Pure Adam

Court grapples with fertilization

2010-12-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Manitoba will review the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that upholds the right of provinces to regulate in vitro fertilization.
The Supreme Court of Canada issued a divided advisory opinion on Wednesday that grappled with the "weighty moral concerns" of assisted human reproduction. It declared Ottawa overstepped itself in asserting its right to regulate the use of human sperm, eggs and embryos, but said the federal government is within its rights in banning cloning and human hybrids.
Karen Busby, a University of Manitoba law professor, said the ruling paves the way for the provinces to examine how they will regulate clinics and how information about donors is collected, stored and disclosed. She said it could mean Manitoba and other provinces regulate how many embryos are implanted for in vitro fertilization or introduce screening mechanisms to ensure surrogate mothers meet certain criteria.
A government spokesman said it will take a bit of time to assess how the ruling may affect Manitoba regulations, and the assessment should be complete early in the new year.
"Nothing's been happening for six years in Canada, so thank goodness the decision is finally out," Busby said. "The next step is for provinces to determine what extent they need to regulate practices in clinics."
Quebec filed a constitutional challenge to the 2004 federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act and was supported by three other provinces. The province argued that Ottawa was treading on provincial jurisdiction over health care.
The act regulated the use of sperm, eggs and embryos, while banning clones and hybrids. Ottawa maintained it had the right to make criminal laws and that the purpose of the act was to protect the "health, safety and public morals" of Canadians.
The court split, with Justice Thomas Cromwell offering the determining view in what amounted to a complex analysis of the time-honoured constitutional rights of provinces to control health care.
Busby said the ruling upheld the right of the federal government to prohibit negative practices associated with assisted human reproduction, including who has the right to use donated sperm. For example, she said, if a man battling cancer chose to freeze his sperm but later died, the law prohibits anyone from using the sperm without his clear consent.
The court challenge left many regulations in limbo and Busby expects provinces will move fairly quickly to fill the void. Currently, Busby said, there are no clear guidelines on how information about sperm and egg donors is collected, so children born from donors don't have a way to access biological information.
"The real problem is a lot of that information has never been properly collected or stored," she said. "Unlike adoption where you know a record exists somewhere, here you simply might not ever have the information that Joe Blow was a sperm donor."
Busby said Manitoba could also introduce screening tools for surrogate mothers to ensure that anyone who offers to bear someone's child is doing it for the right reasons, and not because she has been illegally paid. Busby said the best surrogates are women who have already had children, enjoyed being pregnant, and had easy pregnancies.
Busby said some fertility clinics in other parts of Canada have implanted embryos in commercial surrogates, which is illegal. She said the court ruling should pave the way for provinces to put a stop to "shady" practices.

For more info follow this link:

5 myths surrounding egg donation

2010-12-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

The steady increase in recession-spurred egg donor prospects has not resulted in a larger pool of qualified candidates, a leading agency that matches egg donors and gestational surrogates with intended parents said today.

"While media coverage, and especially about the compensation (averaging US $5,000 to $7,000) has created awareness and a flood of prospects, the vast majority have not qualified as donors for various reasons," said Mary Ellen McLaughlin, a partner at Chicago-based Alternative Reproductive Resources (www.arr1.com).

She added: "It speaks to the misconceptions the media perpetuates, often inadvertently, like that most donors are poor, young and uneducated, and just want to make a quick buck," she said. "It's among the many myths surrounding the fertility industry."

Among the myths ARR makes a point to dispel:

Myth No. 1: Anyone can do it.

Many women can physically donate their eggs. Not everyone qualifies, however. ARR utilizes a 27-page pre-screening questionnaire with prospective donors. If they qualify, they must also pass physical and psychological tests. ARR receives up to 50 applications monthly; less than 5 percent actually become donors.

Myth No. 2: It's all about the money.

ARR's donor surveys show that over 70 percent donate for altruistic reasons. "Most know someone with infertility issues, or were inspired by a story," McLaughlin says. "Compensation is secondary."

Myth No. 3: Egg donation causes medical problems.

There's no biological basis for these claims, doctors say, but they don't know for sure either way. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM – www.asrm.com) says the long-term health effects have never been studied. Egg donors undergo the same drug treatment as IVF patients, and studies of that population show this is safe.

Myth No. 4: A donor can donate as many times as she likes.

Guidelines restrict women to six donations in their lifetimes, depending upon the approval of a treating physician.

Myth No. 5: Intended parents only want Ivy League donors.

Every intended parent has different criteria. ARR says most search for an egg donor with similar traits, like ethnicity, hair color, height, etc. They also look for similar interests, such as cooking or sports.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/busting-five-myths-about-egg-donation-111075529.html

Kylie Minogue may have egg donor baby

2010-12-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Pop Princess Kylie Minogue, who wants to start a family, has revealed that she has 'thought about' egg donation as a way to do so.

The 42-year-old singer, who was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, told how she looks "wistfully" at her baby nephew Ethan, the son of younger sister Dannii.

And talking about her own attempt to have a child, the singer reveals: "I've looked into various options.

"I don't know if I'm going to go down any of those roads yet, but I do need to look at what might be potential paths that lead to a family. They can do incredible things now, especially in America," the Daily Mail quoted her as telling Glamour magazine .

Despite this, Minogue said that if motherhood does not happen, she is 'content' with her life and finally feels that she is getting back to her pre-cancer best.

For more on this story follow the link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-interviews/Kylie-Minogue-may-have-egg-donor-baby/articleshow/7064454.cms#ixzz17aIKvSFl

Couple have baby boy after being first to conceive using 'fertility sat nav'

2010-12-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

A delighted couple revealed today they were the first to conceive with an IVF alternative dubbed the 'fertility sat nav'.

Marie and Mirco Martinelli believed they would never be able to have children after suffering three miscarriages in just two years.

They signed up for IVF but were told there was a two-year waiting list for treatment.
So they took part in a trial for DuoFertility, a ground-breaking temperature measuring device that promised pregnancy within 12 months.

They began using the £495 device in January 2009 and were delighted when Marie became pregnant after just seven months.

Baby Alec was born on March 20 this year and is the first baby to be born through the device - which claims to be statistically as good as IVF.

Secretary Marie, 29, who lives in Italy with Mirco, 37, and little Alec, now seven months, said she was "so happy" they had used the device.

She said: 'I was very worried and sad when I kept having miscarriages. The whole world was pregnant and had babies and I struggled to get pregnant and couldn't stay pregnant.

'DuoFertility stopped me thinking of myself as having a problem, and suddenly I was able to sleep more normally and feel a great deal calmer.

'Where the product calculates your fertile days after a few months, it was impossible for me to have been able to do that properly without proper scientific approaches, because my cycle was different all the time.

'In the past I had tried ovulation tests, but if you have to use them for a long time it becomes very expensive.'
Dutch Marie - who met Italian Mirco in Italy in Summer 2002 - suffered her first miscarriage after six weeks of pregnancy in March 2005.

In May 2005, the couple visited a fertility clinic, which broke the news that Marie had abnormal hormone levels.

They lost another baby at 13 weeks in February 2006 and another at 11 weeks in September the same year, before deciding to take a break from trying.

In May 2008 Marie and Mirco married in Italy and decided their only option was to use fertility treatment - but lost hope when they were told of the lengthy waiting list for IVF.

Shortly after, Marie noticed an advert for DuoFertility - a small patch the size of a coin which takes 20,000 temperature readings every night to pinpoint the exact moment of ovulation.

She began using the product in January 2009 and was delighted when she fell pregnant just months later.

Alec was born in Italy at 1.54am on March 20 after a gruelling 19 hour labour.

Marie added: 'When they showed me Alec I couldn't believe he was my son. I remember he was so warm and soft.

'Micro was full of joy and happiness and also could not believe that this was his son. Still now we can't believe that this little person is our baby.

'When they brought me back to my room and laid Alec at my breast I was so proud. Finally, my little boy.'
DuoFerility was developed by scientists and fertility experts at Cambridge Temperature Concepts in 2008.

The non-invasive device comprises of a tiny patch thermometer - the size of a £1 coin - that is worn under the arm.

It promises to alert a woman to the moment her temperature rises half a degree as a result of ovulation.

A small wireless hand-held reader processes data from the patch to tell the wearer whether she has ovulated in the last two days and whether she is likely to in the next six.

Women are most fertile on the day of the temperature spike and on the few days before - meaning chances of conception are massively increased by trying on those days.

Information from the reader can be loaded onto a computer, which allows couples - and experts in Cambridge - to analyse the monthly fertility cycle.

Dr Shamus Husheer, who invented the device said the company was "delighted" with their success and the birth of baby Alec.

He said: 'What we now know as a result of our work, is that for certain causes of infertility, DuoFertility is as effective as IVF.

'Clearly there are some infertility issues where the use of the device is unable to aid pregnancy such as a complete lack of sperm, however for a range of common causes such as moderate male factors, cycle irregularity, secondary or unexplained infertility, our monitoring device is achieving great results.'

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1334466/Marie-Mirco-Martinelli-conceive-using-fertility-sat-nav.html#ixzz17aH1WGTi

IVF treatment is delayed by NHS trusts as they try to cut costs

2010-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Couples are being told their IVF treatment is being suspended or axed completely as NHS trusts battle to cut costs, it emerged today.
Primary care trusts are also making patients wait months longer for common operations in an attempt to slash their budgets.

A shortage of funding has hit thousands of patients waiting for operations such as hip and knee operations.
NHS trusts are planing to save £20billion by 2014 to cope with an aging population, and overall health funding is receiving limited increases.

Groups have attacked the plans, calling the cuts 'desperate' and 'appalling' but figures show that many PCTs are facing a cash crisis.

At least nine PCTs have culled IVF treatment, despite guidance that infertile women should be given three cycles of treatment.

Susan Seenan of the Infertility Network said she was angry about the cutting of IVF treatment.

'Infertility is an illness, people who cannot have children have no cloice over the matter...They deserve medical treatment the same way anyone suffering from any other illness does,' she says.
Katherine Murphy, head of the Patient's Association told the Sunday Telegraph: 'These decisions will absolutely ruin the quality of life for people.

'For years the NHS has wasted money paying managers over-inflated salaries. Now times are getting tight, and it's not the bureaucrats who suffer, but the most vulnerable groups of patients.'

She says the Patient's Association has been contacted by several elderly people worried about the cancellation of their operations, with many reporting long delays in seeing specialists at pain management clinics.
Other areas which could be affected include non-urgent diabetes, rheumatology and oral treatment. Reviews of other non-urgent specialist procedures are also taking place.

The Health Service Journal reports that many trusts have changed the rules to reduce the number of patients who are allowed surgery.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'We have been very clear that NHS organisations should not interpret efficiency savings as budget and service cuts.

'We would expect the NHS to make decisions locally, based on the clinical needs of their patients and with regard to the need to make the most efficient use of funding.'

For more on the story follow the link:: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1335833/Common-operations-IVF-treatment-axed-NHS-attempts-cut-costs.html#ixzz17aGQjj55

Putting to rest fears that IVF may be linked to cancer

2010-12-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Elizabeth Edwards' death, many women are wondering whether the fertility treatments the former Senator's wife underwent to bear children late in life — she leaves behind two young children, ages 10 and 12 — could have contributed to the breast cancer that killed her.

It's a plausible concern, given that fertility treatment exposes women to unnaturally high levels of hormones, including estrogen and progesterone — often repeatedly, and sometimes at an age when those hormones would normally be declining. Previous data have suggested that these fertility drugs may be associated with increased risk for breast, uterine and ovarian cancers.

But a large new study published this month in Human Reproduction suggests that women who undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) — the procedure Edwards used to conceive her youngest children — do not put themselves at a higher-than-usual risk of cancer. The study examined data on all IVF births in Sweden between 1982 and 2006, comparing the rate of cancer in 24,058 women who conceived via IVF with that of nearly 1.4 million Swedish mothers who did not require fertility treatment.

The study found that the risk for any cancer was actually 26% lower in women after they had children through IVF, compared with those who had conceived the old-fashioned way. Breast cancer risk was reduced 24% and cervical cancer risk 39%, over the eight-year follow-up period.

"The ultimate message is that there is no increase in cancer risk associated with IVF," says Dr. Don Dizon, associate professor of obstetrics-gynecology at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, who was not associated with the research.

However, women who underwent IVF started out with higher rates of cancer than those in the general population; the fact that these women were more likely to have been treated for cancer, which causes infertility, is probably why they sought IVF. This risk was especially elevated for ovarian cancer: in women seeking IVF the risk of ovarian cancer was nearly four times greater than in other mothers before conception. That is likely because the same problems that contribute to ovarian cancer may also produce infertility. "If you have an ovary that has a tendency to develop into cancer, it might also be poorly functioning reproductively," says Dr. Bengt Kallen, professor emeritus at the University of Lund and lead author of the study.

However, the study found that the risk of ovarian cancer in women who were able to conceive and give birth to a baby through IVF was only twice as high as in mothers who conceived naturally. The effect was not because IVF reduces the odds of developing ovarian cancer, the authors say; instead, it's more likely that women who are able to conceive and successfully carry a pregnancy by IVF are probably healthier than other women, and are more likely to undergo regular screening for cancer. The same phenomenon is likely to explain the lower risk of breast and cervical cancers in the same group.

The new study is consistent with most previous research, says Kallen.

For more on the study follow the link: http://healthland.time.com/2010/12/08/putting-to-rest-fears-that-ivf-may-be-linked-to-cancer/#ixzz17aFND9Gk

10 proven sperm killers...

2010-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

When it comes to conceiving a child, there are lots of things that can go wrong—sperm allergies, poor egg quality, and ineffective sperm. Of the approximately 1 in 10 couples who are infertile, it has been estimated that male factors alone contribute to 30 percent of these cases.

Though men produce millions of sperm a day (compared to the 300–400 eggs that women release during their lifetime), external factors (like temperature) can affect the health of these little swimmers. And because sperm cells take about 75 days to grow to maturity, harming them can affect your fertility.

Follow the link below for 10 surprising factors that may affect a man’s sperm:

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100256368

New mum astonished as her baby girl is born with TEETH

2010-12-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

It is a milestone that many babies take a year to reach.

Yet when Faye Armstrong was born, to the astonishment of her parents and midwives, she already had her two front teeth.

Now, a fortnight on, two molars are beginning to appear. Yesterday her mother Patricia told of her amazement at her daughter’s dental development.

‘When she was born, I noticed two white slits on her bottom gum,’ said Miss Caulfield, 25. ‘The next morning, when I was feeding her, I felt a sharp pain and saw they had come through fully.

'My midwife told me this is really rare. Children are sometimes born with buds but hardly ever full teeth.’

Faye was born three weeks early at Ormskirk Hospital in Lancashire. Miss Caufield said: ‘I keep joking that if the pregnancy had gone full-term, she would have been born with a full set!’

