injecting sperm directly into an egg, suggest dramatic benefits for the one in 12 couples affected by male factor infertility. A far more powerful microscope is used to identify the sperm most likely to succeed.

The results, from a team in Italy, are encouraging for men with an especially poor fertility prognosis and who have tried and failed to have children by IVF at least twice in the past. Their prospect of becoming fathers using the therapy was double that with standard methods, the study found.

The method, which was first developed in 2004 by a team led by Benjamin Bartoov, of BarIlan University in Israel, is called intra-cytoplasmic morphologically-selected sperm injection (IMSI). It involves examining sperm under a high-magnification microscope, about five times more powerful than standard laboratory equipment, to select those with a shape and size that indicates good genetic quality. The best-looking sperm are then injected into eggs.

British scientists hailed the results as the strongest demonstration yet of the new therapy’s benefits. “I don’t think a lot of people in the UK have woken up to this yet, but they are going to have to,” said Allan Pacey, Lecturer in Andrology at the University of Sheffield. “This is strong evidence from a well-designed study. If it can be repeated in two or three studies, people would seriously have to think about changing their approach.”

The treatment builds on the success of intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a therapy for male infertility that has enabled thousands to become fathers since it was developed in the early Nineties. ICSI involves fertilising an egg in a laboratory by injecting it with a single sperm. As the sperm does not have to swim up to the egg and penetrate it, the method can help men whose sperm would otherwise be too weak. Even when men produce no sperm, doctors can sometimes recover them surgically from the testes.

ICSI is now used in about 40 per cent of the 41,000 IVF cycles performed annually in the UK, and accounts for about 4,500 children born each year. This suggests that upwards of 10,000 men a year could be appropriate patients for the new technique.

The Italian team, led by Monica Antinori, of the Raprui clinic in Rome, has conducted the largest randomised controlled trial to compare outcomes for IMSI and ICSI. It involved 446 couples in which the man was infertile and the woman was not known to have any problems.

The results, which are published in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online, show that the IMSI method can deliver considerable improvements in pregnancy rate. The overall pregnancy rate for the IMSI group was 39.2 per cent, compared with 26.5 per cent for the ICSI patients.

Among men with the worst prognosis, who had had at least two failed attempts at ICSI before, the improvement was better still. The pregnancy rate for IMSI was 29.8 per cent, compared with 12.9 per cent for standard ICSI. The miscarriage rate also fell considerably.

Dr Antinori said the findings demonstrate that the technique has potential, particularly for men with a history of IVF failure. “By treating this kind of patient with this technique, we offer them an opportunity to solve their fertility problems. As you can see from the results, the group that has had two or more IVF failures can get more than twice the opportunity to have a pregnancy with this new technique.”

She cautioned, however, that IMSI is about twice as expensive as ICSI, which typically costs between £3,000 and £5,000 per cycle in Britain. It also requires special training for embryologists, and the purchase of expensive high-magnification microscopes.

IMSI is not yet offered in the UK, though it is performed by clinics in Italy, Israel, Switzerland and Spain.

Dr Pacey said: “People have been seduced into thinking that, as long as you’ve got a sperm that’s half decent, it’s got as good a chance as any. But it looks like we can do better than that.”

Source: The Times July 7 2008

COFFEE CUTS CHANCE OF HAVING BABY

2008-07-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Drinking too much coffee or tea can cut the chances of a woman getting pregnant by a quarter if she already has fertility problems. The effect is the same as drinking excessive alcohol, according to researchers in the Netherlands. They looked at 8,669 women who had undergone IVF treatment and found the likelihood of pregnancy was significantly reduced for those who smoked, drank too much coffee and alcohol, and were overweight. Fertility expert Prof Bill Ledger, of the University of Sheffield, said: ‘A lot of women can have 20 cups of coffee a day and get pregnant while falling off a log, but if you’re already sub fertile it could push you over the edge.’

Source: Metro newspaper Tue, July 8, 2008

IMAGINE THIS: ELDERLY BRITISH INDIAN COUPLE ACCUSED OF ABANDONING IVF TWINS BECAUSE THEY WERE GIRLS!

2008-06-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Reports that a British couple abandoned twin girls after IVF treatment in India because they were the wrong gender have been disputed by an NHS trust.

The Sun reported that the mother, 59, and father, 72, who are Indian-born British citizens, travelled to India for fertility treatment that would not have been allowed in the UK because of their age.

The babies were born by Caesarean section in Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital a fortnight ago after which - the newspaper reported - the parents, who have not been named, told medical staff that they were of "the wrong sex".

The Sun said that the husband then asked medics how long it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly back to India for more IVF treatment in the hope of getting a boy to continue the family name.

MORE DETAILS AT:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4025532.ece

NATURAL IVF

2008-05-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

For an ivf cycle, a woman’s body is practically bombarded by powerful drugs; first to shut down her ovaries (down regulation), and then other drugs to stimulate them to produce more eggs(FSH), and yet another drug to trigger ovulation (HCG). Women react to these drugs in different ways and one (costs aside), may understandably be wary of subjecting the body to them. The effects of long term use of these drugs (necessary when one has to repeat treatment cycles) can be worrisome and is still being studied.

