Jennifer Aniston gives her views on sperm donation

In her new movie, The Switch, Jennifer Aniston plays a wannabe mother who undergoes artificial insemination, using what she believes is the perfect donor's sperm, to get pregnant.

And when it comes to off screen it seems Aniston would allow life to imitate art, insisting that if she ever went that route she too would definitely 'wanna know the guy'.

Aniston revealed her preference during an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, last night in Los Angeles.

For more details of the interview follow this link: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1298927/Jennifer-Aniston-shows-lovely-legs--talks-sperm-donors--The-Tonight-Show.html

Indonesia bans sperm banks in Country

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has declared that the presence of sperm bank in the country was haram or prohibited.

"Sperm donor is haram, so is sperm bank," MUI edict commission deputy secretary Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

However, MUI allowed the establishment of breast milk banks in the country.

"A breast milk bank could be established as long as it meets the first requirement that there is an agreement between the baby parents and a breast milk donor including a payment to the donor," he said.

He added Islam banned two babies breastfed by one woman from marrying each other in the future.

For more on the story follow the link: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/28/sperm-bank-prohibited-indonesian-ulema-council.html

Article examines whether children of sperm donation loose their heritage...

"I've had this recurring dream of floating through darkness ... whirling faster and faster ... I get weary and want to put my feet down to stand ... but there's nothing to stand on. This is my nightmare -- I'm a person created by donor insemination, someone who will never know half of her identity. I feel anger and confusion, and I'm filled with questions. Whose eyes do I have? Why the big secret? Who gave my family the idea that my biological roots are not important? To deny someone the knowledge of his or her biological origins is dreadfully wrong."

Margaret R. Brown, Newsweek, 1994

What are we doing to the children? To the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 who are conceived each year in the United States using sperm from anonymous donors? To the thousands of donor-conceived offspring born each year in Canada and around the world?

We live in an age when artificial reproductive technologies are mainstream. Eggs and sperm obtained in one country can be transferred to a surrogate in another, for a couple who are playing reproductive tourists in a third. But in our rush to ensure that every couple has some means of creating a child, we have neglected to adequately consider what this potpourri of gametes and technologies might be doing to the resulting children.

That answer is now in. Last week, the Institute for American Values released a report that compares the experiences of donor offspring with adopted children and children who were raised by their biological parents.

My Daddy's Name is Donor is the first large-scale study to take a comprehensive look at the well-being of adults aged 18 to 45 who were conceived with anonymous donor sperm.

As Brown suggested, these adults struggle with issues of origins and identities. Sixtyfive per cent agreed that, "my sperm donor is half of who I am," 69 per cent wonder if the donor would want to know them and 48 per cent feel sad when their friends talk about their biological parents.

Forty-three per cent feel confused about who is a member of their family and who isn't -- compared to 15 per cent of adopted persons and six per cent of those raised by their biological parents.

The identity phenomenon described by donor offspring is known as genetic or genealogical bewilderment. There is a fear of what unknown traits and predispositions may lie inside their cells.

Brown wrote: "All the love and attention in the world can't mask that underlying feeling that something is askew ... like I'm borrowing someone else's family."

An innate need for connection and a biological heritage is lacking and the study demonstrates it can make a disturbing difference to the well-being of offspring.

Donor offspring are significantly more likely than those raised by their biological parents to struggle with serious negative outcomes. Donor and adopted offspring are twice as likely to report problems with the law. Donor offspring are 1.5 times more likely to report mental-health problems and more than twice as likely to have problems with substance abuse.

Those numbers go even higher for donor offspring of single mothers and those whose parents kept their origins a secret.

Technology may be able to surpass the limits of reproductive biology, but it can't replace that innate desire to know who you are and where you've come from.

How can we, in good conscience, continue to use gametes from anonymous donors to create a generation of children who have no knowledge of their biological, social and medical history?

As Brown said, "I can understand a couple's desire for a child and I don't deny that they can provide a great amount of love and caring, no matter how conception occurs ... [But] I don't see how anyone can consciously rob someone of something as basic and essential as heritage."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/children+sperm+donors+robbed+their+heritage/3308010/story.html#ixzz0uoJXHWHg

Quad sisters born 12 weeks prematurely all home at last after epic hospital battle for survival

Proud parents Gillian Holden and Marc Hanley brought the last of their four baby daughters home, seven months after they were born.