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1336055/New-mother-astonished-baby-girl-Faye-Armstrong-born-TEETH.html#ixzz17aDeHzpV

Mother's blood test could be used to predict disorders in unborn baby

2010-12-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

A blood test that could predict an unborn baby's risk of numerous disorders has been devised by scientists.

Using a tiny sample of the mother's blood, researchers can piece together the child's entire genetic code and search its DNA for the flaws behind conditions such as Down' s syndrome and autism.

The technique would remove the risk of miscarriage associated with current invasive tests, saving the lives of hundreds of unborn babies each year.

But there are fears that it could be exploited to predict an unborn child's risk of problems from Alzheimer's to cancer and heart attacks, creating worry for parents before their baby has even entered the world.

There are also concerns that parents could abuse the technology to select the 'perfect child', with those not fitting the bill in terms of looks, health or even personality being aborted.
Currently, pregnant women thought to be at high risk of having a baby with a condition such as Down's syndrome have the choice of two procedures, amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling.
Both involve putting a needle into the womb and raise the risk of miscarriage.

To remove the risk, research teams around the world are trying to find a way of gleaning genetic information from tiny pieces of foetal DNA that have worked their way into the mother's blood.

For instance, NHS-funded researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital are developing a blood test for Down's syndrome.

But the new technique, reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine would allow multiple conditions to be picked up at once.

Using a sample of blood taken from a woman who was 12 weeks pregnant, researchers led by Dr Dennis Lo painstakingly pieced together the entire genetic code of her unborn child and then scanned it for key genetic flaws.

They already knew that the child's parents were both carriers of beta-thalassaemia, a life-threatening blood disorder, raising the possibility that the child would have it.

By studying the child's genome, or entire cache of DNA, the researchers were able to reassure the parents that their child would merely carry the illness, rather than suffer from it.

The technique currently costs £125,000 per baby but the price is expected to drop dramatically over time.

Dr Lo, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: 'The power of this technology is that by using one test you can see the entire foetal genome.'

But he cautioned that parents might not want to know all the information available and said the test should only be given in conjunction with professional counselling.

He said: 'I think the eventual utility of this technique will be to target a number of common genetic disorders that are prevalent in a particular population.'

However Dr Helen Wallace of GeneWatch UK said: 'Clearly there are benefits in terms of specific tests that can be done in a safer way.

'But the danger is that the test will be used to predict the risk of a range of diseases and even personality and many of these predictions will be misleading.'

Dr Christine Patch, chairman of the British Society for Human Genetics, said: 'While this is a potentially interesting approach that may have benefit for some families with serious genetic disorders, there are many concerns.

'It is too early to apply the technology widely as we are not yet able to interpret many of the results accurately.'

Dr David King, of Human Genetics Alert, said: 'The danger of this new method is that it will encourage parental choosiness about minor imperfections, or even cosmetic features.'

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1337025/Mothers-blood-test-used-predict-disorders-unborn-baby.html#ixzz17aCgTVwV

Childless couples win right to pay a surrogate mother to bear their child

2010-12-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

A couple who illegally paid a surrogate to have their baby will keep the child after a landmark court ruling.

In a case which may open the floodgates to foreign surrogacies, the Britons paid an American an unspecified sum to carry their child.

It is forbidden in England and Wales to pay more than 'reasonable expenses' to a surrogate mother – even if she is abroad – because it would encourage a profit motive.

But a High Court family judge yesterday backed the couple, while making clear that the sum they paid was far in excess of what is allowed.

Their surrogate lives in the state of Illinois where no restrictions on payments apply and British authorities allowed the baby toenter the UK temporarily on an American passport pending court proceedings.

Mr Justice Hedley saved the youngster from limbo when he 'retrospectively authorised' the payments made to the surrogate mother and recognised the couple as the lawful parents.

In making the decision, the judge said the child's welfare was of paramount concern.

Issuing a parental order, he described the couple as 'most careful and conscientious' and said they had fully met all the other criteria for surrogacy.
'It is clear to me that payments in excess of reasonable expenses were made in this case,' he added.
'Welfare is not merely the court's first consideration, but becomes its paramount consideration.

The effect of that must be to weight the balance between public policy considerations and welfare decisively in favour of welfare.'

He added that the court would rule against surrogate parents only in the clearest case of the abuse of public policy.

He described the concept of reasonable expenses as 'somewhat opaque' but said the surrogacy process must continue to be policed by the courts.

The first case of surrogacy in the UK was in 1985 and while there have been more than 700 cases since, the practice is still controversial.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act states that parents must be over 18, and either married, civil partners or living together in an enduring family relationship.

At least one must be a biological parent of the child and at least one must have permanent roots in the UK.

They must offer the child a home and the court must be convinced the surrogate mother acted of her own free will, fully understanding what was involved.

It is the second time Mr Justice Hedley has allowed parents to flout the law on surrogacy payments.

In 2008, a couple using eggs from an anonymous donor were allowed to keep their twins, borne by a Ukrainian surrogate they had paid £23,000.

At the time, the judge expressed deep sympathy for the couple's anxiety and said: 'The court shares their hope that their experiences may alert others to the difficulties inherent in this journey.'
UK law recognises the surrogate mother as the legal parent of a baby unless a parental order is made, although she has no genetic link to the children.

Gamble and Ghevaert LLP, a law firm based in Poole, Dorset, which specialises in surrogacy law, warns: 'While foreign surrogacy arrangements can seem attractive, great care needs to be taken over the legal issues.

'English law will not automatically recognise your status as the parents even if you are named on a foreign birth certificate and this can lead to difficulties over immigration and citizenship.'

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337005/Childless-couples-win-right-pay-surrogate-mother.html#ixzz17aBuPLUf

'We've lost our children': Lesbian couple at centre of controversial court case describe their devastation at facing Christmas alone

2010-12-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

As the judge began to make his ruling, two women clutched each other’s hands tightly.

It was not a standard scene in the family court. The women, a lesbian couple who
have been together for 19 years, were there to hear whether the father of their two children, conceived by artificial insemination, would be awarded custody for the
first time after a bitter legal battle.

The couple claimed in court that the man, himself in a long-term gay relationship, reneged on a promise to have limited involvement in the upbringing of the children.

They say he became controlling and domineering and bribed the children to
visit him with the promise of expensive gifts and pets.

In contrast, the man wept in court as he told the judge that he simply wanted to see his children more often.

He claims that he made clear his intention to be part of their day-to-day care from the outset.

Ultimately, the judge found in his favour and ruled that he should have custody of the children for 152 days a year.

This week, the Appeal Court upheld that decision and urged both parties to put aside their differences for the sake of their young children.

None of those involved can be identified for legal reasons, to protect the children, now aged ten and seven.
It was a highly unusual case that began a decade earlier when Sarah and Jenny answered an advert in Gay Times in which the man, Robert, a wealthy businessman, explained that he wanted to be a father but required minimal involvement in the child’s upbringing.

Thus, the two parties came together in a thoroughly modern and controversial
way to do what neither could alone, outside the regulatory framework
of a fertility clinic.

Now, Sarah and Jenny have broken their public silence to tell The Mail on Sunday about their devastation at the court’s decision.

The couple claim Robert became increasingly demanding while Sarah was pregnant with their son, which raised alarm bells. What has happened since proves that they were right to be concerned.

However, what cannot be explained is that, despite their worries, they agreed to have a second child with Robert. Indeed, they accept they have been astonishingly naive.

Sarah said: ‘I was holding Jenny’s hand when the ruling was passed and whispered to her, “We’ve lost the children”.

'Listening to that ruling was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do. There are no words to
describe that, and that fear is something every parent must be able to
relate to, regardless of how your family is made up.

‘I understand some people will see us as weirdos because we’re a same-sex couple with children, but that’s so far from the people we are. We’re a quiet and loving couple.

‘We love our children and knew we could provide a solid, caring environment for them.

‘I don’t regret what we did. I have to say that because I don’t regret the children, although we do regret the way we went about having them.

‘We would certainly advise others not to go down the same route and I’m sure an anonymous sperm donor would have been more sensible. We were horribly naive and did so many things just to keep the peace.’

Sarah, who works for a property letting business, and Jenny, a former bank worker, live with their children in an immaculate three-bedroom home in a seaside town.

Every spare wall and surface in their living room is filled with photographs of their
smiling children, including one taken at the couple’s civil partnership ceremony in March this year.

Sarah is the children’s biological mother. Jenny has never wanted to give birth.

The couple met through a mutual friend in 1991 when they were in their early 20s and have been together ever since.

While Jenny had experienced relationships with women before, Sarah found it more difficult to accept her sexuality.

‘I had always assumed I would meet a bloke, get married and have children – always,’ she said.

‘I thought this might be a phase I was going through and that I’d end up back on what I saw as my natural path. Jenny had a few friends who were gay but I didn’t know anyone.

‘But there was something incredibly strong keeping us together.’

Both eventually told their families, who, despite their initial shock, were supportive. In time, their thoughts turned to children.

They accept that their decision to introduce children into a same-sex partnership is controversial.

Sarah said: ‘Society’s view of us as a lesbian couple wanting children did worry us, of course.

‘What helped us is we had two close gay friends who had children. That opened my eyes and made us realise it was possible.’

Jenny added: ‘We did think about and discuss the prejudices the children could face at school. But it’s becoming more rare. You do worry about it but we have a good network of friends and family. It’s no big deal.’

‘His exact words were that he wanted to be a “rich uncle-type figure” and have contact once a month for a couple of hours. He also said he would like photos and updates. We thought we could live with that.'They also agreed that the children should have access to a father, should they want him. Neither could imagine using an anonymous sperm donor.

Jenny said: ‘I’ve got friends who are adopted and we wanted our children to have the opportunity – if they wanted it – to meet their father. We didn’t feel it was our place to make that decision for our children because our families are so important to us.

‘We had male friends we could have gone to, and one did offer. But that would have meant a third person was part of the package.

‘This was about me and Sarah bringing up our children.’

Read more on this story, follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335760/Lesbian-court-case-couple-face-Christmas-Weve-lost-children.html#ixzz17NYsYxGp

Broody again at 72: She became the world's oldest mother at 66. Now her little girl's five - and she wants ANOTHER

2010-11-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Charming though they look together, walking hand in hand to school, Adriana Iliescu — at 72 — looks more like her five-year-old daughter Eliza’s slightly doddery great grandparent than her mother.

Heavily lined and with dyed black hair, even she — who in January 2005 became the world’s then oldest mother — admits she looks every one of her years, if not more.
‘I try not to look in the mirror, because I don’t enjoy it,’ says Adriana, a writer and part-time university lecturer in Romanian literature, who lives with Eliza in a two-bedroom flat in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

‘The mirror is unkind to women, but if we are talking about my energy then I feel like a young woman. I feel like I’m 27 and when I feel a bit more tired, I feel like I’m 37. I am healthier than women more than half my age.

‘People think they are being funny when they call me granny, but I didn’t have Eliza to make me look younger. I never feel my years.’

Could this be why, in what must surely be a triumph of attitude over age, Adriana is now defying all her critics by talking about the possibility of having another child?
‘Medically, it’s possible,’ she says. ‘I understand there are trials going on with a 70-year-old woman in England, so it could be done. I am fine and healthy and I think it would be possible to have another child in the future, but I’m not in a rush at the moment.’

Not in a rush? She’s 72! How much time does she think she has?

But her caution, she insists, has nothing to do with age, exhaustion at caring for a young child or the fear of dying. It is the love she feels for Eliza and their strong bond, that makes Adriana reluctant to test it with the rigours of another baby.

‘I am so close to Eliza, so bonded with her, I’m not sure I’d be able to consider having another child if it actually came to it,’ she says.

‘Eliza is energetic and fun — a very happy child. She is everything to me and nothing else counts or matters. The child is mine and that’s all I care about, but medically it is not impossible for me to have another child.

‘I don’t smoke and I don’t drink. If I live as long as my parents did, Eliza will be 20 by the time I pass away. I think I still have a lot to give her.’

When I first met Adriana, two years ago, she cut a rather lonely and eccentric — if immaculately dressed — figure, mingling with other much younger mothers as she watched Eliza, then aged three, playing on the swings near their ninth-floor flat in a drab, high-rise concrete apartment block.

Back then, she admitted that sometimes she was so busy with Eliza it was ‘hard to have the time to even wash my hair’, before adding defiantly: ‘Motherhood is so much more than I hoped for. It is relaxing looking after a child. It’s everything else that’s tiring.’

Eliza is now in school and Adriana believes the challenges of the past few years will continue to ease a little.

She admits it took some adjusting to having a child for the first time at her age and that she was nervous when Eliza started pre-school, aged three.

I was really tense as I wanted her to do well. I’ve invested a lot of energy into the past two years,’ she says. ‘But, Eliza makes friends and plays with them, which gives me a break.’
The result of Adriana’s complete focus on her daughter is that Eliza can already read and write and is academically advanced for her years.
She has friends and is happy, which is all that matters to Adriana, who gives not two hoots for the opinions of others.

A deeply private woman, she doesn’t like to engage in school gate tittle-tattle and deflects questions from other mothers, curious as to how she copes or what might happen to her daughter if she dies.

Conceived via IVF, courtesy of donated sperm and eggs implanted by a Romanian fertility expert seemingly keen to make medical history, Eliza’s birth continues to divide opinion.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1329255/Worlds-oldest-mother-Adriana-Iliescu-broody-72.html#ixzz164V3GeGg

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1329255/Worlds-oldest-mother-Adriana-Iliescu-broody-72.html#ixzz164UbEFxl

NHS Surrey to stop providing IVF

2010-11-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

NHS Surrey is the latest Primary Care Trusts to stop providing IVF for new patients. Facing a £125 million budget deficit this year, the trust has decided to suspend all new courses of the treatment, although women nearing 40 will be considered and ongoing treatments will be continued. Previously it funded up to two full cycles of IVF per couple, if the woman was aged between 23 and 39.

'By stopping doing things which aren't clinically necessary, we can safeguard and continue to do what's clinically essential or urgent, such as cancer referrals and life-threatening trauma cases in A&E', said Dr John Omany, the trust's medical director. Other treatments to be discontinued include acupuncture, spinal epidural injections for chronic back pain and some cosmetic procedures - such as those for male baldness, facial blushing and removing tattoos.

The decision was taken after the trust's board met to discuss 'serious financial challenges'. Treatments were categorised under a 'Fast, Steady, Stop' programme - those under 'Fast' are to be provided immediately, with those under 'Steady' to be available in turn and on time. 'Stop' treatments will not be provided at all. 'If you don't need it the NHS won't pay for it', said the board. The IVF policy is set to be reviewed next November.