NATURAL CYCLE IVF is definitely worth considering. In effect, you get the best of both worlds. For this procedure, it is the single egg produced in a woman’s normal cycle that is inseminated. Also known as no or low stimulation IVF, it is an invitro fertilisation procedure which uses no artificial fertility drugs, or very low dose ones.

Why Would I Want To Have IVF Without Fertility Drugs?
For some couples, the choice is financial. It is done at a fraction of the cost of standard IVF, so it may be their only chance at treatment. Some people prefer to try this method before moving on to traditional IVF.

For others, the choice may be medical. They may be contraindicated to fertility drugs (for instance, with a previous history of ovarian cancer or depression) or they may have reacted badly to a course of fertility drugs before. Women who have suffered with ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome may be offered this type of treatment as the syndrome is very serious and can be life-threatening so it may not be safe for them to continue with standard IVF.

Some couples just don't like drugs and prefer a more natural approach to infertility.

A point to note is that because of the improvement in the embryo culture technology, we are now at a point where even one egg gives a reasonable chance of success – about 15% per cycle. Therefore, in women who do not wish to use fertility medications, cannot afford fertility medications, or who do not produce many eggs even when they use fertility medications – Natural Cycle IVF is a logical and often successful alternative. Given that the success is 15% per attempt, it has been the experience of many centers that with several cycles of Natural IVF, one can achieve the same success rate of one cycle of stimulated IVF (45%).

Please see http://www.invitrofertilisation.blogspot.com for conclusion of this topic.

EGG WHITE AS A NATURAL FERTILITY AID

2008-04-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, egg white! If you’ve tried everything and nothing has worked, it is indeed worth a try and it does seem to work from the many testimonials on its use. However it appears that there is a slight risk of infection involved. These are the stories of ladies who swear by it:

Husband and I had been trying to conceive for 5 months with no luck. This month we decided to use real egg whites. I used a syringe without the needle to insert the egg whites. I also used the pillow to prop myself up during intercourse. And then I stayed in bed until the next morning without getting up. We used them the day before ovulation and the day after.

14 days later we found out we are pregnant. I also know two other women who got pregnant recently and the only thing they did differently that month was the egg whites. I would recommend it to anyone!
James Jelly Bean

I’m nine weeks pregnant and here’s my story: husband and I have been trying to conceive for one year after a miscarriage. I’m 43 and was aware that I was producing much less cervical mucus that I used to. Most months I am not aware of any egg white cervical mucus.

I read about the egg white in February and tried it only once a few days before ovulation. I took an egg from the fridge, broke it open and sucked up some egg white with a medicine dropper. Took it into the bathroom and inserted it into my vagina and squeezed tight as I walked to the bed. We had intercourse and I got pregnant!

My doctor says it’s an absolute miracle. I believe he is right; however I didn’t tell him about the egg whites. I’m keeping that my little secret until I find out the genetic testing comes out okay. Then I will tell him about it.
Dorian

For more info & testimonials on EGG WHITE AS A CONCEPTION AID, please visit: http://www.tryingtoconceive.com/eggwhites

IUI DOES WORK: ENCOURAGING SUCCESS STORIES

2008-02-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

Ten weeks ago, I gave birth to my beautiful baby. He was conceived on my second IUI attempt in June of 2004. We were dealing with tubal issues and male factor, so we were overjoyed that the second IUI took. To give a brief history, I had one tube removed in March of 2002 due to a hydosalpinx and husband was diagnosed with low counts, morphology, and motility in 2001. After an HSG and laparoscopy to remove the bad tube, I conceived naturally in June of 2002. This was after we were told by several fertility doctors that due to our combined fertility issues, IVF was our best option. Our baby was born in February of 2003. Best of luck to everyone here and believe that miracles do happen.

*Carrie proud mommy to Alexa and Zachary

Never Give Up
This is a testament to never giving up. My husband and I tried to get pregnant for over 5 years . He was okay with no problems. But for me the story was very different.I struggled with hormone inbalances, thyroid problems and a poor reaction to the Clomid ( even though we tried it for a whole year --- mistake).In the end of the struggle - when I thought I could not bear any more tests, any more procedures ... I had my 6th IUI with Follistim for the 3rd time ... and to my surprise and pleasure. I was pregnant! I got another surprise on 02/28/2005 - when TWO HEARTBEATS were seen on the ultrasound screen. I am almost 16 weeks with these two angels!Never stop trying!

*Brooke

TIPS FOR IMPROVING IUI SUCCESS

2008-02-06T23:47:00.001-08:00

Q: Do I have to lay down after an IUI?

A: You don't have to lay down because the cervix doesn't remain open, but most doctors let patients lay down on the table for 15-30 minutes after the procedure.

Q: Do I need to take it easy after an IUI?

A: Most people don't need to, but if you had cramping or don't feel well afterward it makes sense to take it easy for awhile. Some people reduce their aerobic activity and heavy lifting during the luteal phase in hopes it will increase the chance of implantation. It is more important to take it easy for a bit after IVF, as that is a more invasive process.