Mother Gillian, who defied odds of 750,000 to one to conceive the quadruplets naturally, had fallen ill with pre-eclampsia during the pregnancy.

Doctors were forced to perform an emergency caeasarian to deliver the babies when her organs began to fail.

Born prematurely at just 28 weeks in January, the four baby girls had weighed just 7lb 6oz between them and had been separated from birth as they required specialist care to nurture them through the first few months of their lives.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1297721/Quad-sisters-born-12-weeks-prematurely-home-epic-hospital-battle-survival.html#ixzz0uoDxHe1Y

Couples with fertility problems forced to advertise for egg donors due to national shortage

Desperate women with fertility problems have been placing newspaper adverts in a bid to find egg donors due to a national shortage, it emerged today.

Egg donations have declined steadily in recent years, following a change in the law in 2005 that allows children to trace donor parents.
Now with waiting lists stretching to over a year for donor eggs, some women have been placing appeals in local newspapers in their efforts to conceive.

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'We have been trying for a family for a long time but now we need to find an egg donor,' it read.
'Could you be that special person to help our dreams of a family come true?'
Mrs Smith, who has struggled to stert a family after she had a fallopian tube removed, was faced with a year-long wait for eggs before she could begin IVF treatment at the CARE Fertility Clinic in Northampton.
She said: 'My husband and I have everything we could want apart from a child. I want desperately to be a mum and I want the child to be my husband's.' 
The advert explains that egg donors will be fast tracked to her if they are received by the clinic.
Previously, donors were guaranteed anonymity and their details could not be released to their biological children.
But changes to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act in 2005 lifted the automatic anonymity granted to donors.

For more info on this story please follow the link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1295016/Couples-fertility-problems-forced-advertise-egg-donors-national-shortage.html

One In Six Teenagers Pregnant By Age Of 18

One in six teenage girls has been pregnant by the age of 18, new figures show. Just under half (46%) decided to keep their baby, while more than a third (36%) had an abortion.

The figures are in a study of 8,500 teenagers for the Department for Education.

More than eight out of ten said they were sexually active and almost one in five of these admit they had been pregnant at least once by the age of 18.

Almost eight in 10 (79%) had been expecting a baby on one occasion, nearly one in five (18%) had been pregnant twice, and 3% had been pregnant at least three times.

Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rates in western Europe - even though they are at a 20-year low - and last year there were more than 39,000 abortions in girls aged between 15 and 19 in England and Wales.

For more on this story follow the link: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/One-In-Six-Teenagers-Pregnant-By-18-More-Than-A-Third-Chose-Abortions/Article/201007415669720?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15669720_One_In_Six_Teenagers_Pregnant_By_18%3A_More_Than_A_Third_Chose_Abortions

New test which predicts success of IVF is developed

U.S. researchers have developed a formula that can predict whether fertility treatment will succeed more accurately than using age alone, and used it to develop a commercial test.

They said their test, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, could save couples the agony and expense of multiple attempts to have babies using in vitro fertilization, also known as IVF.

Surprisingly, they said, the test showed that couples who would have been discouraged from trying again using traditional assessments were actually likely to succeed.

In IVF, egg and sperm are united in a lab dish and resulting embryos are implanted into the mother's uterus to grow. Predicting whether it will work is tricky and doctors rely heavily on a woman's age.

A team lead by Dr. Mylene Yao of Stanford University in California, decided to look at dozens of factors, including age but also looking at how well and how fast the embryos grow, a woman's hormonal response to the treatment and the condition of her uterus when the embryo is implanted.

They used data from more than 5,000 IVF cycles performed at Stanford Hospital from 2003 to 2008 and matched it to success rates.

"Since this model uses clinical data from a previously failed IVF attempt, a first IVF treatment can be viewed both as an infertility treatment and as a potential prognostic tool for future cycles," Yao said in a statement.

For more info on this story follow the link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66I4UD20100720

Two year old American girl youngest to recieve fertility preservation surgery

A two-year-old Brooklyn girl is about to become the youngest patient ever to undergo an experimental procedure to preserve her fertility after chemotherapy.

The "New York Post" reports Violet Lee is scheduled to start chemotherapy Wednesday so she can get a bone marrow transplant to treat a serious immune disease.

But chemotherapy and radiation treatments often leave patients sterile, so on Tuesday the toddler will have one of her ovaries removed by fertility preservation pioneer Dr. Kutluk Oktay.

The ovary will be kept on ice until little Violet is all grown up and ready to have children.