The cuts come after several other trusts stopped offering new cycles of IVF. A recent survey conducted by Pulse magazine revealed nine out of the 124 trusts who participated in the survey had not funded treatment since September 2008, despite the government pledging to end the 'postcode lottery' when launching the 2004 NICE guidelines. Since then NHS West Kent has also suspended all non-urgent IVF until April 2011. The guidelines recommend the NHS should provide up to three full cycles of IVF for eligible patients.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_82507.asp

American soldier uses internet to see birth of his baby girl

2010-11-22T18:57:00.000-08:00

A Watertown soldier, who is stationed overseas, didn’t let distance get in the way of seeing his baby girl's birth, thanks to the Internet.

“The laptop was right by my side for most of it,” said Vera Kurek, the mother.

Vera’s husband Peter, who is stationed in Kuwait, was not missing the birth of his 7pound baby girl, Rose Marie.

With 7,000 miles separating Vera and Peter, both the military and the Mount Auburn Hospital were able to hook the couple up live - they had audio and video, and were ready to deliver a baby.

“I did my normal joking around. I told her if she wanted I could get a bag of popcorn and just sit here and watch the show,” said Peter Kurek, the father.

Even though Peter was just sitting in his bunk, that is not at all what this First Lieutenant did.

“He was coaching me through everything and helping me breath,” said Vera Kurek.

“I breathed loud into my microphone so she could hear the rhythm of my breathing,” said Peter Kurek.

This went on for some time, but then the moment came for Vera to deliver.

“Towards the end my laptop got pushed back so he could see Rose Marie being born,” said Vera Kurek.

“I told her how great she was doing, and how brave and strong she was, how much I loved her and how much I was going to love this baby. I think it was just three pushes and Rose was in the world,” said Peter Kurek.

Communicating over the internet is the way things will remain for the couple. Peter said there is no set date for his next leave, but he said it should be before his little girl is walking.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12002816264488/soldier-uses-internet-to-see-birth-of-his-baby-girl/

The botched epidurals making women terrified of giving birth: Is this the real reason for soaring Caesareans?

2010-11-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

After 18 hours in labour with her first baby, Sarah Sergeant was exhausted and decided she needed an epidural to relieve the agonising pain.

An epidural is a form of anaesthetic administered through a tiny tube in the small of your back — it works by numbing the nerves so you no longer feel the pain of labour contractions.
Epidurals are given to around a third of women during childbirth and are a standard procedure.

But when Sarah’s anaesthetist arrived, it took him at least four attempts to get the needle in the right place in her spine.

Even then the epidural didn’t work, leaving Sarah, now 37, from Ashtead, Surrey, still able to feel the contractions.

Two hours later, with the birth not progressing as it should, Sarah was told she needed an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her baby.

In theatre, doctors tried three times to top up the epidural, but when the surgeon made the first incision in her abdomen, Sarah was still able to feel it and she was in terrible pain. She had to undergo a general anaesthetic and was therefore unconscious when her daughter, Molly, was born.

Each year around 150,000 women — a quarter of new mothers — don’t get the pain relief they need during labour, according to the Birth Trauma Association.

Often this is linked to a failed epidural, with doctors experiencing difficulty administering them. This can trigger an excruciating headache as well as much anxiety and unnecessary pain — there is also the longer term emotional impact.

Indeed, campaigners believe the failure of epidurals is responsible in part for soaring Caesarean rates.

Almost three times more babies are born by Caesarean section compared with 30 years ago.

Last week, midwives revealed that expectant mothers are increasingly demanding a surgical birth second time around because their first birth was so traumatic they have been left afraid to give birth naturally.

Some maternity units have seen the number requesting the procedure increase by 40 per cent in the past year alone.

Meanwhile, other mothers have been left so traumatised by their childbirth experience that they put off or even abandon plans to increase their family.
There’s no doubt this fear can be linked to failed pain relief. So why do epidurals go wrong?

It is a combination of lack of expertise, timing and anatomical differences in patients, explains Dr Deirdre Guerin, lead consultant in obstetric anaesthesia at London’s private Portland Hospital.

‘The most important factor in whether an epidural is successful or not is the level of expertise of the anaesthetist,’ says Dr Guerin.

‘In many NHS hospitals, it is junior anaesthetists administering an epidural rather than specialist obstetric anaesthetists — the specialists tend to work in the operating theatres.’

To administer an epidural, the anaesthetist has to get the woman to lie on her side with her knees drawn up, or sit on a bed or chair and lean forward. The anaesthetist then uses the bony joints in the back as a guide to where to insert the needle.

Anaesthetic is injected into the space around the spinal cord, using a fine, hollow tube known as a catheter inserted into the lower back. The anaesthetic should start working within five to ten minutes (and lasts two to four hours, although it can be topped up during labour).

Doing the procedure by feeling for the right spot (performing it ‘blind’, as it were) results in difficulties — leading to more than one attempt to insert the drug in a quarter of cases, according to research by Dr Graeme McLeod, a consultant anaesthetist at Ninewells Hospital Medical School, Dundee.

However, it’s not just specialist expertise that matters: even the most experienced anaesthetists can have problems inserting an epidural if the woman doesn’t keep still because of the pain she’s in.

‘Women, particularly those having their first baby, sometimes leave it too long to have an epidural or are encouraged not to have one in case it slows down labour,’ Dr Guerin says.

‘And if they can’t keep still while it’s being given, there is a risk of them having a dural tap, where the needle punctures the dura membrane close to the spinal cord, causing a ferocious headache.’

Doctors can also find it very difficult to accurately insert an epidural if the patient is obese — the usual bony signposts in the back aren’t visible (more than 15 per cent of women are obese at their first antenatal appointment, according to research).
Staffing shortages which prevent midwives from holding one-to-one antenatal sessions with mothers to allay concerns is another factor in the rise in numbers asking for a Caesarean, says Sue McDonald, of the Royal College of Midwives.

‘But there is little doubt that if a woman doesn’t have a successful epidural, it can impact on whether she chooses a Caesarean section in subsequent pregnancies.’

Sarah Sergeant believes she would not have needed a Caesarean section if her epidural had been administered properly. The operation was carried out under general anaesthetic to deliver daughter Molly, now four.

‘The epidural wasn’t in the right place, so topping it up was a waste of time,’ she says.
‘If the epidural had worked, I may have relaxed more. I am convinced I wouldn’t have needed a Caesarean and a general anaesthetic, and I wouldn’t have missed the birth of my first child.’

However, there is hope new technology will end such an experience. Instead of anaesthetists having to guess the right place in the spine, high-resolution ultrasound images means they can guide the needle to the precise spot.

Research in Canada shows successful insertion rate for epidurals when using such equipment increases to 91.8 per cent. Dr McLeod’s hospital is the first in the UK to use a form of the new technology developed by Zonare.

‘This is a delicate and tricky procedure, as the space in the spinal column varies from woman to woman,’ says Dr McLeod.

‘Why do this blind when there is equipment available to make pain control 91.8 per cent effective?’

Dr Guerin agrees the machines can guide doctors, but says they don’t replace clinical expertise.

Meanwhile, despite her traumatic first delivery, Sarah had a second child, Henry, in 2008, with an epidural that worked.

‘I wasn’t worried second time around, but I was determined not to have a Caesarean. I had an epidural that worked, so I couldn’t feel anything. Now I know what it should feel like and the difference it can make,’ she says.

‘Anything that ensures women get the pain relief they want in labour has got to be a good thing.’

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1332129/Botched-epidurals-making-women-terrified-giving-birth-Is-real-reason-soaring-Caesareans.html#ixzz164ABqrl8

The pope's reversal on condom use

2010-11-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

The pontiff has softened his stance on condom use in the war against AIDS — but does that mean the Vatican is easing opposition to birth control?

To date, Pope Benedict XVI's stance has been that condoms could be making the AIDS epidemic worse by encouraging casual sex. Now, in a potentially significant shift, the pope has told a German interviewer that condom use by certain people, such as male prostitutes, could be morally justified as a way to reduce the risk of infection. Vatican officials say there's nothing "revolutionary" about the remarks, but church historians disagree. Is the pope really easing Catholic opposition to condom use?

"Benedict's so-called condom concession was not a huge one," says Howard Chua-Eoan at Time. He is merely saying that male prostitutes — whose actions the church, of course, condemns — should use condoms to prevent HIV, because making such a conscious choice at least constitutes a step out of darkness and toward morality. But the pope still proscribes using condoms as birth control.

Conservative Catholics may not like it, says Damian Thompson at Britain's Telegraph, but the Holy Father is now on record saying that using a condom is "a lesser evil than the transmission of the virus." Sure, Pope Benedict says that only applies in extreme cases, such as male prostitution. But, come on, the same "lesser-of-two-evils argument" obviously applies to sex between infected men and women.

Maybe allowing condoms only for homosexual sex — which can't produce a baby — isn't a big change in Vatican policy, says Bryan Cones at U.S. Catholic, but "anyone who wants to tame the HIV epidemic will be happy to hear this news." Catholic agencies provide some 30 percent of medical care in developing parts of the world. Now that Pope Benedict has opened the door to using condoms solely in the name of fighting AIDS, these groups "will be freer to employ the ABC model (abstinence, being faithful, condoms) that many see as the gold standard."

For more on this story follow the link: http://theweek.com/article/index/209627/the-popes-reversal-on-condom-use

Genetic infertility treated successfully at Mumbai hospital

2010-11-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

A woman with a rare genetic disorder 'Robertsonian Translocation', resulting in infertility, has delivered a healthy baby girl at the Jaslok Hospital and Research Center.

"With this first Invitro fertilisation (IVF) using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), India joins a handful of countries that have accomplished successful management of this disorder," Dr Firuza Parikh, Director, Assisted Reproduction and Genetics at Jaslok and former Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, USA, said.

The baby girl was delivered yesterday at city's Jaslok hospital, Parikh said adding that this case report was published as a cover article in the peer reviewed 'Journal of Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy' (January- June 2010).

Attributing the success to her team of 40 individuals particularly Dr Prochi Madon, Dr Arundhati Athalye, Mr Nandkishor Naik and Dattatray Naik, Parikh explained, "We are born with 46 chromosomes which occur in pairs. Each chromosome of a pair is a mirror image of the other. Although this harmony ismaintained in nature, an occasional slip results in a translocation."

"As the name suggests, a segment or an arm of one chromosome transports itself onto another chromosome and one such rearrangement is called a RobertsonianTranslocation after the American geneticist Dr W Robertson," she said.

"The rearrangement can occur in males and females who do not manifest any clinical symptoms. The problem manifests when the couple tries to conceive," Parikh said.

"An embryo derives half its chromosomes from the father and half from the mother. Hence if the chromosome with extra genetic material goes into the embryo, the amount of genetic material of that chromosome triples resulting in miscarriage or mental retardation," the In-vitro fertilization (IVF) expert said.

The embryos were screened using Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD).

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_genetic-infertility-treated-successfully-at-mumbai-hospital_1469862

Few Singaporean sperm donors due to fear of incest

2010-11-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

The recent case of the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment mix-up at Thomson Fertility Centre cast the spotlight on assisted reproductive treatments and their challenges in Singapore.

One major challenge is the lack of sperm donors. A recent report in The Straits Times revealed that there have been only eight sperm donors at Singapore General Hospital in the past five years.

Professor P.C. Wong from National University Hospital was quoted in the same article as saying that for every sperm donation in Singapore, there would be about eight couples who need it.

He says the reason for the shortage of sperm donors could be because Singaporeans are not altruistic enough.

There is no monetary gain from being a sperm donor. Moreover, the process of donating sperm is a lot more tedious than most imagine, requiring interviews and multiple medical checkups and tests.

However, a report in Shin Min Daily yesterday highlighted another reason - many men are worried that donating sperm to another couple might result in incest among their offspring in future.

An informal survey by AsiaOne showed that this was indeed a concern among Singaporean men.

"Singapore is so small - there's a high chance that your biological child might meet your own children in future," noted a civil servant in his thirties, who declined to be named. "What if they fall in love and get married, not knowing that they are actually half-siblings?"

This fear of incest, or consanguinity (the marriage of close relatives), seems especially real, given Singapore's small size. However, doctors have described this in previous news reports as only a 'remote possibility'.

Another respondent said he felt that IVF was 'unnatural'. He points out that there are other options for childless couples, such as adoption, but also says that a couple has the right to seek fertility treatment, just as men have the right to choose not to be sperm donors if they are not comfortable with the idea.

For more on this story follow the link: http://health.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20101117-247746.html

Scotland has just 26 sperm donors with NHS forced to bring in supplies from London

2010-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

THERE are just 26 sperm donors left in Scotland five years after the right to remain anonymous was removed.

NHS boards are being forced to bring in supplies from London to meet demand here.

Now there are calls for a review of the system to help encourage more men to register.

Donation rates have dropped dramatically since 2005, when donors' rights to anonymity were removed, meaning children conceived could contact them 18 years later.

Only 13 joined the register last year, with NHS Fife and NHS Lothian in particular struggling to meet demand.

Spire Shawfair Park hospital in Danderhall, Edinburgh, have launched an urgent appeal for donors. They have had only 10 volunters since opening in March, forcing them to get samples from the London Fertility Clinic.

Jaime Oswald, embryologist at the hospital, called for changes to the expenses system. She added: "What scares a lot of people away is that in 18 years, you get a knock on the door."

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/2010/11/20/scotland-has-just-26-sperm-donors-with-nhs-forced-to-bring-in-supplies-from-london-86908-22726914/

Scared to give birth - tocophobia on the rise in the UK

2010-11-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

A surge in cases of birth trauma being reported in the UK, are causing scared mothers to abandon plans for another baby as Tocophobia rates rise.

It has often been said that if women fully remember the trials and agony of a first labor, they would never have a second child. Apparently, this is exactly what is occurring in the UK right now. On Nov. 14, 2010, the British newspaper The Guardian, reported that a surge in birth trauma incidents is causing first-time mothers to dread ever going through the process again. Tocophobia, or the fear of childbirth, is on the rise. Why?

Traumatic first births are elevating cesarean requests by second-time mothers
According to The Guardian's, Denis Campbell, Britain's National Health Service, (NHS), is being forced to step in to deal with surging requests for cesarean sections by pregnant mother's terrified of the labor process, after enduring a traumatic first birth. Campbell writes in, "Too Scared to Push: Big Rise Reported in Birth Trauma," that in one area hospital, Liverpool's Women's Hospital, "The number of mothers who have asked for an elective caesarean with their forthcoming child, because they suffered trauma the last time, has risen 40%."

There are a number of factors seen as contributors to tocophobia but common sense must ask, why are first-births so traumatic in the first place? One entity under fire is the NHS itself, whose budget cuts have led to a serious deficit in the availability of qualified midwives. On Dec. 16, 2009, Verena Burns of The Daily Mail, reported the story of a former midwife spilling the beans on a standard shift in one of Britain's labor and delivery unit's

"Midwives in Meltdown," was a shocking read that told how a woman in labor, was virtually ignored throughout the entire labor process because her designated midwife, was too overloaded with patients. Unfortunately, wrote Burns, this was just one of several questionable practices that occurred on a regular basis such as mothers-to-be who were drugged to the max.