ACHIEVING PREGNANCY THROUGH IUI

2008-02-06T23:12:00.000-08:00

Intrauterine insemination (IUI): A procedure in which a fine catheter (tube) is inserted through the cervix (the natural opening of the uterus) into the uterus (the womb) to deposit a sperm sample directly into the uterus. The purpose of IUI is to achieve fertilization and pregnancy. IUI is a relatively simple procedure. "Intrauterine" is within the uterus. "Insemination" is from "in-" + "semen," seed = seed in. So, "intrauterine insemination" = seed in the uterus.

What is an intrauterine insemination?
If you're having trouble getting pregnant, your doctor may recommend an intrauterine insemination (IUI) -- a relatively noninvasive and inexpensive way to boost your chances of conceiving.
With an IUI, your partner provides a sperm sample at home or in the doctor's office on the same day of the insemination. Then, his sperm are "washed" -- that is, the sperm are separated from the semen and concentrated; the washing also cleanses the sperm of potentially hazardous chemicals that could harm the uterus. The resulting liquid is placed in a thin soft tube and injected high into your uterus. This positions the sperm much closer to the fallopian tubes, where it will have to be for one of them to fertilize an egg.
If you don't have a male partner, or if your partner is unable to produce viable sperm, you can undergo the same procedure using frozen sperm purchased from a sperm bank.
The procedure takes only a few minutes. You may experience mild cramping, but it's usually brief and you can resume your activities immediately afterward.

Am I a good candidate for IUI?
The procedure works well for many women under 45 with certain fertility problems (whose partners have viable sperm), and for those in the same age group without male partners who are trying to get pregnant using donated sperm. Some infertility groups say it is less likely to work if women are over 42 or even 40. It's a common treatment for women who have ovulation problems or unexplained infertility, or whose partners have low sperm counts, poorly shaped sperm, or problems with sperm motility (ability to travel).
IUI is particularly appropriate when the woman has been prescribed clomiphene citrate (Clomid or Serophene) to stimulate ovulation, since this medication can result in cervical mucous that is thick and difficult for the sperm to swim through.
Fertility specialists don't usually advise women who have blocked fallopian tubes, severe tubal damage, or very poor egg quality to try IUI. They are also unlikely to suggest this treatment if a man has more than a mild problem with his sperm quality. It's standard to have a thorough fertility workup, including an evaluation for hormonal imbalances, infections, or blockages, before trying IUI.
Single women, couples where the man has no viable sperm, and lesbian couples using donor sperm are also good candidates for intrauterine insemination. Because donor sperm is often frozen and a woman's chances of getting pregnant are reduced using frozen -- as opposed to fresh -- sperm, IUI is a relatively easy way to boost the odds. It's more effective, say doctors, than using a plastic syringe to position the sperm on the cervix, a procedure known as intracervical insemination (ICI) that women generally do at home.

Will I need to take fertility drugs?
IUI is timed to occur in the most fertile period of your cycle, or ovulation. In some cases, women receive intrauterine inseminations without having to take drugs. Although there's no universal agreement, many fertility specialists feel women have a better chance of getting pregnant if they combine IUI with a drug that stimulates the ovaries to produce mature eggs. If you are having ovulation problems, your doctor may have you take an ovulation-stimulating drug, such as clomiphene, for several weeks before doing the IUI. The procedure can also be tried in conjunction with injections of FSH, or follicle-stimulating hormone.
If you are injected with ovarian stimulation drugs, your doctor will need to monitor you carefully with blood tests and ultrasounds beginning on the sixth day of your cycle. Women taking these drugs are at risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a rare but potentially life-threatening condition marked by abnormal swelling of the ovaries and fluid collection in the abdomen.

What are the other risks of IUI?
Complications of IUI are infrequent, according to fertility experts. Besides the risks of combined IUI and fertility drug treatment, they include infection and the possibility of venereal disease. To lessen the risk of disease, fertility clinics should quarantine all frozen specimens of sperm for 180 days and retest the donor for HIV before releasing the sperm, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Although some fertility clinics offer fresh donor sperm, the society recommends against its use.

How long will it take to get pregnant?
Specialists recommend from three to six cycles of IUI before you consider moving to a more invasive or expensive treatment, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). If your doctor thinks you could benefit from IUI, at $200 to $500 per insemination, as opposed to $7,000 to $15,000 for IVF, it's well worth a try.
-- Elaine Herscher is a senior editor at Consumer Health Interactive. She formerly covered health policy for the San Francisco Chronicle.
What is an intrauterine insemination?
If you're having trouble getting pregnant, your doctor may recommend an intrauterine insemination (IUI) -- a relatively noninvasive and inexpensive way to boost your chances of conceiving.
With an IUI, your partner provides a sperm sample at home or in the doctor's office on the same day of the insemination. Then, his sperm are "washed" -- that is, the sperm are separated from the semen and concentrated; the washing also cleanses the sperm of potentially hazardous chemicals that could harm the uterus. The resulting liquid is placed in a thin soft tube and injected high into your uterus. This positions the sperm much closer to the fallopian tubes, where it will have to be for one of them to fertilize an egg.
If you don't have a male partner, or if your partner is unable to produce viable sperm, you can undergo the same procedure using frozen sperm purchased from a sperm bank.
The procedure takes only a few minutes. You may experience mild cramping, but it's usually brief and you can resume your activities immediately afterward.