Then, the ovary will be re-implanted, hopefully allowing her to have children.

John Barrowman admits co-star offered to have his surrogate baby

After revealing that women have offered him and his partner Scott Gill their wombs for surrogacy, it looks like he’s got another willing mum for the list – his Desperate Housewives co-star Drea de Matteo.

The 42-year-old actor, who has previously admitted that he’s keen to be a dad, got his offer after they bonded on set. “Drea said we’re like brother and sister, separated at birth, and that she’d have my kids,” he told Heat magazine. “You want a kid? Come with me, I’ll have a baby for you,” John recalled Drea as saying.

Whether broody John will take up her offer is unknown, but it’s clear that he wants to be a dad soon. “I think I would be a good dad. Scott and I have an incredible amount to offer a child.”

When John isn’t thinking about being a dad, he’s concentrating on bagging other roles on hit TV shows, such as Glee. The actor has met with the producers of the US show and is crossing his fingers that he’ll get the role of the main character’s gay dad.

“I have no idea if I’ll be in it. I’d be good as one of Rachel’s gay dads,” he told OMG Music. Rachel, played by Lea Michelle, has two homosexual dads who brought her up after her mum gave her up for adoption.

Fertility: how do we decide who deserves a baby?

"IVF on NHS for women over 40" ran one front-page headline last week. A casual reader of that and similar articles could have been forgiven for concluding that the rule banning women aged 40 or over from accessing state-funded fertility treatment is being scrapped. It isn't, but it might be.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has recently begun looking at whether its existing guideline on fertility needs to be updated. First issued in 2004, this medical world equivalent of a tablet of stone has always been tinged with controversy. Its main recommendation – that women aged 23 to 39 meeting set medical criteria should get up to three cycles of IVF on the NHS – is widely ignored by the local NHS organisations in England and Wales who are meant to approve it and foot the bill.

Others technically offer the three cycles, but cynically impose deeply unfair access criteria in order to limit those getting it, such as restricting it to only those aged 30-35 or banning any woman who is already a mother or any couple who have even one child between them, including from other relationships. Studies have shown that just 20% to 30% of England's 52 primary care trusts actually follow Nice's guidance. One cycle of IVF costs about £2,000, but many doctors believe it should not be an NHS service at all. Some see childless women as much less deserving than cancer patients seeking life-extending drugs. Others think they should foster or adopt a child to satisfy their desire to experience parenthood.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/04/fertility-baby-ivf-treatment

The sperm donor movies are all right

Why the sudden recent spurt, for lack of a better word, of films about sperm donors and artificial insemination? J-Lo might not have done much to stimulate her career earlier this year with "The Back-Up Plan,"

but Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" seems likely to do well at the box office and with the critics.

At any rate, aside from the perennial comic awkwardness of the turkey baster arrangement, and the ongoing popularity of jokes involving that particular bodily fluid ever since "There's Something About Mary,"

and, finally, the universal appeal of mysterious parental origins since Oedipus, there's got to be some reason why three films with the same premise are coming out within a six month period.

Maybe it's an assault on (or a reaffirmation of) the necessity of fathers in the nuclear family unit? If paternity can be reduced to an anonymous donor spending a few minutes with a plastic cup and a dirty magazine, what does that say about thousands of years of patriarchal tyranny?

Similarly, a point that is a theme in Cholodenko's film, it makes lesbian couples no less viable than the officially approved heterosexual kind in fulfilling the basic reproductive role. Maybe even more so. Therefore, these films, or at least Cholodenko's, serve as a kind of indirect plug for legalizing same sex marriage.

Most likely, though, the premise reasserts that fundamental Hollywood bromide, that "family" conquers all, and whatever that amorphous, all healing entity might be, it doesn't have a lot to do with biology.

For more info follow the link: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/outsidetheframe/archive/2010/07/07/the-sperm-donor-movies-are-all-right.aspx#ixzz0t9OoUIVR

Actor Mark Ruffalo wishes he could have been a sperm donor!

MARK Ruffalo says playing a sperm donor in his new movie The Kids Are All Right made him realize how he might have got through his days as a struggling actor a litter easier.

The Shutter Island star says he was amazed how much donors are paid for offering their services to baby making.

“It’s great. At ninety bucks a pop! I wish I’d known about that when I was a young struggling, starving actor,” says Mark.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t have a sperm bank in the Latino neighborhood I was living in.”