"Drugs keep the mother nice and quiet," the midwife told Burns, "which, of course, suits staff," too overwhelmed to be effective.

Consider these recent childbirth horror stories
On Sep. 29, 2010, The Daily Mail reported that Britain's NHS had formerly apologized to a mother whose baby was severely damaged in a forceps delivery. The mother's obstetrician had pulled on the baby so hard, that the mother was pulled down the birthing table. Furthermore, reported Jane Feinmann in "Forceps Left this boy Brain Damaged," when the baby did finally emerge, one of his eyeballs rested on his cheek and he endured a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain.

Jennifer Block of Time Magazine, reported on Mar. 12, 2010, that Amnesty International had released a report called "Deadly Delivery." Amnesty noted in this report that too many mothers were losing their lives in the US when having babies. Block's article, "Too Many Women Dying in U.S. While Having Babies," says that Amnesty claims, "Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006."

Is Tocophobia an under-reported condition?

There are no official current statistics on tocophobia rates in the US. Are these phobia rates naturally low in the US or are they going unreported? Tocophobia as a medical condition, is not well documented online by any reputable medical authority either. Yet, unsurprisingly, the condition can be found as a popular topic between mothers on pregnancy forums.

With the small amount of information able to gleaned, tocophobia appears to be downplayed as something easily overcome; transient in nature and according to the website, Wrongdiagnosis.com, classified, "An exaggerated or irrational fear of childbirth." Considering the current state of affairs coupled with Amnesty's report, can tacophobia remain labeled as irrational, when due to a traumatic first birth experience, requests for c-sections by mothers at a UK hospital, jumped a staggering 40-percent?

To find out more on this story follow the link: UK http://www.suite101.com/content/scared-to-give-birth-tocophobia-is-on-the-rise-in-the-uk-a309604#ixzz15UJIdJOf

Cutting umbilical cord too soon 'could harm baby'

2010-11-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Doctors and midwives should stop clamping babies umbilical cords immediately after birth and wait for a few minutes instead, according to experts.

They said waiting for three minutes could allow more blood to flow to the baby and reduce the risk of iron deficiency and anaemia in newborns.

Retired consultant obstetrician, Dr David Hutchen, said both the World Health Organisation and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics advised doctors to refrain from early cord clamping.
However, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) still advocates active management, which includes early clamping and cutting of the cord. British doctors are therefore reluctant to change their practices.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Hutchon said early cord clamping 'has become the accepted norm so much so that delaying clamping is generally considered a new or unproved intervention.'

Yet he argues that 'applying a clamp to the cord is clearly an intervention, having the greatest effect when it is done quickly after birth.'

The doctor who used to work at Memorial Hospital in Darlington, said if the need for early cord clamping was removed from NICE's guideline, 'there could be an overnight change in practice.'

He concluded: 'Clamping the functioning umbilical cord at birth is an unproven intervention.

'Lack of awareness of current evidence, pragmatism, and conflicting guidelines are all preventing change. To prevent further injury to babies we would be better to rush to change.'

A spokeswoman from NICE said they would be reviewing their current guidelines on treating women in labour early next year.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1328673/Cutting-umbilical-cord-soon-harm-baby.html#ixzz14zsKiMKq

'Sperminator' who donates sperm by having sex for just 17 pounds!

2010-11-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

Meet John McManus, a 'sperminator' who is ready to donate his sperm to childless mothers for just 17 pounds - the only catch is that he insists on the 'natural impregnation'.

McManus, 33, from Galway, Ireland, insists on impregnating "the natural way" as he finds artificial insemination "too weird".

His services are targeted at those who can't afford IVF.

McManus tells potential clients he advises plenty of "hugging, touching, kissing and foreplay" before the act, so the climax-for-cash seems completely natural, reports The Sun.

When asked to explain the process, John wrote, "Ideally we would try three days per month in a row - the two days before you ovulate, and the day itself. Ideally we would try twice per day. The more sperm you have inside you, the better chance of you getting pregnant."

"I will need a week's notice before you want to try. This is so that I can save up my sperm before the first donation," he added.

McManus assures clients that he is STD-free too.

"I was last STD tested in March. Last year I also had three STD tests which all came back negative. I take my sexual health very seriously."

McManus told how he initially became a donor in 2007 because of a sperm shortage in the UK.

"I watched a documentary about an infertile couple who could not afford IVF and I felt I should do something. Creating a life is the most special thing you can do. It is the greatest gift you can give," he said.

"I don't go around doing this all the time. Women see my ad and if they are looking for a donor they get in touch. Once the baby is born I don't want any contact. I just go on with my life and you go on with yours."

For more on this story follow the link: http://sify.com/news/sperminator-who-donates-sperm-by-having-sex-for-just-17-pounds-news-international-kljn4gigafd.html

Parisian baby caught by passerby after falling from seventh-floor apartment: report

2010-11-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

An 18-month-old boy in Paris had an amazing escape after falling seven floors and bouncing off a cafe awning into the arms of a passerby, witnesses said Tuesday.

"My son saw a little boy on a balcony. He had gone right outside the railing ... I said to myself I mustn't miss him," the toddler's savior, local doctor Philippe Bensignor, told AFP, recounting Monday's drama.

"I had time to move from side to side to get in the right position," he added. "The little boy was fine. He cried a little bit but calmed down straightaway."

An official involved in investigating the incident said the boy had been left alone in the family apartment in northern Paris with his sister by their parents, who were taken into custody afterwards.

"It's a real miracle," said the cafe's barman, who gave his name as Gaby, pointing to a small tear in the awning where the toddler bounced off.

"We were closed yesterday but the mechanical device for closing the awning wasn't working."

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/parisian_report_caught_apartment_uuTUnshnUDlK23kcxP8ahJ#ixzz149mO9qEj

Know your baby’s sex at just 7 weeks pregnant

2010-11-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

A new gender test that is accurate by week seven of pregnancy has been developed. The blood test, which causes no harm to the developing foetus and costs £300, checks for male Y-chromosomes in the mum’s blood. If these are found, the foetus is male and if not, female.

The test is reportedly already available in the US, Israel and some European countries, but there have been concerns that an early gender test may raise abortion rates.

“The easier it is to find out the sex of the child, the earlier a woman can decide to take action,” said Josephine Quintavalle, a pro-life campaigner. “There have long been problems of gendercide in countries such as India and China where female foetuses are terminated. This test could encourage it.”

The team behind the discovery have suggested its use could help women with genetic conditions affecting a particular sex make decisions about their pregnancy. Experts have also claimed that there is no evidence that women in the UK are likely to abort a particular sex.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said, “At BPAS we believe women can be trusted to make the ethical decisions that are right for them. Good laws allow women to do this.”

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.madeformums.com/pregnancy/know-your-babys-sex-at-just-7-weeks-pregnant/11239.html

10-year-old gives birth in Spain

2010-11-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Authorities in Spain are trying to decide what to do with a 10-year-old girl and the baby she gave birth to last week, admitting they had never before encountered such a young mother.

The girl gave birth in a hospital in the southern city of Jerez on 26 October, though the case only came to light today. Doctors remarked that both the girl and her mother, who accompanied her to the hospital, seemed calm about the birth.

The young mother was allowed home at the weekend with the healthy 2.9kg (6.4lb) baby, whose father was reported to be an under-age boy.

"The important thing is that both the baby and the mother should be cared for properly," said Micaela Navarro, head of the health service in the region of Andalucía.

"If that is the case, then they can stay with their family without any problem. That is what we are checking on at the moment. She might be the mother, but she is herself a minor," she added.

Navarro did not explain why the checks had not been carried out earlier.

The Diario de Sevilla newspaper reported that, despite the age of the mother, a caesarean had not been necessary.

But doctors warned that pregnancies carried health risks for very young girls. "At a young age your bones are not even fully formed," said Dr Adolfo López Gómez of Seville's Sagrado Corazón hospital.

"The high level of hormonal activity caused by a pregnancy can provoke problems."

Andalucía had 177 children born to girls who were 14 or under in 2008 – though no one can recall a case involving a 10-year-old.

Doctors remarked that the baby was welcomed into the new family, who said that childbirth at a young age was not abnormal in their native Romania, according to the local Diario de Jerez newspaper.

Spain allows marriage, where a judge deems there are exceptional circumstances, at 14 years old.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/02/10-year-old-gives-birth-spain

Why do men donate sperm?

2010-11-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

It takes just minutes, but the emotional consequences of donating sperm can last for years. So what makes men do it?

Sperm is a hot commodity in 21st-century Britain. Women will travel miles to find it and pay thousands to access it. Obtaining a donation from the European Sperm Bank – which is to say pursuing the standard, NHS-endorsed option of licensed donation – can cost upwards of £2,500. That's before diagnostic testing, treatment costs, and "pregnancy slot" bookings are taken into account. That's £2,500 for three, thumb-sized vials of frozen semen – and it might not be enough.

Treatment could be unsuccessful, at least the first time around. It might be a one-off, or it might a recurring problem. It might not even be possible to buy a donation. Demand for those frozen vials dwarfs availability, and the result is a system in which eligibility is strictly regulated.

Mark Jackson first learned of the sperm shortage six years ago. Sitting at his computer, reading news of the Boxing Day tsunami, he was made aware of his own mortality. “I realised that you could be wiped off the earth without having left any impact,” he reflects. “My eye was caught by a ticker running across the screen. It said that there was a shortage of gamete donations. I didn’t even know what that was, but I clicked on the link. I realised that maybe I could make a difference after all.”

Since then, his sperm has been used to “help” two families and Jackson has become a trustee of the National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT). He is one of almost 500 registered donors in the UK, sharing his sperm via the 138 licensed clinics around the country. In 2005, when British law changed to allow donors’ offspring to learn, on turning 18, the identity of their father, that number was widely predicted to drop off. Suddenly, the prospect was raised of biological sons or daughters rocking up on donors’ doorsteps. It’s a scenario soon to be played out on the big screen, thanks to US comedy The Kids Are All Right, and it would be enough – sceptics reasoned – to turn many men off their trips to the fertility clinic.

In fact, the opposite has happened: thanks to several high-profile recruitment drives, numbers have increased: from 224 newly registered donors in 2004 to 396 in 2008. In theory, at least, this should be enough to satisfy demand, since each donor can “enable” up to 10 families. But it hasn’t done so.

The mismatch is so great that last week Laura Witjens, NGDT chairwoman, called for donors to be paid. At present, they are awarded a maximum of £250 in expenses and lost wages.

Spending by individual clinics on awareness raising, recruitment drives, and medical testing add to the cost of making sperm available for donation. All things considered, clinics, according to Infertility Network UK, fork out somewhere in the region of £5,000 per donor.

If, says Witjens, they were to add payment into the mix, clinics would be in a position to attract more donors, thus satisfying demand.

Yet it’s not obvious that a lack of donors is the problem, nor that financial incentives would provide a solution.

Earlier this year the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) discovered that the average donor was enabling just 1.5 families, far fewer than then legal limit of 10. Given that some 80 per cent of donors agree to the maximum amount, something is clearly amiss.

The answer lies with the clinics. Clinics recruit donors individually, and work through the process of donation – from preliminary tests to repayment of expenses – separately. Frequently, unused sperm isn’t shared with other clinics, and much of it goes to waste. “It’s something we are trying to address,” confirms a spokesman for the HFEA. “At the end of the day, we can’t force clinics to share their sperm.” Until the system is sorted out, the only option is to recruit more donors. Or, if you are a woman in search of sperm, to head, as it were, off-piste, and wade into the murky world of unlicensed private donation.

Ed Houben of the Netherlands has been donating sperm since 1999, and doing so privately since 2002. He is Europe’s most prolific sperm donor. Head to his website and you are directed towards an upbeat missive in which he explains his willingness to offer “a good sperm cell” to needy couples around the world. He has fathered some 70 children, several in his home country, and others as far flung as Australia, Canada and Israel. At present, he has another eight on the way.

Like Jackson, he was initially drawn to donation by the desire to make a difference, to leave his mark on the world. “I didn’t want to look back and not to have accomplished anything,” he says. “So I went to a clinic near my home and gave sperm.”

His move towards private donation was motivated, in part, by the restrictive policies incumbent in many a hospital. “Because of the donor shortage, clinics were less likely to help homosexual couples or single women. I was raised by a single mother and I’ve seen a lot of unhappy heterosexual couples. Maybe two mothers is better.”

Houben is the friendly face of private donation. Kindly and businesslike, he takes his role seriously, hosting annual get-togethers for his offspring. Women come to him secure in the knowledge that theirs will be a safe, reliable experience; of the dozens who have approached him, only a few have been turned down. “The most important thing to me is that the child has the best possible chance of a normal, happy life.” Of course, he isn’t alone in his integrity: many donors recruited privately are equally altruistic, going on to help couples in the most desperate of situations.

However, this so-called “grey market” of private donation can be a tricky place, because it is unwieldy and unregulated. Websites offering to introduce sperm and egg abound in listings classified as for the family-minded.

While most – such as feelingbroody.com and co-parentmatch.com – recommend that women insist on medical checks before accepting a donation, there is, ultimately, a limit to what they can do. “I have met people who donated without any checks,” Houben reflects with a sigh. “That’s playing Russian roulette.”

It’s not simply a matter of health. As the HFEA warns, without a clinic to mediate, “the details of parenthood can become problematic”. Indeed, private donors have no guarantee of their protection from parental duties. Three years ago, in the first case of its kind, Britain’s Child Support Agency forced a 37-year-old fireman who had provided sperm to a lesbian couple to contribute to the child’s maintenance. In that instance, the pregnancy was a result of artificial insemination. Natural insemination, when the mother conceives through sexual intercourse with the donor, only further muddies the waters.

Natural insemination, or NI, is more common than might be expected. “I would never have mentioned it,” says Houben. “But then people began asking. I was amazed at first, but there are people who find artificial insemination lacking in intimacy. For many, NI is the closest they get to being normal.”

Back in London, donors for licensed, artificial insemination are in high demand. “We advertise in the London papers,” explains Neeta Bala, donor bank coordinator at the London Fertility Centre. “We’re hoping to go into men’s magazines soon too, and we’ve done other papers and in college guides.” Their hit rate is around two donors per month – more than the average clinic, but far fewer than they would like. “It’s less than we need. We have peaks and troughs.”

Oddly, for such a prominent issue, the act of donation is rather opaque. What, one wonders, goes on within the hushed confines of the donation room?

For those in need of illumination – and it’s not simply a case of five minutes with some cut-price pornography – the process goes something like this. On calling the clinic, potential donors are talked through their decision by an embryologist. Then, if everyone is happy to proceed, a “semen assessment appointment”, is made. The donor’s sperm is sampled, frozen and cultivated to assess its longevity. Their blood, meanwhile, is tested for disease and genetic disorder. If both results come through clear, the man in question will be asked to return for between six and eight visits, producing samples every time.