Am I a good candidate for IUI?
The procedure works well for many women under 45 with certain fertility problems (whose partners have viable sperm), and for those in the same age group without male partners who are trying to get pregnant using donated sperm. Some infertility groups say it is less likely to work if women are over 42 or even 40. It's a common treatment for women who have ovulation problems or unexplained infertility, or whose partners have low sperm counts, poorly shaped sperm, or problems with sperm motility (ability to travel).
IUI is particularly appropriate when the woman has been prescribed clomiphene citrate (Clomid or Serophene) to stimulate ovulation, since this medication can result in cervical mucous that is thick and difficult for the sperm to swim through.
Fertility specialists don't usually advise women who have blocked fallopian tubes, severe tubal damage, or very poor egg quality to try IUI. They are also unlikely to suggest this treatment if a man has more than a mild problem with his sperm quality. It's standard to have a thorough fertility workup, including an evaluation for hormonal imbalances, infections, or blockages, before trying IUI.
Single women, couples where the man has no viable sperm, and lesbian couples using donor sperm are also good candidates for intrauterine insemination. Because donor sperm is often frozen and a woman's chances of getting pregnant are reduced using frozen -- as opposed to fresh -- sperm, IUI is a relatively easy way to boost the odds. It's more effective, say doctors, than using a plastic syringe to position the sperm on the cervix, a procedure known as intracervical insemination (ICI) that women generally do at home.

Will I need to take fertility drugs?
IUI is timed to occur in the most fertile period of your cycle, or ovulation. In some cases, women receive intrauterine inseminations without having to take drugs. Although there's no universal agreement, many fertility specialists feel women have a better chance of getting pregnant if they combine IUI with a drug that stimulates the ovaries to produce mature eggs. If you are having ovulation problems, your doctor may have you take an ovulation-stimulating drug, such as clomiphene, for several weeks before doing the IUI. The procedure can also be tried in conjunction with injections of FSH, or follicle-stimulating hormone.
If you are injected with ovarian stimulation drugs, your doctor will need to monitor you carefully with blood tests and ultrasounds beginning on the sixth day of your cycle. Women taking these drugs are at risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a rare but potentially life-threatening condition marked by abnormal swelling of the ovaries and fluid collection in the abdomen.

What are the other risks of IUI?
Complications of IUI are infrequent, according to fertility experts. Besides the risks of combined IUI and fertility drug treatment, they include infection and the possibility of venereal disease. To lessen the risk of disease, fertility clinics should quarantine all frozen specimens of sperm for 180 days and retest the donor for HIV before releasing the sperm, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Although some fertility clinics offer fresh donor sperm, the society recommends against its use.

How long will it take to get pregnant?
Specialists recommend from three to six cycles of IUI before you consider moving to a more invasive or expensive treatment, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). If your doctor thinks you could benefit from IUI, at $200 to $500 per insemination, as opposed to $7,000 to $15,000 for IVF, it's well worth a try.
-- Elaine Herscher is a senior editor at Consumer Health Interactive. She formerly covered health policy for the San Francisco Chronicle.(from a healthyme.com)

WHEN A WOMAN IS MOST LIKELY TO BECOME PREGNANT

2008-01-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

WHEN A WOMAN IS MOST LIKELY TO BECOME PREGNANT

Failing to conceive may be a result of careless timing of intercourse by couples apart from diseases that contribute to infertility.

A woman is most likely to conceive just after the time she ovulates. An egg lives for about twenty four hours after it is released from the ovary. If a woman is going to conceive, the egg has to be fertilized within these twenty four hours.

If you want to become pregnant then the time to make love is around the time of ovulation. The best time of all is the day before ovulation. This gives the sperm time to travel up into the Fallopian tubes and so to be waiting when the egg is released.

You can find out when you ovulate and so when you are likely to conceive.

HOW TO FIND OUT WHEN YOU OVULATE

There are several ways of finding out when you ovulate. If you use all the methods together, you will get the most accurate idea of your time of ovulation.

The Calender Method
1. If your monthly cycle is fairly regular, you are probably used to working out when your next period is due. You can work out when you ovulate in the same way. First you have to get to know the pattern of your monthly cycle. Keep a record of your periods. Each month, record the first day of bleeding, in your diary or on a calendar. Do this for a number of months.

2. you can now work out the length of your monthly cycle. For each month that you have recorded, count the days from the first day of the next. If you have a regular cycle, the number of days between your periods will be about the same each month. But if the numbers vary a lot, you obviously have an irregular cycle and you will need to use the temperature or mucus methods to find out when you ovulate.

3. The length of a woman’s cycle varies. But most women ovulate about fourteen days before their next period. So using what you know to be the usual length of your monthly cycle, work out the first day of your period. Now count back fourteen days and you have the time when you are likely to ovulate. If you have intercourse around this time, you have a better chance of conceiving than at any other time in the month.