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.showbizspy.com/article/207661/mark-ruffalo-wishes-he-could-have-been-a-sperm-donor.html

Why running’s still swell for mothers-to-be

MARATHON champ Paula Radcliffe stunned the nation on Sunday by competing in a charity race while SEVEN MONTHS pregnant.
She ran the Leeds 10K event for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, which raises money for children's and cancer charities. But pictures of the radiant mum-to-be crossing the finishing line cradling her baby bump sparked fierce debate.

Despite Paula jogging gently around the circuit, some critics accused her of putting the health of her unborn child at risk. Others praised her as a role model for expectant mums.

So what is the truth about pounding the pavements while pregnant?

Far from causing harm, exercise is good news for both mum and baby, experts say.

Not only can it make labour easier, it cuts the risk of gestational diabetes. But don't start marathon training if you were previously a couch potato.

Sue Macdonald, from the Royal College Of Midwives, says: "Paula is very fit and not doing anything she didn't do before she was pregnant.

"But if you don't normally exercise, start slowly. Try power walking or gentle exercise such as swimming."

Sue adds mums-to-be should avoid becoming very out of breath and take care with some exercises because joints become more flexible in pregnancy.

But don't worry about the baby being bumped around, she says, because it is cushioned in the fluid-filled amniotic sac.

Sue adds that exercising during pregnancy can also help women shift baby weight after childbirth.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/3045347/Why-running-is-good-exercise-for-pregnant-women.html

Couple lost 23 stone and gained 7 pound baby

Nicola and Rob Willis, who battled obesity with life-saving gastric bands, are now celebrating an unexpected weight gain - a 7lb 9oz boy.

Since having the surgery last year the couple, who feared they would never have more kids, have shed an amazing 23st between them.

Their reward has been George - a baby brother for son Daniel, five.

Taxi driver Rob, 35, whose weight dropped from 35st to 20st, said: "We were desperate for another child but if we'd not lost the weight it wouldn't have been possible. George has made it worthwhile."

And Nicola, 31, who is down to 13st after shedding more than 7st says they are now planning on having more children after George was born safely a week ago.

She said: "I'm over the moon about our little bundle. I didn't think we would be able to have another child after I suffered an ectopic pregnancy three years ago.

"But I got pregnant just seven weeks after having the gastric band fitted and after already losing a lot of weight."

Nicola wasn't upset about putting some weight back on during pregnancy.

She said: "I wasn't bothered that I wouldn't be able to see my toes again. It was great because this time I could feel every movement, which I didn't when I was pregnant with Daniel."

Nicola and Rob, from Adlington, Lancs, were both fitted with gastric bands in a last-ditch effort to reduce their weight. Rob had been warned by doctors he would die if he didn't go on a drastic diet.

He said: "I had the op because I wanted to see my son grow up."

Recalling the day she discovered she was expecting, Nicola added: "I threw the pregnancy test at Rob and went to get ready. When I came back in the room he was screaming. I was shocked and thrilled. Now we both want a girl."

Cristiano Ronaldo 'paid a surrogate mother to have his baby'

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo paid a surrogate mother to have his baby, it was claimed today.
Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias said the baby was conceived by the surrogate at the end of last summer in San Diego, where Ronaldo was on holiday.

The boy was born weighing 9lb 8oz on June 17 while the star was at the World Cup in South Africa.
Diario de Noticias said Ronaldo travelled to the Algarve to meet his son as soon as Portugal were eliminated from the tournament by Spain on June 29.

The footballer became a father two days after playing against the Ivory Coast in the World Cup and four days before he helped Portugal beat North Korea 7-0.

He did not reveal the news to his team-mates while in South Africa.
Ronaldo made his shock revelation he had become a father on Saturday night on his official website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
He wrote: 'It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become a father to a baby boy.

'As agreed with the baby's mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship.'
Last night, more than 18 hours after the messages first appeared and after 40,000 fans had registered their congratulations on Facebook, Ronaldo's agent confirmed the story, saying: 'Yes, it's true. We make no further comment.'

Older women freeze eggs to wait for mr right

Older professional women are freezing their eggs as they wait for their soulmate, say experts.

The annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology heard the trend was revealed by a Belgian survey of women in their late 30s and 40s, all of whom had applied to have their eggs frozen.

But the Infertility Network UK charity warned women not to think of egg freezing as a "magic solution" to the menopause.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/06/29/older-professional-women-freezing-eggs-in-fertility-wait-for-mr-right-115875-22368616/