Throughout the process, alcohol and sex will be strictly regulated and, afterwards, donors are asked to attend a counselling session. Six months after the final appointment, a second blood test is taken. Finally, the sperm is banked. The whole thing takes around eight months.

Happily, part of the enigma surrounding donation may be about to evaporate, thanks in part to a new book by Greg Wolfe. How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup: A Guy’s Guide to the World of Infertility explains in detail the comings and goings of gamete giving. From donation-room etiquette (chapter title: “Sperm-a-lot”) to the inevitable awkwardness of the clinic waiting room, it offers a wry, occasionally laugh-out-loud, briefing.

“Donation has become normal to me now,” says Jackson. “It’s part of my life.” As things stand, he knows nothing of the people his sperm has created. If they choose to look him up one day, he says, he’ll be happy to meet them: “I don’t have strong feelings. It would be up to them.”

For the time being, he has three children at home to take care of: a toddler, a five-month-old baby, and his girlfriend’s son from a previous marriage. Houben, meanwhile, continues to see those of his offspring who want to maintain contact. As for the future of his sperm, he remains uncertain. “Who knows how long I’ll continue? But whatever happens, I know I can look back on many happy families that I’ve helped create.”

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-do-men-donate-sperm-2116290.html

PureAdam in the news - I'll risk my own family to start ten others

2010-11-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Packing my bags for the 150-mile round trip to the sperm donation clinic in Manchester, my partner Suzanne, 32, always gets tetchy.

Pacing around, banging doors and giving me the silent treatment, she'll often demand that I bath and put Lewis, our 20- month-old son, to bed, probably hoping that by looking into his eyes I'll see the error of my ways.

Next morning the silences and door banging will continue, invariably followed by the plea: 'How do we know this won't come back to bite us?' or, 'What about Lewis?'
I've considered questions like these a lot since I started donating sperm five years ago, and my concerns have been highlighted by the recent film, The Kids Are All Right, in which Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play a lesbian couple who have children via a sperm donor.

One of the youngsters tracks him down, with unforeseen consequences for their relationship. But despite the obvious dilemmas, the feeling that I'm helping someone create a loving family drives me on.

The 2004 tsunami made me think about this. Watching the news and seeing how many people were killed, I suddenly felt insignificant, as though nothing I could do could ever make a difference.
Perhaps it was fate, but at the same time I saw another news item flash across the top of the screen, about how the laws surrounding anonymous sperm donation were changing. The story explained that from then on, children born to sperm donors would be allowed to contact their biological father if they wished.

This led to huge donor shortages and rising demand for fertility treatments.
It really struck a chord with me – that behind the faceless headlines, thousands of people were living lives that could easily be made better if people like me gave a tiny fraction of their time and did something. I read all I could about donating and booked an appointment at a clinic.
It didn't bother me that an 18-year-old might come knocking on my door to find me in the future. If anything, I'd be interested to know how they'd got on, but the choice would be entirely theirs.

But this is what upsets Suzanne. She wants to protect Lewis from any future problems.

She's worried that half-brothers and sisters will turn up demanding to be part of our family. I've talked with countless families who've been through similar situations unscathed, and I know from my research that if you tell your child as early as possible, they can handle it easily – and even like the idea.
Lewis is obviously still too young to talk to about this but, as with all my friends and family, I'm just going to be honest and open – and proud – about it, and tell him as soon as I think he's ready to understand.
When I first started donating, I was single and the chances of me being accepted as a donor were less than one in 20.

Apparently, 85 per cent of first-timers have sperm that cannot survive the freezing process, while others have sexually transmitted infections or genetic problems like cystic fibrosis.

But my sperm was successfully collected, and over the next few months I made several trips to the clinic, so what had originally been a whim turned into a pretty long-term commitment. I now go about once a month. It means a lot of time off work – I'm a railway signalman – but I don't begrudge it. Though I'm not paid to donate, I receive £15 in expenses.

By law I can help only ten families in total – that quota is higher in other countries – but I'd like to be help as many people as I can, so I'll keep going for as long as I'm allowed. I know there are now two children out there who I've helped to create.

But while I know the number and the sex, I have no legal right to any other details, just like I have no legal responsibility for them at any time in the future. Unless they choose to get my contact details when they're 18 and find me, that's all I'll ever know. You might expect me to look at children in the street and wonder if they are 'mine', but considering how many hundreds of people I see every day, that would be a silly waste of time and energy.

I'm not ruling out the possibility of ever meeting them, or my children ever meeting their halfbrothers and sisters, I'm just living in the real world and getting on with my life.

Lewis is around the same age as the stepchildren I've helped create. So when he first starts to read or ride a bike, say, thoughts of how those other children are doing will cross my mind – but only fleetingly.
There's also the absolutely tiny chance they could even become boyfriend and girlfriend when they're older, but the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is setting up a new 'Donor Sibling Link' that will allow any donor-conceived children to find out more about their siblings when they're 18, on top of having access to my contact information. But that doesn't stop Suzanne worrying.
We met three years ago and at first she was fine about what I was doing. She had an eight-yearold son from a previous relationship and had even been for fertility treatment with her then partner, so she sympathised.

But when we had Lewis, she became protective and cautious about my donating sperm. We both know several men who've had vasectomies and deeply regret their decision, and they openly say what a great thing it is that I'm doing.

Then a lesbian friend heard me talking about donating a year or so ago, and for a while I was trying to help her conceive by donating my sperm to the clinic she was attending – but since then she's managed to conceive a baby naturally.

Friends who know Suzanne have an issue about my donating, asking how our relationship can withstand it, and my answer is that she and I both know I won't change – we simply can't let it be a deal-breaker.
When I arrive home from the clinic each time, thankfully Suzanne has usually calmed down and is glad to see me again – although we both know we'll only go through the same palaver a month or two later. But the knowledge that I'm doing something incredibly positive in my life means that I'll carry on doing it for as long as I can.

Mark donated though www.pureadam.com

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1324239/Ill-risk-family-start-others.html#ixzz149DNWDkp

On fertile ground in hunt for sperm donor dad

2010-11-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

IT IS a uniquely 21st century story.

An international fertility expert from Sheffield has used his knowledge and experience to help produce an intriguing documentary about a sperm donor-conceived child's search for her biological father.

The Star's health reporter Sarah Dunn found out more about the film - being screened here this weekend as part of the city's acclaimed Doc/Fest.

The tale of one determined young woman - conceived using a sperm donor and raised by two mums in Pennsylvania - as she trawls the United States in search of her father, known to her only as Donor 150.

Along the way, 20-year-old JoEllen discovers no fewer than 12 half-siblings who are scattered across the States - the first one tracked down in the Big Apple, where the New York Times picks up her story.

The article also falls into the hands of Jeffrey Harrison, who is living alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down motorhome in a Venice Beach car park.

In the 1980s, Jeffrey supplemented his meagre income by becoming a sperm donor at California Cryobank - where his number was Donor 150.

The fascinating documentary, which airs at The Showroom cinema this Friday and Saturday, follows JoEllen and her siblings on their journey to find and meet Jeffrey.

And, while it is funny, moving and sensitive, Dr Allan Pacey says he hopes it will be more than just a film people turn up to watch and chat briefly about afterwards.

The senior lecturer in andrology at The University of Sheffield said he wanted the documentary to open up the debate around some of the issues the film raises - about children who want to trace their genetic roots and the implications that has for the donor, the child and their wider families.

Dr Pacey said: "I think it's a really important story because it highlights and shows off some of the things we are going to face in the UK at some point.

"People are really worried about how these introductions might pan out - will it be good or bad?

"The viewer probably thinks it's going to be car crash TV, but when you start to watch it you take a positive feeling from it.

It's not threatening, upsetting or even particularly challenging - it's emotive and warm."

Although Dr Pacey agreed straightaway to be involved with the project - having worked with director Jerry Rothwell and producer Hilary Durman on other successful projects previously - he admitted at first he had his reservations.

"We were very concerned about making sure everything was handled sensitively," he said.

"We wanted to make sure we didn't offend anyone - the parents of the donor-conceived children and the children themselves - and, of course, a big thing for me was making sure we didn't put off potential donors, since they are in such drastic short supply."

But his worries were eased after watching some "lovely" footage of the children with their parents - "they truly understood these youngsters' need to know about their origins", he said - and the positive way the meetings between the children and their father played out.

"If people enter the story of this documentary, they will see there is nothing to be frightened of," Dr Pacey said.

"It could have been an emotional mess, but it turned into something really touching and that has reassured me. Of course, we have to be realistic - some children will love their donor, others will not.

"But this film shows donor-conceived children to be incredibly respectful. They're not after money or grand gestures, they just want to find out the simple things - if they like cats or what their favourite colour is.

"And it's really interesting stuff, that again challenges our perceptions of nature versus nurture - how much is in our genes, and how much is down to how we're brought up?"

Dr Pacey, whose role as scientific consultant for the film saw him offer insight and advice on both factual information and artistic presentation, said he hoped this wouldn't be the only talking point it raised.

He and Jerry Rothwell are set to conduct a question and answers session at The Showroom this Friday after the film, and will also be taking it on tour around the country next year hosting a series of debates to run alongside the screenings.

Dr Pacey said: "I hope the film will become a talking point - starting a discussion about the origins of children when they are born in a unusual way.

"We want to use it as a vehicle to get people talking and open their eyes to what is inevitably going to happen in the UK. This film is giving us a heads-up on the issues we're going to face."

- Donor Unknown airs at The Showroom on Friday at 1pm, followed by the Q&A with Dr Pacey and Jerry. It's also being screened the following day at 12.30pm, followed by a Q&A session with Jerry.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/On-fertile-ground-in-hunt.6608856.jp

Cooked breakfast 'cuts fertility'

2010-10-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Men who frequently indulge in a traditional English cooked breakfast could be reducing their chances of fathering children, according to new research.

A diet rich in saturated fats - found in foods like fried bacon, sausages, butter and cream - could cut the sperm count by almost half, found researchers at Harvard Medical School in the US.

Their study discovered that it did not matter if the man was fat or thin - such a diet had the same negative effect on sperm concentration.

Dr Jill Attaman and colleagues looked at 91 men seeking fertility treatment and asked them how often they ate certain foods, what types of oil they used in cooking and baking and the types of margarine they consumed.

Of the group, 21 men also had the levels of fatty acids in their sperm and semen measured.

Presenting the study's findings at the annual American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Denver, she said: "We were able to demonstrate that in men who took in higher amounts of fats, such as saturated fat and monounsaturated fat, there was an association with decreased sperm concentration."

Overall, men with the highest saturated fat intake consumed 13 per cent of their daily calories as saturated fat, while those in the lowest third took in eight per cent.

The study concluded: "Men in the highest third of saturated fat intake had 41 per cent fewer sperm than those in the lowest third.

"Likewise men in the highest third of monounsaturated fat intake had 46 per cent fewer sperm than those in the lowest third."

She said diet could have a greater impact on ability to father a child among men with a lower base level of sperm concentration.

Laptop WiFi Affects Male Fertility

2010-10-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

Men who use laptop computers with the WiFi turned on risk fertility problems, according to a new medical study being presented this week.

"This is the first study showing that microwave radiation from a laptop computer connected by WiFi may damage DNA and decrease sperm motility," said Conrado Avendano, Research Director at the Nascentis Reproductive Medical Center in Argentina.

Avendano presents his findings this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Colorado.

"The DNA damage to sperm happened in only four hours," said Avendano.

The study will be published in the peer reviewed medical journal Sterility and Fertility.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2010/24/c5400.html

Handheld fertility device ‘as effective as IVF’

2010-10-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

A handheld fertility device, developed by former students of Cambridge University, is as effective as IVF for couples struggling to conceive, it has been claimed.

The DuoFertility system measures variations in body temperature to identify when a woman is most fertile.

The 495-pound device, dubbed the ‘sat-nav of the fertility world’, is claimed to be statistically as good as IVF.

Its developers, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, even promise to give couples their money back if they are not pregnant within 12 months of using the gadget.

DuoFertility combines a small sensor that fits under the arm and a hand-held reader that together can measure body temperature 20,000 times during the night to identify when a woman is at her most fertile.

It stores the data, which is then downloaded at the touch of a button to the reader and CTC claims it is 99 per cent accurate.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/handheld-fertility-device-as-effective-as-ivf/699515/

Embryos do not have right to damages over skin colour

2010-10-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Two children born through donor-assisted IVF did not have the standing to bring a case for damages for having been born with brown skin, due to their mother having been inseminated with sperm from the Cape coloured community in South Africa. Even if had they standing, Mr Justice Gillen said they had not suffered any damage, as they were healthy and normal children.

The parents of the children are white, and were anxious that any children born as a result of the IVF treatment would have the same skin colour. The normal practice was that only sperm from “Caucasian” or “white” donors would be requested.

However, the defendant health trust inseminated the mother’s eggs with sperm from a donor labelled “Caucasian (Cape Coloured)”, referring to a community in South Africa derived from people of black, white and Malay origin, who can have skin colour of varying shades. The trust acknowledged that a correct label on the sperm had been misunderstood by a staff member. Two children were born from this process, and through their mother they issued claims for damages for personal injuries, loss and damage by reason of the alleged negligence of the defendant.

In their statement of claim they said they were obviously of different skin colour to their parents, and from each other, and as a result they had been subject to abusive and derogatory remarks from other children, causing them emotional upset and leading them to ask their parents if they were adopted. If they went on to marry a person of mixed race, any child born to them could have different skin colour to either parent.

The judge in the case went on to consider whether the plaintiffs had suffered actual damage. They were healthy, normal children, he said. “In a modern civilised society the colour of their skin – no more than the colour of their eyes or their hair or their intelligence or their height – cannot and should not count as connoting some damage to them. To hold otherwise would not only be adverse to the self-esteem of the children themselves, but anathema to the contemporary views of right-thinking people.”

He pointed out that the House of Lords had found that no damages may be recovered where a child is born healthy and without disability or impairment.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1025/1224281949222.html

Guide advises gay men on fatherhood

2010-10-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

A guide for gay fathers has been launched, offering advice on adoption, fostering and surrogacy to gay couples who want to become parents.

The Guide For Gay Dads is written by gay equality charity Stonewall which said "there's never been a better time for gay men to start a family".

The book, which is sponsored by the London Sperm Bank, gives practical tips on how to become a father as well as facts about sperm donation and co-parenting.

It also spells out legal changes affecting gay couples and contains a glossary of key terms in parenting.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: "There's never been a better time for gay men to start a family in Britain. The law is now on their side.

"This comprehensive new guide - the first of its kind specifically aimed at gay men - outlines all options, with handy tips and places to go for further support.

"We hope it'll convince some gay men who might have otherwise written off the prospect of raising children to reconsider."