10 INFERTILITY QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR DOCTOR

2008-01-02T17:54:00.001-08:00

Ten Infertility Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Medical Author: Melissa Stoppler, M.D.Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr, MD, FACP, FACR

Be sure to take along the records of any diagnostic studies and/or fertility treatments you may have had in the past if you are visiting a new fertility specialist. If you have been keeping records of the dates of your menstrual cycles and/or basal body temperature charts, take these along too. Also, print this and take it with you to your doctor visit.

1. What is my diagnosis, and how does this condition specifically interfere with fertility? Does my partner have a condition that interferes with fertility? Will these conditions worsen over time, improve, or remain constant?

2. If the reason for my infertility is unclear, what diagnostic tests do you recommend? What is the likelihood that each of these tests will establish a diagnosis? Are there any risks associated with the testing? Does my partner need additional testing?

3. What type of treatment would you recommend trying first? Does this treatment involve surgery, medications, or both? What are the risks of treatment?

4. In your practice, how often does this treatment result in pregnancy? (Be sure to determine whether your doctor is talking about pregnancy rates or live-birth rates when discussing specific treatments so you can make adequate comparisons. For example, a treatment may have a 30% pregnancy rate per cycle but only a 25% live-birth rate due to early miscarriages.)

5. Are less-invasive or more conservative treatments available? How do these compare with your recommended treatment in terms of risks and success rates?

6. How many cycles of treatment would you recommend before trying another option? Do you recommend skipping a menstrual cycle between treatment cycles?

7. Are there any lifestyle modifications that might help my condition and increase my chances of getting pregnant?

8. (If this is an acceptable option for you) Would you recommend treatments using donor eggs and/or sperm? Does your clinic or practice offer these options?

9. What is my prognosis? In your opinion, how likely is fertility treatment to be successful for me? (While no doctor can give you an exact answer to this question, taking into account your personal medical information and age, your doctor's past experiences may allow him or her to roughly estimate whether you will have an average, below-average, or above-average chance of success).

10. What does treatment cost? Does my insurance cover any of the medications, hospital charges, or doctor's visits? If I must pay out-of-pocket, do you offer any special payment plans?

WHAT IS ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY (ART)?

2008-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

What is assisted reproductive technology (ART)?

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a term that describes several different methods used to help infertile couples. ART involves removing eggs from a woman's body, mixing them with sperm in the laboratory and putting the embryos back into a woman's body.

How often is assisted reproductive technology (ART) successful?

Success rates vary and depend on many factors. Some things that affect the success rate of ART include:
age of the partners
reason for infertility
clinic
type of ART
if the egg is fresh or frozen
if the embryo is fresh or frozen

The U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) collects success rates on ART for some fertility clinics. According to the 2003 CDC report on ART, the average percentage of ART cycles that led to a healthy baby were as follows:
37.3% in women under the age of 35
30.2% in women aged 35-37
20.2% in women aged 37-40
11.0% in women aged 41-42

ART can be expensive and time-consuming. But it has allowed many couples to have children that otherwise would not have been conceived. The most common complication of ART is multiple fetuses. But this is a problem that can be prevented or minimized in several different ways.

What are the different types of assisted reproductive technology (ART)?

Common methods of ART include:

In vitro fertilization (IVF) means fertilization outside of the body. IVF is the most effective ART. It is often used when a woman's fallopian tubes are blocked or when a man produces too few sperm. Doctors treat the woman with a drug that causes the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. Once mature, the eggs are removed from the woman. They are put in a dish in the lab along with the man's sperm for fertilization. After 3 to 5 days, healthy embryos are implanted in the woman's uterus.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT IVF : www.invitrofertilisation.blogspot.com

Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) or Tubal Embryo Transfer is similar to IVF. Fertilization occurs in the laboratory. Then the very young embryo is transferred to the fallopian tube instead of the uterus.

Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) involves transferring eggs and sperm into the woman's fallopian tube. So fertilization occurs in the woman's body. Few practices offer GIFT as an option.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is often used for couples in which there are serious problems with the sperm. Sometimes it is also used for older couples or for those with failed IVF attempts. In ICSI, a single sperm is injected into a mature egg. Then the embryo is transferred to the uterus or fallopian tube.

ART procedures sometimes involve the use of donor eggs (eggs from another woman), donor sperm, or previously frozen embryos. Donor eggs are sometimes used for women who can not produce eggs. Also, donor eggs or donor sperm is sometimes used when the woman or man has a genetic disease that can be passed on to the baby.

WHAT MEDICINES ARE USED TO TREAT INFERTILITY IN WOMEN?

2008-01-02T17:46:00.000-08:00

What medicines are used to treat infertility in women?

Some common medicines used to treat infertility in women include:

Clomiphene citrate (Clomid): This medicine causes ovulation by acting on the pituitary gland. It is often used in women who have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) or other problems with ovulation. This medicine is taken by mouth.
Human menopausal gonadotropin or hMG (Repronex, Pergonal): This medicine is often used for women who don't ovulate due to problems with their pituitary gland. hMG acts directly on the ovaries to stimulate ovulation. It is an injected medicine.
Follicle-stimulating hormone or FSH (Gonal-F, Follistim): FSH works much like hMG. It causes the ovaries to begin the process of ovulation. These medicines are usually injected.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) analog: These medicines are often used for women who don't ovulate regularly each month. Women who ovulate before the egg is ready can also use these medicines. Gn-RH analogs act on the pituitary gland to change when the body ovulates. These medicines are usually injected or given with a nasal spray.
Metformin (Glucophage): Doctors use this medicine for women who have insulin resistance and/or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). This drug helps lower the high levels of male hormones in women with these conditions. This helps the body to ovulate. Sometimes clomiphene citrate or FSH is combined with metformin. This medicine is usually taken by mouth.
Bromocriptine (Parlodel): This medicine is used for women with ovulation problems due to high levels of prolactin. Prolactin is a hormone that causes milk production. Many fertility drugs increase a woman's chance of having twins, triplets or other multiples. Women who are pregnant with multiple fetuses have more problems during pregnancy. Multiple fetuses have a high risk of being born too early (prematurely). Premature babies are at a higher risk of health and developmental problems.

HOW DO DOCTORS TREAT INFERTILITY?

2008-01-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

How do doctors treat infertility?

Infertility can be treated with medicine, surgery, artificial insemination or assisted reproductive technology (CLICK HERE TO VISIT: www.invitrofertilisation.blogspot.com)
. Many times these treatments are combined. About two-thirds of couples who are treated for infertility are able to have a baby. In most cases infertility is treated with drugs or surgery.

Doctors recommend specific treatments for infertility based on:

* test results
* how long the couple has been trying to get pregnant the
* age of both the man and woman
* the overall health of the partners
* preference of the partners

Doctors often treat infertility in men in the following ways:

Sexual problems: If the man is impotent or has problems with premature ejaculation, doctors can help him address these issues. Behavioral therapy and/or medicines can be used in these cases.

Too few sperm: If the man produces too few sperm, sometimes surgery can correct this problem. In other cases, doctors can surgically remove sperm from the male reproductive tract. Antibiotics can also be used to clear up infections affecting sperm count.

Various fertility medicines are often used to treat women with ovulation problems. It is important to talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of these medicines. You should understand the risks, benefits, and side effects.

Doctors also use surgery to treat some causes of infertility. Problems with a woman's ovaries, fallopian tubes, or uterus can sometimes be corrected with surgery.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is another type of treatment for infertility. IUI is known by most people as artificial insemination. In this procedure, the woman is injected with specially prepared sperm. Sometimes the woman is also treated with medicines that stimulate ovulation before IUI.

IUI is often used to treat:
* mild male factor infertility
* women who have problems with their cervical mucus
* couples with unexplained infertility

HOW LONG SHOULD WOMEN TRY TO GET PREGNANT BEFORE CALLING THEIR DOCTORS?

2008-01-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

How long should women try to get pregnant before calling their doctors?

Most healthy women under the age of 30 shouldn't worry about infertility unless they've been trying to get pregnant for at least a year. At this point, women should talk to their doctors about a fertility evaluation. Men should also talk to their doctors if this much time has passed.

In some cases, women should talk to their doctors sooner. Women in their 30s who've been trying to get pregnant for six months should speak to their doctors as soon as possible. A woman's chances of having a baby decrease rapidly every year after the age of 30. So getting a complete and timely fertility evaluation is especially important.

Some health issues also increase the risk of fertility problems. So women with the following issues should speak to their doctors as soon as possible:

irregular periods or no menstrual periods
very painful periods
endometriosis
pelvic inflammatory disease
more than one miscarriage

No matter how old you are, it's always a good idea to talk to a doctor before you start trying to get pregnant. Doctors can help you prepare your body for a healthy baby. They can also answer questions on fertility and give tips on conceiving.

How will doctors find out if a woman and her partner have fertility problems?

Sometimes doctors can find the cause of a couple's infertility by doing a complete fertility evaluation. This process usually begins with physical exams and health and sexual histories. If there are no obvious problems, like poorly timed intercourse or absence of ovulation, tests will be needed.

Finding the cause of infertility is often a long, complex and emotional process. It can take months for you and your doctor to complete all the needed exams and tests. So don't be alarmed if the problem is not found right away.

For a man, doctors usually begin by testing his semen. They look at the number, shape, and movement of the sperm. Sometimes doctors also suggest testing the level of a man's hormones.
For a woman, the first step in testing is to find out if she is ovulating each month. There are several ways to do this. A woman can track her ovulation at home by:
recording changes in her morning body temperature (basal body temperature) for several months
recording the texture of her cervical mucus for several months
using a home ovulation test kit (available at drug or grocery stores)

Doctors can also check if a woman is ovulating by doing blood tests and an ultrasound of the ovaries. If the woman is ovulating normally, more tests are needed.

Some common tests of fertility in women include:

Hysterosalpingography: In this test, doctors use x-rays to check for physical problems of the uterus and fallopian tubes. They start by injecting a special dye through the vagina into the uterus. This dye shows up on the x-ray. This allows the doctor to see if the dye moves normally through the uterus into the fallopian tubes. With these x-rays doctors can find blockages that may be causing infertility. Blockages can prevent the egg from moving from the fallopian tube to the uterus. Blockages can also keep the sperm from reaching the egg.