The guide follows research commissioned by Stonewall from the University of Cambridge which found that children with same sex parents have the same quality of upbringing as children with heterosexual parents.

Gary Nunn, Stonewall's communications officer, said the guide aims to encourage gay couples not to write off the prospect of having children.

"In the year ending March 21 2010, just 60 of the 3,200 children who were adopted went to gay male couples," he explained. "This has doubled since 2007, but it's still less than 2%."

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5h9SLMXN70dBdTpkwsxrj4QG55ngg?docId=N0083921288009457400A

American widow gives dead husband's sperm to girlfriend

2010-10-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

A grieving widow has apparently named her late hubby's mistress to be the surrogate mother of his child after she won a court order to preserve her husband's sperm, according to sources.

George Kamau, 37, killed himself on Monday in the Norwalk, Connecticut, home of Etaghua Asefa, 35, who identified herself to police as the dead man's girlfriend.

In court papers filed in Manhattan, New York, Kamau's wife, Victoria Chege, named Asefa as the "family friend and appointed surrogate" mother who would receive sperm harvested from her late husband's corpse, reports the New York Post.

Although Justice Shirley Warner Kornreich almost immediately signed off on Chege's sperm-preservation request, the grieving widow may have gone to court too late.

Fertility experts say sperm must be taken from a corpse within 36 hours of death for it to be viable. Kamau was dead for at least 60 hours before Kornreich signed the order.

The Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey declined to carry out the procedure without court approval.

Kamau left a suicide note, but its contents have not been revealed. Police do not suspect anything criminal, the sources said.

Troy Griffith, Chege's lawyer, declined yesterday to discuss the case.

"It's a very sensitive time for my client," the Daily Telegraph quoted Griffith as saying

For more on this story follow the link: http://news.oneindia.in/2010/10/19/americanwidow-gives-dead-husbands-sperm-togirlfriend.html

Lesbian couple pregnant with quintuplets without IVF

2010-10-17T02:45:00.000-07:00

A lesbian couple in Australia have beaten odds of more than one in 60 million to fall pregnant with quintuplets without the aid of IVF.

Melissa Keevers, 27, and her Irish girlfriend Rosemary Nolan, 21, used a sperm donor from America to conceive, but were stunned when their doctor announced that they would be having five babies, not one.

"I was in shock for weeks," Miss Keevers, who is carrying the babies, said. "It took me a long time to get my head around what was happening. But now I've come to terms with it, I'm excited."

The couple, who live in Brisbane, Australia, learned that they were having quintuplets during Miss Keevers' five week scan.

They had decided that they wanted a sibling for their one-year-old daughter, Lilly, who was also conceived using sperm donation, but were shocked to hear that they would be getting far more than they bargained for.

"The doctor asked us if we wanted the news, but as he looked pale, we were worried that something was wrong," she told Woman's Day magazine.

"He then told us he had found five gestational sacs meaning, if all went well, we'd have five babies. We can't repeat what we said next!"

The pair found the biological father, a 27-year-old US law student, through an internet fertility company based in America. He has signed away any rights to the children and will never meet them.

"He was doing it to help himself through college," Miss Keevers told the magazine. "We will never meet him ... we have all signed a waiver to say it's anonymous."

However, the children will know that they were conceived with the held of a sperm donor.

"We will say that we couldn't make a baby and so we went to the doctor and he helped," Miss Keevers said.

The couple said they were aware of the dangers of attempting to carry five embryos to full term, but were confident that all of the babies would survive.

"We know it's a risk," Miss Nolan, who is a twin herself, said.

"We had the option to terminate one or more, but how can you choose?

"Nature decided to give us these babies, so nature can decide for us."

As well as medical concerns about the quintuplets, the women are daunted by the financial cost of raising five children. Miss Nolan said that the thought of buying five car seats and cots was "overwhelming" and that they could be forced to rely on the generosity of friends and family to cope.

They have estimated that they will need 70 nappies each day and will have to import a special six-seater pram from America.

"People don't know whether to congratulate us or commiserate, " Miss Nolan said. "But we think it's a miracle and we couldn't be happier."

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8041346/Lesbian-couple-pregnant-with-quintuplets-without-IVF.html

Cancer sufferer becomes father 14 years after freezing his sperm

2010-10-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

An infertile cancer sufferer is now a father, thanks to freezing his sperm 14 years ago before his chemotherapy.

James Hodgson, 28, was 14 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma after finding a lump on his neck.

He froze his sperm before undergoing intensive chemotherapy, as he was warned the treatment would make him infertile.

Miracle daughter Lily, now 14 months old, was born after Mr Hodgson and his wife Claire, 31, tried for a baby using IVF.

'When we found out Claire was pregnant, it was amazing,' said Mr. Hodgson.

'I was very open when I met Claire about my past. We got married in 2007 and started trying for a baby in 2008.

'It was quite tough-going. IVF is an emotional process, I found it very frustrating that there wasn't anything I could do.'

Mr Hodgson - from Fareham, Hampshire - was given the all-clear at the age of 22, after numerous check-ups and X-rays.

He now says: 'As a teenager I didn’t fully understand the implications of what I was being told. I was a bit shocked. It’s only really now that I am able to appreciate how serious the situation was.

'Now as a father, when I look back there were many kids younger than me. I understand the importance more than I did when I was 14. It breaks my heart to see so many youngsters suffering with this illness.'

As a teenager, he missed around four months of school to undergo the gruelling 14-month chemotherapy treatment, and is now taking part in the Great South Run to raise money for Piam Brown ward at Southampton General Hospital where he was treated.
'It’s always been an ambition of mine to give something back to the ward,' he said. 'They do such a fantastic job.

'The training is going very well. I have had a lot of encouragement from my friends and family. I have never really been a runner. This will be the first running event I have ever taken part in.'

The run will take place on Sunday, October 24, and will set off from Southsea.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319564/Cancer-sufferer-father-14-years-freezing-sperm.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz12biEJCep

'Time is of the essence': Widow begs court to be allowed to use her husband's sperm after he committed suicide

2010-10-17T02:08:00.000-07:00

A New York widow went to court in a bid to extract sperm from her husband after he committed suicide.

Victoria Chege told the court: 'Time is of the essence' as she begged to be allowed to create the family she says her husband George Kamau wanted.

Kamau, 37, hung himself on October 11 in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Now she wants to have his sperm extracted and frozen so that she can still have his children.

But she was told by company Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey that she needed a court order before the process could take place.

'It was the intent of George Kamau to conceive a child prior to his untimely death,' Chege said in court papers.

She asked a Manhattan judge for immediate action because her late husband had 'expressed his desire to have children so that his legacy may continue,' the New York Post reported.

The judge gave her permission - but it may already be too late, the New York Daily News reported.

Experts have said that in such cases the sperm must be extracted within 36 hours after death.

Chege's best friend, Etaghua Asefa, has already agreed to act as a surrogate.
It was not clear why she was not to carry the baby herself, nor whose eggs would be used, hers or Asefa's.

Judges in Texas, California and New York have previously ruled that sperm can be taken from a dead man so that their wishes for a family can be met.

The Connecticut Medical Examiner office said Mr Kamau had committed suicide by hanging on October 11. It was not clear why he killed himself.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321117/New-York-widow-wants-use-dead-husbands-sperm.html#ixzz12bbpGGJL

American woman seeking identity of sperm donor father may get her day in court..

2010-10-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Are the US set to follow in the footsteps of the UK regarding anonymity for sperm donors?

As a young girl, Olivia Pratten would stand in front of the mirror studying her nose, cheeks and mouth, trying to imagine what her biological father — an anonymous sperm donor — might look like.

Now in her late twenties, Ms. Pratten still looks in the mirror and wonders why she is shorter than all of her mother’s family and where she gets some of her interests.

She could be about to find out.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of British Columbia agreed to consider whether Ms. Pratten’s legal battle against the province’s Attorney-General and College of Physicians and Surgeons that seeks to make the identities of anonymous sperm, egg or embryo donors available should proceed to trial.

“This is not about replacing a parent,” Ms. Pratten said in an interview in Toronto where she works as a journalist for The Canadian Press. “I have a Dad who loves me and cares about me. But I also have a biological father who’s a mystery to me, who created half of who I am.”

Ms. Pratten’s lawsuit — believed to be the first of its kind in North America — has shone a light on the deeply personal and morally charged realm in which donor offspring, their parents, physicians and bioethicists wrestle daily.

The only information Ms. Pratten has about her biological father is scribbled on a piece of hotel stationary: he was a 5-foot-10 Caucasian medical student with blue eyes and blood type A positive.

The information came from retired Vancouver fertility specialist Dr. Gerald Korn, who artificially inseminated Ms. Pratten’s mother, Shirley, in 1981. Dr. Korn, now in his eighties, has refused to provide any more details, citing the doctor-patient confidentiality bond that has been the backbone of the Canadian gamete donor business for decades.

Lawyers for Ms. Pratten are demanding that all physicians who perform artificial insemination keep permanent records about donors that can be accessed by offspring for medical reasons or simply out of curiosity when they turn 19. Current B.C. rules dictate that doctors only have to keep such records for six years after the last contact with the recipient patient, after which time the information can be destroyed.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Woman+seeking+identity+sperm+donor+father+Supreme+Court/3600014/story.html#ixzz117iWVA6F

Pregnant women added to flu jab list

2010-09-30T01:54:00.000-07:00

The government is urging pregnant women for the first time to have an NHS seasonal flu jab this winter in case there is a resurgence in swine flu.

Mothers-to-be have been added to the list of vulnerable groups who are recommended to get vaccinated, just like over-65s and younger people with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes. This year's injection will protect against three strains of flu, including the H1N1 virus.

Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health's director of immunisation, admitted that some expectant mothers would be reluctant. But he warned that women who caught the H1N1 virus were at much greater health risk of medical complications.

People who refused a seasonal flu jab because it contained the swine flu vaccine "are quite frankly foolhardy", said Salisbury. "To be ignoring the vaccine because of a prejudice about swine flu is putting yourself at unnecessary risk. It's important to get that said, even if it's uncomfortable. That attitude of 'I won't have a seasonal flu jab because it's got swine flu in it' is ignoring the reality of the risks."

Some pregnant women refused the swine flu jab during last year's pandemic. Out of 4.88m people in England who had one, 165,000 were mothers-to-be. Research shows that expectant mothers who get swine flu are four times more likely than healthy people to be hospitalised and twice as likely to die.

Some women would refuse to have it, mothers groups predicted. Elizabeth Duff of the parenting charity NCT said it backed the Government's advice and was satisfied that the vaccine is safe. "A lot of pregnant women aren't keen to take drugs or have injections of any sort, and that's very understandable. But for quite a lot of pregnant women it could also be dangerous to get flu because the symptoms are more severe and it can ultimately put the life of the mother and unborn baby at risk."

Sally Russell, co-founder of the Netmums social networking site, said: "There will be some resistance and difficulty in persuading some women of the need for it. It's important that they weigh up the risks of catching flu while pregnant and also any perceived risks related to their anxiety about taking the vaccine."

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/30/pregnant-women-flu-jab-list

DNA fertility test warns women how long they have left to start a family

2010-09-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

A DNA test that can tell a woman as young as 18 how long she has left to start a family is being developed by scientists.

By monitoring the speed of the biological clock, the test can reveal how many eggs a woman has left - and give early warning of declining fertility.

If a woman tests positive, she can opt to start a family sooner - or freeze some eggs to increase the chances of conceiving a child in her 30s.

The breakthrough follows the discovery of a gene called Fragile X that indicates the rate at which a woman's egg supply will diminish over the years.

Professor Norbert Gleicher, of the Centre for Human Reproduction in New York, said: 'We can take an 18 or 20-year-old girl and check her Fragile X and make a pretty good prediction of whether she's at risk.'

Women are born with a limited supply of immature eggs, or follicles, in their ovaries. Only a tiny fraction turn into mature eggs.

The size of a woman's 'ovarian reserve' falls throughout her life. A newborn girl has between one million and two million follicles, by adolescence, she will have just 400,000 and by her 40s there will be just a few hundred left.

Fertility doctors say that the number of follicles left in the ovaries is a good clue to how many more years a woman will be fertile.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1225244/DNA-fertility-test-warns-women-long-left-start-family.html#ixzz10HknahGf

Victoria donor records at risk, inquiry warns

2010-09-16T04:12:00.000-07:00

Steps should be taken to protect the records of sperm and egg donors in Victoria while an inquiry considers who should have access to the records, the government's law reform committee says.

In an interim report tabled in Parliament yesterday, the committee said it needed more time to answer the legal, practical and other questions that would arise if all donor-conceived people were given access to identifying information about their donors and their donor-conceived siblings.

In Victoria, the rights of the donor-conceived vary depending on when they were born, with those born before 1988 not entitled to identifying information about their donor. Those born between 1988 and 1997 have the right to access information if the donor agrees. Only those born after 1997 have an absolute right to information.

In its interim report, the committee said it hoped it would be given more time to examine the matter and that, meanwhile, the Victorian government should urgently consider whether measures should be taken to ensure that existing and unprotected donor records were preserved.

The report said evidence presented to the committee suggested that poor record-keeping in the early days of donor-conception practices was a significant barrier to providing greater access to information about pre-1988 donors.

''These records may have been destroyed, or may currently be located with individual doctors or clinics. Some participants in this inquiry raised concerns about the need to locate and protect all donor records,'' the report said.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian government said it supported the continuation of the inquiry and would consider whether action should be taken to preserve existing records.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-donor-records-at-risk-inquiry-warns-20100915-15cng.html

My daughter’s sperm donor died

2010-09-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

He had a profound impact on her life yet she had never met him - here a woman shares her feelings on finding out the sperm donor who fathered her daughter had died in an accident.

My two-year-old daughter’s biological father died recently in an accident. The feeling of loss I have experienced in the days since has been unsettling to me, her biological mother. How can you mourn someone you’ve never even met?

I am a 36-year-old lesbian. My partner of 12 years and I tried for five years before being blessed with a daughter.

We wanted our child to have full access to his or her complete biological story, so our goal was to find a known donor. After first approaching some of our close male friends with no luck, we turned to a sperm bank.

We thought when we completed the painstaking task of choosing a donor that the hard part would be over. But I suffered four miscarriages, multiple painful surgeries and a total of seven months on bed rest to bring our daughter to life. I have learned from these experiences that from the moment of conception until the day your child walks down the aisle, you can meticulously plan as much as you like, but control is never fully within your grasp as a parent.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I arrived home to find the letter in the mail. It was from our sperm bank, informing us that our donor had passed away recently as a result of “trauma sustained during a traffic accident.” They felt we should know now instead of having it be a surprise in 16 years when we try to make contact.

Since opening the letter I have been surprised to find that I am reacting as though someone in my immediate family died. To get news like that in the mail was a shock. It felt like it was 1941 and I had received a telegram that Johnny had died in the war.