Laparoscopy: During this surgery doctors use a tool called a laparoscope to see inside the abdomen. The doctor makes a small cut in the lower abdomen and inserts the laparoscope. Using the laparoscope, doctors check the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus for disease and physical problems. Doctors can usually find scarring and endometriosis by laparoscopy.

IS INFERTILITY JUST A WOMAN'S PROBLEM?

2008-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Is infertility just a woman's problem?

No, infertility is not always a woman's problem. In only about one-third of cases is infertility due to the woman (female factors). In another one third of cases, infertility is due to the man (male factors). The remaining cases are caused by a mixture of male and female factors or by unknown factors.

What causes infertility in men?

Infertility in men is most often caused by:
problems making sperm -- producing too few sperm or none at all
problems with the sperm's ability to reach the egg and fertilize it -- abnormal sperm shape or structure prevent it from moving correctly

Sometimes a man is born with the problems that affect his sperm. Other times problems start later in life due to illness or injury. For example, cystic fibrosis often causes infertility in men.

What increases a man's risk of infertility?

The number and quality of a man's sperm can be affected by his overall health and lifestyle. Some things that may reduce sperm number and/or quality include:
alcohol
drugs
environmental toxins, including pesticides and lead
smoking cigarettes
health problems
medicines
radiation treatment and chemotherapy for cancer
age

What causes infertility in women?

Problems with ovulation account for most cases of infertility in women. Without ovulation, there are no eggs to be fertilized. Some signs that a woman is not ovulating normally include irregular or absent menstrual periods.

Less common causes of fertility problems in women include:

blocked fallopian tubes due to pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, or surgery for an ectopic pregnancy
physical problems with the uterus
uterine fibroids

What things increase a woman's risk of infertility?

Many things can affect a woman's ability to have a baby. These include:
age
stress
poor diet
athletic training
being overweight or underweight
tobacco smoking
alcohol
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
health problems that cause hormonal changes

How does age affect a woman's ability to have children?

More and more women are waiting until their 30s and 40s to have children. Actually, about 20 percent of women in the United States now have their first child after age 35. So age is an increasingly common cause of fertility problems. About one third of couples in which the woman is over 35 have fertility problems.
Aging decreases a woman's chances of having a baby in the following ways:
The ability of a woman's ovaries to release eggs ready for fertilization declines with age.
The health of a woman's eggs declines with age.
As a woman ages she is more likely to have health problems that can interfere with fertility.
As a women ages, her risk of having a miscarriage increases.

Related links: www.invitrofertilisation.blogspot.com

www.mybabytestimony.blogspot.com

WHAT IS INFERTILITY?

2008-01-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

What is infertility?
Most experts define infertility as not being able to get pregnant after at least one year of trying. Women who are able to get pregnant but then have repeat miscarriages are also said to be infertile.

Pregnancy is the result of a complex chain of events. In order to get pregnant:
A woman must release an egg from one of her ovaries (ovulation).
The egg must go through a fallopian tube toward the uterus (womb).
A man's sperm must join with (fertilize) the egg along the way.
The fertilized egg must attach to the inside of the uterus (implantation).
Infertility can result from problems that interfere with any of these steps.
Is infertility a common problem?

TIMED INTERCOURSE

2007-12-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there is no medical cause of infertility except that the couple somehow do not get the timing right. The telephone conversion below will be of help.

“SET ME STRAIGHT, DOCTOR!”
in:
‘A telephone consultation’

When Ian and Tracy got married about 7 years ago, and the young couple wanted to get pregnant, Ian consulted me. Because we successfully handled their needs then, I guess he felt he need to talk to me about his younger sister who had gotten married some time ago and he rang me up. Ian is a Lagos based journalist.

“Doctor,” he began, after we had exchanged all the long-time-no-see pleasantries, “I’ve just spoken to my sister. She and her husband have just left my place. They came a visiting. She’s been married 3 years now, no children, so it was inevitable we would talk about her problems with her fertility. I gave them some advice but I needed to check up on the accuracy of what I told them, with you,” he explained.
‘Oh I see,’ I said, ‘And what was that?’
“It’s this – I always thought that the best time a woman should have sex so as to get pregnant is from 5 days after her menses for about a week of 7 days. I’ve always heard many people with the same opinion but it just came to my mind that I may be slightly off the mark and why shouldn’t I check it with you?”
‘Thanks for asking. You’re not slightly off the mark at all; you’re wide off the mark.’
“Say that again? I didn’t hear you.”
‘You did. I said you were wrong. Very wrong.’
“Ah, doctor, I’m surprised

Culled from the Punch, May 8 1999 by Dr. Oluranti

Options for treating Infertility

2007-12-30T18:06:00.000-08:00

There are a number of options open to couples. After medical advice has been obtained and the prognosis seems dark or unfavourable, a lot of people find comfort in faith healing and prayers. For support and encouragement, you can read the stories of people who were able to overcome this at www.mybabytestimony.blogspot.com

Other options include
-Timed Intercourse

-IUI

-IVF

The Causes of Infertility2

2007-12-30T18:00:00.000-08:00

Cause Of Infertility - Things You Need To Know

One of the biggest misconceptions of the cause of infertility is that it is a woman's problem. This couldn't be further from the truth.The facts are, there is a three-way split when it comes to determining infertility causes.

In fact, it's a three-way split. It's either the man or the woman or in worst case scenarios, the problem is unknown.The upside to knowing whether either partner has a problem is treatment can then be determined and once the cause is established, appropriate treatment methods can then begin.

The downside is when the problem cannot be attributed to either and the cause is unknown.This is tough for a couple to accept and can create undue stresses emotionally to a relationship. Let's take a look firstly at the possible causes of female infertility. It's important to understand the complexity of a woman's reproductive system and that things will not be 100% all the time.

Generally, when a problem is diagnosed in can be rectified in the majority of cases and in time, conception is achieved. There is no point in beating yourself up if conception hasn't taken place after 6-12 months because the truth is, whatever the problem is, there is a good chance it can be overcome without too much fuss.

Causes Of Infertility

These are some of the problems a women could be faced with:-
pelvic issues which can affect the reproductive system.

- anatomy deficiencies which include passage blockage and uterine issues such fibroids and tumors.

- ovulation issues caused by anything from physical stress to thyroid glad problems - functioning issues associated with the reproductive system which means one or more organs malfunctioning which will upset the fertility process.

The good news is in most cases, these factors can be rectified with correct surgical procedures or medications. The bad news... when the above-mentioned problems don't respond to treatment and you begin to run out of options.

Male Infertility Issues

There are many a number of reasons attributed as a cause of infertility in men. Here are just a few:-

low sperm count which encompasses a number of possible reasons such as physical and mental stress as well as a nutritional deficiency.

- varicocele which refers to an enlarged vein within the area of the scrotum.-

testicular heating which can be attributed to clothing being too tight or even hot saunas or baths.

- substance abuse in the shape of drugs, smoking or drinking.
Again, most of the above causes can be rectified with appropriate treatment methods and as is the case with women, don't get too concerned until you've been evaluated by your physician and have undergone treatment.

Want excellent tips and sound advice on infertility issues which could be affecting you? Understand what is the cause of infertility and how you should approach and deal with it. - Get more articles at Read Articles.com

The Causes of Infertility

2007-12-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

DEFINITION OF INFERTILITY — Infertility in a couple is defined as the inability to achieve conception despite one year of frequent unprotected intercourse.

There are many different causes of infertility, and often there are several causes in one couple. These include:

Male factor: In about 25-40 percent of couples, a problem with the sperm is the cause of the infertility. The problem may be the number of sperm, the shape of the sperm, or their ability to move effectively.

Ovulation: In 25-30 percent of couples, there are problems with the production of the woman's egg, or ovulation. This may be the result of an abnormality in the woman's ovary (such as polycystic ovary syndrome), or other hormonal causes. These defects are treated by giving medications to stimulate ovulation.

Tubal defect: Infertility is caused by an abnormality of the Fallopian tubes, the tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus, in 20-30 percent of couples. Tubal defects can be caused by scarring from previous surgery, infection, or a previous tubal ligation ("tying of the tubes").

Unexplained: There is no obvious cause of infertility in about 10-20 percent of couples. Endometriosis: This is a disorder in which pieces of the lining of the uterus implant themselves onto pelvic organs, including the Fallopian tubes, the ovaries, and sometimes even the intestines. This is the cause of infertility in 5-10 percent of couples.

Overcoming Delay in Childbearing

2007-12-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Are you facing the challenge of delay in having children? Hang in there; God will grant you that perfectly legitimate desire: to be a parent. Please be encouraged; you are not alone! It is God’s will that you have children. It is the right of every child of God, not a privilege. That is what He says in His word, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth…” no exception. Gen 1:28 KJV.

It does not matter what has been diagnosed as the cause of your infertility; is it fibroids, blocked or even absent tubes? Anovulation? Hormonal imbalance? Low/Nil sperm count, A hostile womb? Too tiny or even non existent womb? Maybe it’s been called ‘unexplained.’ Whatever name the condition has been given, IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD? Gen 1:18a. God has no favourites when it comes to answering prayers, all He says is BELIEVE (Mark 11:24).
You may have been mocked or made to feel useless or incomplete. In some parts of the world, a married woman is almost regarded as a witch if she is childless (it is often assumed that she is the one with the problem). See mymiraclebabystory.com. It’s not unheard of, when they run out of patience, for members of a man’s family to physically throw out a wife while her husband stands meekly by!

Even where there is no stigma or hostility, it is perfectly natural to wonder why conception seems to come so easy to others and not to you. Often you feel so miserable and consumed with longing to have a baby of your own. You try to put on a happy face and conceal your misery when you go for baby showers or naming ceremonies but you only and maybe your partner, know what you are really going through. You go out and it’s like every second woman you pass either has a baby bump or a toddler clinging to her. You hear the happy laughter or cries of children everywhere but in your own home.

Lady, you are going to laugh last. You will say like Sarah: “And God has made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. Gen 21:6. Guys, have you been told that you can never biologically father a child? Through the power of God, many have become fathers after being written off by their doctors. Even if you have NO sperm count, God is able! HOW is not for you to know. If some childless couples who are not religious at all, who did not even pray but kept a positive attitude have been surprised when their babies finally came, how much more you who daily cry to God?