And it hit me how surreal it is that our donor’s short life, so removed from ours, had such a significant impact on mine and my wife’s. Yet we have no recourse to grieve. There will be no funeral, no memorial service or burial that we can attend. We cannot sit shiva for him. We won’t receive any sympathy cards that say “in the loss of your sperm donor.”

I never met the man, but he changed my life drastically. I never laid eyes on him, but we have photos of him in our house from infancy up until adulthood. I would have easily recognized him on the street. I listened over and over again to a 45-minute audio tape of him speaking eloquently about his life and interests, so I know his voice as well as my own.

I know he was flirtatious and funny and that the girls at the clinic thought of him as a favourite because he was so charming. I know he was a good man, a volunteer firefighter, who wanted nothing more in this world than to help people and to enjoy living life on the edge – flying planes, riding motorcycles and running into burning buildings.

He loved summer camp when he was a child. I know he loved to cook and studied to become a chef at one point. I know that he was close to his parents, both in the medical profession, who clearly instilled in him the value of helping people in need. He had sisters and grandparents who are probably missing him an awful lot right now.

Our donation wasn’t entirely anonymous, meaning he was willing to have limited contact and would meet our daughter when she turned 18 if she wished. Knowing this, I had sent him several letters and photos and received notes of thanks in return, via the sperm bank. He knew she existed. His mother might have pictures of my daughter hanging on her living room wall. Yet I don't know his name.

For the rest of this article please follow the link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/my-daughters-sperm-donor-died/article1705132/actions.jsp

Lesbian Mother Stalked by Sperm Donor

2010-09-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

The case of a California mother pressured to give joint custody of her child to a sperm donor she met online illustrates the legal challenges facing families at the forefront of reproductive technologies.

Karen B., a Los Angeles writer met her baby’s biological father on Craigslist proceeded to make the kind of casual parenting agreement common between mothers and known sperm donors.

“After connecting on the Internet, she and the donor, Daniel C., signed a layman's agreement that the child would live with Karen and she would make all parenting decisions,” reports ABC News. “He would have some visitation rights.”

However, Karen found that Daniel, who is gay, tried to push himself into her and her partner’s life as her pregnancy progressed. He told the doctor that he was Karen’s husband, and insisted that Karen obtain a passport for the baby so that he could visit Daniel’s native Brazil. He sued for joint legal and physical custody when she refused.

“After connecting on the Internet, she and the donor, Daniel C., signed a layman's agreement that the child would live with Karen and she would make all parenting decisions,” reports ABC News. “He would have some visitation rights.”

However, Karen found that Daniel, who is gay, tried to push himself into her and her partner’s life as her pregnancy progressed. He told the doctor that he was Karen’s husband, and insisted that Karen obtain a passport for the baby so that he could visit Daniel’s native Brazil. He sued for joint legal and physical custody when she refused.

“The case also raises questions not only about whether sperm donors have parental rights, but what is best for the child now that reproductive technologies are creating new kinds of families,” reports ABC News.

In July, the Superior Court in Santa Monica rejected Daniel’s claims under the California Sperm Donor Statute, ruling that even though his name is on the birth certificate, semen used for artificial insemination or vitro fertilization for a woman other than the donor’s wife is not legally the natural father.

Karen spent $60,000 in legal fees, and she continues to worry that Daniel could kidnap the baby to Brazil during monthly visits.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/09/14/Lesbian_Mother_Stalked_by_Sperm_Donor/

Sperm donor loses unique paternity suit

2010-09-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

There's a big difference between being a sperm donor and being a dad.

That's the message that came out of a paternity suit recently resolved at the Santa Monica Courthouse in which a sperm donor sought joint custody of a toddler he helped conceive.

As is customary in paternity cases, the full names of the parties involved have not been disclosed. But the story goes like this:

Karen B., a lesbian looking to become a mother, found a sperm donor who seemed like a good fit in Daniel C., a gay man who had posted an ad on Craigslist offering his services.

Under the terms of a written agreement that would later become the subject of dispute, the baby boy born to Karen through artificial insemination would occasionally visit with Daniel, but lived with his mother, who was responsible for making all decisions regarding the child's upbringing, schooling, religion and health care.

After two years, though, Daniel wanted additional rights and eventually sued Karen, claiming he was entitled to joint custody.

In court, Daniel presented two main pieces of evidence. First, he pointed out he had signed the boy's birth certificate. Second, he showed the boy's mother had signed a so-called "voluntary declaration of paternity" designating him as the child's biological father. (Karen argued she had been sedated when she signed the document days after giving birth).

In the end, though, Karen prevailed and retained full custody of her child.

For more on this case follow the link: http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2010-09-15-70324.113116_Sperm_donor_loses_unique_paternity_suit.html

NHS buys porn for sperm donors

2010-09-16T03:36:00.000-07:00

The NHS is spending public money buying pornographic magazines and films for sperm donors, it has been reported.

As many as one in three hospitals which provide fertility services provide pornographic material for donors, according to a report by a health think tank.

Some 17 hospitals disclosed they had bought porn when questioned by 2020health.org, which highlights cases of NHS waste.

Most of the magazines were bought from newsagents, but two hospitals admitted having placed orders with publishers while others said the porn had been donated by staff, patients and visitors, The Sun reported.

The think tank said the disclosure was disrespectful to women working for the NHS, many of whom face uncertain futures thanks to tight budgets.

Its director, Julia Manning, said she was unaware of any government permission for spending on porn, though only 33 of 92 hospitals questioned admitted having done so.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7988367/NHS-buys-porn-for-sperm-donors.html

Doctor sued as wrong sperm alleged in fertility cases

2010-09-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Lawyers for two families suing a well-known Ottawa fertility doctor for allegedly using the wrong sperm samples to create their children say they believe other patients of the clinic may be in for a surprise.

Dr. Bernard Norman Barwin and the Broadview Fertility Clinic, which he owns, are the targets of two lawsuits launched in Ontario Superior Court seeking a combined $3-million in damages for “heightened anxiety, depression and frustration,” among other things, suffered by the families.

Both statements of claim, obtained by the National Post, ask the court to order a test of Dr. Barwin to rule out “the possibility that he is the donor whose sperm was used to inseminate.”

Pam MacEachern, lawyer for the two families, said she is investigating the possibility that her clients aren’t the only parents who may have been inseminated with the wrong sperm, given the proximity in time, 2005 and 2007, between the alleged incidents.

“The fact that it happened to two people a couple of years apart in very similar circumstances gives us a lot of concern,” Ms. MacEachern said yesterday. “We believe that there’s a good basis to believe that it probably has happened to other people.”

Dr. Barwin, who came to Ottawa in 1973 and set up his private fertility clinic in the mid-1980s, denies the allegations, stating in a statement of defence that “all medical care and treatments provided were carried out in a careful, competent and diligent manner and in accordance with the applicable standard of care.”

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=3525349

Quick-frozen sperm could offer thousands of childless men the chance of fatherhood

2010-09-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

A new technique for preserving sperm could offer men with low sperm counts, cancer, or viruses such as HIV the hope of fathering healthy children.

Experts found that fast-freezing sperm preserves its ability to swim towards an egg far more efficiently than the slow-freezing method currently in use.

The study, from experts in Chile and Germany, will be presented at the World Congress of Fertility and Sterility in Munich.

Current slow-freezing techniques mean the sperm only retains 30 to 40 per cent of activity. But rapid freezing - also known as vitrification - allows that figure to rise to almost 80 per cent.

Vitrification is already used to quick-freeze eggs and embryos with success, allowing spare ones to be used in IVF at a later date.

Following thawing, more eggs and embryos survive with vitrification than with older, slower cooling techniques.

In vitrification, cryopreservation agents are added to lower the water content in cells and prevent ice crystals building up.

In the latest study, plasma was separated and removed and the sperm placed in a sucrose solution before being plunged into liquid nitrogen to fast-freeze.

Current slow-freezing techniques mean the sperm only retains 30 to 40 per cent of activity. But rapid freezing - also known as vitrification - allows that figure to rise to almost 80 per cent.

Vitrification is already used to quick-freeze eggs and embryos with success, allowing spare ones to be used in IVF at a later date.

Following thawing, more eggs and embryos survive with vitrification than with older, slower cooling techniques.

In vitrification, cryopreservation agents are added to lower the water content in cells and prevent ice crystals building up.

In the latest study, plasma was separated and removed and the sperm placed in a sucrose solution before being plunged into liquid nitrogen to fast-freeze.

Current slow-freezing techniques mean the sperm only retains 30 to 40 per cent of activity. But rapid freezing - also known as vitrification - allows that figure to rise to almost 80 per cent.

Vitrification is already used to quick-freeze eggs and embryos with success, allowing spare ones to be used in IVF at a later date.

Following thawing, more eggs and embryos survive with vitrification than with older, slower cooling techniques.

In vitrification, cryopreservation agents are added to lower the water content in cells and prevent ice crystals building up.

In the latest study, plasma was separated and removed and the sperm placed in a sucrose solution before being plunged into liquid nitrogen to fast freeze.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1311532/Fast-freezing-sperm-offer-thousands-childless-men-chance-fatherhood.html#ixzz0zUzrbtAY

IVF babies in health alert: Test-tube children 30 per cent more likely to have defects, warns watchdog

2010-09-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

Couples having IVF treatment are to be warned for the first time that their children have a higher risk of genetic flaws and health problems.
Official guidance will make clear that test-tube babies could be up to 30 per cent more likely to suffer from certain birth defects.
The alert has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Government's watchdog on fertility issues.

It means that the one in six British couples estimated to be infertile will have to balance their desire for a child against concerns that IVF methods could lead to life-threatening defects or long-term disabilities.
A number of studies have already raised concerns over the growing use of the procedure, which accounts for more than 10,000 births in Britain every year.

Research published online last month in the Human Reproduction journal found that IVF babies suffer from higher rates of birth defects than those conceived naturally.

The scientists from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta looked at more than 13,500 births and a further 5,000 control cases using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.

Shake-up of NHS 'incentives' in drive to curb caesareans

2010-09-06T05:56:00.001-07:00

Plans to reduce the number of caesarean deliveries and give women greater access to home births are being considered by ministers.

They want to remove incentives that see hospitals paid extra for surgical births, with or without complications.

The payments mean that one in four babies is delivered by caesarean section - almost double the World Health Organisation's recommended rate.

At around 155,000 babies last year, the figure is three times that of 1980 and one that flies in the face of efforts by the last government to encourage natural births.

Ministers say they do not want to 'demonise' C-sections or discourage doctors from performing them when clinically necessary.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308846/Shake-NHS-incentives-drive-curb-caesareans.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0ykn3rk8q

Pregnant rock singer to stage special concert for mums-to-be in Edinburgh

2010-09-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

IT WILL surely be the mother of all rock gigs. A pregnant rock singer is set to stage a concert specifically aimed at mums-to-be.

The event, dubbed Wombstock, is to be held in Edinburgh later in the year with the aim of using music to help stimulate the unborn kids as well as allowing their mums to let their hair down.

Singer Gulzhan Ibraveya is leading from the front as she will be well on the way to the delivery ward herself when she hosts the gig on November 2

The 32-year-old Kazakh, who formed Universal You with husband Paul Finnie, 42, and Mark Grant, 24, in the Capital two years ago, will be at the mic at the city's Voodoo Rooms just weeks from her due date.

The band, who recently played a sell-out gig to 12,000 fans in Kazakhstan, hope that hundreds of mums-to-be and their partners will flock to the concert and are even considering having medics on site in case any of the fans go into labour.

For more on this story follow the link: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Pregnant-rock-singer-to-stage.6514625.jp

Couples face new IVF postcode lottery as NHS cuts costs

2010-09-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

Childless couples are facing a widening postcode lottery after NHS officials ordered GPs to slash the amount of fertility treatment on offer to cut costs, stark new figures show.

Women in some areas are being denied access to the treatment altogether while others are facing new restrictions which appear to flout national guidelines.

One in five local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) said they had cut the number of IVF procedures they had funded over the past three years, the study by the health magazine, Pulse, found.

Some trusts have frozen funding for IVF completely while reduced the number of cycles on offer.

Funding chiefs blamed the economic downturn and the looming spending cuts for the decision but campaigners said many infertile couples were now being denied a “fundamental right”.

Under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (Nice) GPs are advised to offer women under 40 up three cycles of IVF on the NHS.

But several trusts have recently ordered family doctors to cut the number of cycles on offer to two or one.

Nine PCTs – in Luton, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Portsmouth, Bolton and West Kent – admitted they had not funded any IVF treatment for two years, acccording to the Pulse study.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7980879/Couples-face-new-IVF-postcode-lottery-as-NHS-cuts-costs.html

You don't want this idiot to be your donor dad

2010-09-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

SOMEHOW the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and Don the landlord don’t really go together.

The HFEA is a scientific body (soon to be axed, as it happens) providing fertility treatment to childless couples.

Last week it announced it was so concerned that many couples are now seeking IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) abroad that they are considering getting more home-grown egg and sperm donors to volunteer by raising the £250 “compensation” payment to much, much more, perhaps even £800.

Donors have to be thoroughly tested for a variety of disorders, meaning several visits to clinics. It is considered unethical for them to be “paid”.

That, I am afraid, is where Don the landlord comes in. Don is, or was, an almost perfect sperm donor, six-foot-two, lean-framed, nicely proportioned, good skin, pleasant angular features, superficially well-adjusted, probably exactly what the clinic was looking for. The trouble with Don the landlord was that he was a commonsense-free zone. He was a disaster.

My fear is that several hundred pounds per donation might lure him out of retirement and he’ll see it as a new call to arms to do the job he was probably best equipped for. Don first turned up in our village as the landlord of the pub by the church, the sort of run-of-the-mill local where lads establish their credentials on the dart boards, the bar billiards table and playing illicit games of cards out the back.

He told little coterie of drinkers he spent most of his time with that every time he made a successful contribution, the sperm bank gave him £25, certainly enough to cover his train ticket and a little illicit trading in Soho, where I supposed he bought his dope.

Instead, I cringed at the thought of women – trusting, child-yearning, unsuspecting women – getting impregnated with the spermatic idiocy of Don and his genes, of a new century where hundreds of my countrymen looked like Don, where the wheels of any industry or any enterprise we had would suddenly seize up because, at the centre of it all, would be a Don lookalike with that slack-jawed, uncomprehending expression he reserved for anything he didn’t understand.

Worse is the thought that Don is still alive in a hospital test-tube – like a good reliable Ford Cortina kept in a garage – and one laboratory technician is at this moment saying to another: “Let’s give her a shot of good old Hampshire Landlord – he seems to hit the bullseye every time.” Towards the end of his tenure, his trade almost non-existent, he could be found snoozing in the hammock he slung up above his public bar.

After a prod or two at the bulge in it he could be persuaded down to pull you a desultory pint. Nineteen years after his departure, we should not be afraid of Dolly the sheep or cloned beef, but the mutations of Don the landlord. I have no idea where he is now. That’s because he disappeared one morning, leaving the pub open to the world and the keys in a new Range Rover he’d somehow persuaded a finance company to buy for him.

But this week’s news about egg and sperm shortage has brought him back with a shiver. Is Don the true father of our nation?

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/196353

US woman falsified sperm donations

2010-09-02T00:33:00.000-07:00

A researcher at Eastern Virginia Medical School's contraceptive development program has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $150,000 by falsifying sperm donations.

Federal prosecutors say 48-year-old Adrienne R. Boothe of Hampton pleaded guilty Monday in Norfolk federal court to theft from a program receiving federal funds.

Boothe worked at the school for more than 20 years. The school's Contraceptive Research and Development Program pays $30 for sperm donations to be used in its research.

Prosecutors say Boothe falsified donor reimbursement documents from January 2003 through January. She was fired after an internal investigation in February.

Boothe faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 13.

Egg and sperm donors could get up to £800 in payments

2010-08-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

Currently the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) imposes a £250 cap on payments so as to avoid commercialising the procedure.

But the low payment is thought to be behind a shortage in egg and sperm donation which is driving infertile women and men to overseas – often unregulated – clinics, according to research.

Now the HFEA is considering adopting the Spanish system which would see the payment cap lifted to £800.

"We want to review egg donation," Professor Lisa Jardine, the chair of the HFEA told the Sunday Times.

"We are suggesting moving closer to the Spanish system. But there is no suggestion of adopting the US model where a good-looking girl with a degree can get $30,000 (£19,000) for her eggs."

A report will go to the HFEA's executive next month, setting out the proposed higher payments.

It will then be put out to public consultation.

Fertility clinics are barred from offering straight payments for egg or sperm donation.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7958588/Egg-and-sperm-donors-could-get-up-to-800-in-payments.html

Early Down's syndrome screening not available in Wales

2010-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Pregnant women in Wales are still waiting for access to a screening test two years after it was recommended.

A health guidance body said in 2008 all pregnant women should be offered, on the NHS, a combined scan and blood tests for foetal chromosomal problems.

But currently, women are only offered a different blood test after 15 weeks.

The assembly government said implementing guidelines took time but it hoped to have screening in place by April next year, depending on funding.

The recommended test is a specialised ultrasound scan checking for raised levels of fluid at the back of the foetus' neck, which can indicate chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's or Edward's syndromes.

The screening includes a specialised ultrasound scan Pregnant women in Wales are still waiting for access to a screening test two years after it was recommended.

A health guidance body said in 2008 all pregnant women should be offered, on the NHS, a combined scan and blood tests for foetal chromosomal problems.

But currently, women are only offered a different blood test after 15 weeks.

The assembly government said implementing guidelines took time but it hoped to have screening in place by April next year, depending on funding.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-10868260

Do we really want to trade the gift of life like junk on ebay?

2010-08-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Many men and women who long for a baby - but are beset by fertility problems - will read with envy the news that Samantha Cameron has given birth to a baby girl and say a silent prayer that they too will be so blessed.

Yet the fact remains that, in many cases, their prayers will not be answered because of a chronic shortage in the number of people willing to donate eggs or sperm to help them conceive.

This week's announcement that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will review its policy on paying sperm and egg donors raises, yet again, the issue of how we reconcile questions of need, knowledge and ethics.

In my view, the review is no bad thing. Sometimes we have to go back to the drawing board, if only to decide the first design was the best one. I firmly believe we should not pay people to be donors.

Let's be clear what this is about. One in seven couples has fertility problems, causing untold heartache. They have planned the nursery in their dreams and watched their friends completing their lives with children, but have to face the news that it won't be so easy - if at all possible - for them.

After trying in vain, they seek advice, and all the time the clock is ticking, especially as women are leaving it later to start attempting to conceive. They may seek IVF, at which point they may discover that the problem is within one of them, in terms of producing eggs or sperm.
So they turn to the idea of donation. Yet some fertility clinics have waiting lists of up to two years, because of the shortage of donated eggs and sperm. That is why some couples go abroad as 'fertility tourists' to get what they need. Or even buy sperm over the internet.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1306232/BEL-MOONEY-Do-really-want-trade-gift-life-ebay.html#ixzz0y1DJAR1A

Mummy tummies the shape of things to come

2010-08-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

BRONZED and beautiful, mums-to-be are throwing off the maternity garb and celebrating their baby bumps.

And women who have gone through an arduous journey with IVF are the latest fans of belly casting.

Nicole Shulman, co-owner of Melbourne business Belly Art, said these women in particular were keen to document every moment of their pregnancies.

"In the past two years we have been getting a lot of people who have gone through a long journey with IVF," Ms Shulman said.

"They have tried so hard for so long to get pregnant that they want to immortalise every step.

"For other people, they might have had three children and realise this is their last time being pregnant."

The business, which has been casting pregnant bellies for eight years, says the latest trend is a bronze finish plaster cast. And the bigger the bump, the better.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/mummy-tummies-the-shape-of-things-to-come/story-e6frf7kx-1225910129182

Contacting My Sperm Donor – I Am A Kid who is All Right!

2010-08-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

In response to recently released movie "The Kids Are All Right" one girl whose life followed a similar pattern has spoken out about the reality of life with two moms who turned to sperm donation to start a family:

The media is buzzing about the new film “The Kids Are All Right”, which premiered earlier this month. Its release was exciting for me because for the first time I saw characters who closely reflected my family’s makeup, though the rest of the story, not really. I too have two mothers and a sperm donor who I contacted when I turned eighteen. The outcome was different and far less drama surrounded my family when I was finally able to contact and meet my donor, though there were still plenty of surreal moments. The reaction to the film has been extremely varied, from people thrilled to see representation of a lesbian-headed household, to those who see the events depicted in the film as reinforcement of the notion that children need to know and live with their biological mother and father.

Growing up in Massachusetts through the marriage equality debate in 2004 and all subsequent movements, I have long been combating false beliefs that LGBTQ people should not get married or raise children. I have lesbian mothers and I have a sperm donor. This in no way has made me less of a person, daughter, woman, or friend. To me, what makes a good parent is dedication to raising and loving a child. The number, gender, or sexuality of the parents does not determine the ability to help a child grow into a compassionate and kind person. To tell the truth, I feel lucky to have grown up with the knowledge that my mother put a great deal of time, money, and thought into having me. I have never doubted that I am loved because I know how much my mother wanted to have a child and did everything she could to have me.

While I understand that some people believe that the married, heterosexual, biological family is the only valid familial model, I refuse to let this stereotype go unchallenged. I have two mothers, only one of whom is biological, and no father. Rather than somehow leaving a negative affect, my family has helped me become a more open, loving, passionate, and socially aware individual. Growing up I was surrounded by many wonderful adult role models, some of whom were male. Of course I thought about my sperm donor, who he was, why he donated, what it would be like to meet him. The reason for me was never about searching for a parent I had lost or a piece of me that was missing, it was about meeting and thanking the person who enabled Cathy and Nancy, my mothers, to become parents.

While I understand that some people believe that the married, heterosexual, biological family is the only valid familial model, I refuse to let this stereotype go unchallenged. I have two mothers, only one of whom is biological, and no father. Rather than somehow leaving a negative affect, my family has helped me become a more open, loving, passionate, and socially aware individual. Growing up I was surrounded by many wonderful adult role models, some of whom were male. Of course I thought about my sperm donor, who he was, why he donated, what it would be like to meet him. The reason for me was never about searching for a parent I had lost or a piece of me that was missing, it was about meeting and thanking the person who enabled Cathy and Nancy, my mothers, to become parents.

I had never met another person with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or even queer parent until I was thirteen. That summer my family went to Provincetown, Massachusetts for Family Week where I participated in workshops provided by COLAGE. COLAGE is the only national youth-driven network of children, youth, and adults with LGBTQ parents. I would not be writing this if I had never come to know COLAGE and the others with LGBTQ parents I met through COLAGE. That summer I found my center and my political voice. Through the years COLAGE has helped me become a better advocate for myself and my family. This summer I am an intern at COLAGE and I am assisting in the distribution of the Donor Insemination (DI) Guide. The DI Guide is part testimonials and part advice focusing on the questions and concerns of donor-conceived children and their families. I have been able to watch the DI Guide go from an idea to a tool for families.

It has been almost three years since I began the process of contacting my sperm donor. Four months after I turned eighteen I had the name and address of my donor and within the year I learned I had two half-sisters who shared the same donor. I think the most incredible part of meeting my donor and half-siblings was putting an end to the mystery. After years of playing around with different scenarios in my head, or coming up with the reasons that Harvey Fierstein was my donor, I lost mystique but gained very real new friends and family. Now family gatherings include my two sisters, two of their siblings, our collective six lesbian mothers, and our donor and his wife. Certainly we are still getting to know each other, but there is an undeniably authentic connection between all of us.

Along with identical chins, my half-sisters and I have followed very similar paths. One sister, who is four months older than me, was a sophomore at Smith College as I began my first year at Mount Holyoke College. The schools are both women’s liberal arts colleges and twenty minutes apart. Together we met our other donor sister in March 2009. It turned out that this new sister is from a town ten minutes from my own, that we have mutual acquaintances, and I had heard about her a year before I met her. At a drama festival at her high school I met a guy who had taken the girl in town with lesbian mothers to her senior prom the previous year. In my favorite “small world” story, my sister and I took the same guy to our senior proms. I do not look like anyone in my family, but I do look a lot like her. The photos, both of us wearing blue dresses, are just incredible. Thankfully, we did not both date “our” prom date.

Meeting my donor and my new extended family did not alter my relationship with my parents. They were completely supportive of my desire to contact my donor and they were with me when I met him. I did not begin this adventure to seek a father and, though my donor is a wonderful person and a part of my life now, he is not my father. I have two parents and that is enough for me, but I am thrilled to have him as part of my growing family. For some people, family is a rigid concept. For me, family is not limited by genetics or living in the same home. My family is filled with moms, grandparents, half-siblings, friends, cousins, and a sperm donor. It may seem unfamiliar to some, but this is my family and together we are more than all right.

His Sperm, My Choice

2010-08-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

Amidst the controversy over donor conceived conception a woman who was conceived via this method has spoken up supporting the process and the choices her mother made:

"Our conversation this week about children born through artificial insemination was very close to home for me.

I’m one of the tens of thousands of women who became a mother using a sperm donor.

With the high range of estimates finding that 60,000 American kids are born through donor conception each year – representing less than 2 percent of all births - I had hoped it was still too rare to draw the kind of Fox News debate that rages around issues like gay marriage. And so I’ve watched this issue become a hot topic in the culture wars with dread.

But that didn’t stop me from reading “My Daddy’s Name is Donor,” the report compiled by our guest Elizabeth Marquardt and her organization. It’s crucial for me to have the best possible understanding of the situation I’ve brought my innocent child into, so when it was first released, I spent hours reading every word, checking every number, studying every comment. And it confirmed that bearing and raising kids this way would be tough. But it also confirmed on every measure of dysfunction, a majority of these children turned out just fine.

As a consequence, I’m not sure why there are so many grave predictions for families like mine. And I reject the idea that most mothers conceive this way because they’re ignoring the difficulties. When I decided to have a child using artificial insemination, I knew I would have to find a way to deal with all those old fashioned folks who believe that a happy marriage provides the best home for raising children. That was especially tricky, because I was - and am - one of those people. I know what kind of challenges children face in single-parent homes. I was raised in one.

But I also know that being married when your child is born is no guarantee of a stable, two-parent home forever. Before I decided on artificial insemination, I pictured my alternatives: going on a mad hunt for husband with a one-item agenda and a stop-watch; or trying to convert a friend into a baby-daddy, a life-time partnership with no rules, blueprints or history of success. And even if that search panned out, I saw a 50/50 chance of ending up in the exact circumstances that faced my mother and so many other single and divorced moms: raising a child with a ghost dad.

For me – and for so many other kids I knew whose fathers weren’t around - what did the most damage was the emotional whiplash of having your dad there one day, and gone the next. On your 5th birthday, he’d swoop in for a weekend of ballgames, movies, gifts and pizza, and then do nothing for your 6th, a card for your 7th, a gift for the 8th, and back to nothing for the 9th. The suspense injects a little bit of poison into every celebration, every milestone, and every holiday.

If on one of those occasions, my mother had handed me a folder and said, “Listen, the reason your father didn’t show up is that - before you were born or even conceived - he signed this piece of paper agreeing to have no contact with me or with you until you turned eighteen,” that would’ve been better than what I had. And even with those issues, my mother provided a good home and raised my brother and me to be good and decent people.

I have faith I can do the same.

As an African-American child of a single mother, I’ve been hearing about the inevitable failure of my family and everyone in it for years. And thanks to endless web of relationships, I’ve gotten a front row seat to dysfunction that can develop despite the best of circumstances, and success that can grow, even under the worst.

Given what I know, I believe I can give my child a life worth living. And if I can do that, I don’t think it’s the government’s – or the culture warrior’s - business to tell me I can’t.

For the original source follow this link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2010/08/16/129235764/his-sperm-my-choice

'Cryo kids' : sperm donor children lobby to end anonymous donors

2010-08-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

They often can’t find their dad and if they do, chances are he’s moved on.

Now, though, sperm-donors’ children are banding together to try to ban anonymous sperm donation in hopes of saving future generations from the frustrating search that all too often ends in heartbreak, according to the Associated Press.

Using Internet-based social networking sites and other timely events, they’re banding together to reach their goal.

Earlier this summer, the film, "The Kids Are All Right," hit movie screens, telling the story of two siblings who track down their sperm-donor dad. And weeks earlier, a study from the Commission on Parenthood��s Future entitled, "My Daddy’s Name is Donor," looked at nearly 500 donor offspring and found that they were more prone to depression than other young people.

The commission called for an end to anonymous sperm donation. Meanwhile, newspaper op-ed articles and blogs have been both pro and con on the anonymity issue.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/08/17/2010-08-17_family_matter_sperm_donor_children_lobby_to_end_anonymous_donations.html#ixzz0wz1jmMqp

Meet The 25-Year-Old Sperm Hunter

2010-08-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Lara Carter has slept with 20 strangers in the past year - in a desperate and reckless bid to get pregnant.

The self-confessed "sperm hunter" uses ovulation kits to tell her when she is most fertile then pretends to be drunk, throwing herself at unsuspecting fellas and making it obvious she wants sex.

If Lara, 25, meets a man who wants to use a condom, she will offer one from her purse - which she has already pierced a hole in.

Lara, an assistant office manager, says: "This is absolutely the right time for me to have a baby and nothing is going to stand in my way. "All my friends have babies and I desperately want to be a mum. "I don't have a steady boyfriend and feel my time to have a baby is running out. I only need a man to provide his sperm - I would have no interest in seeing him again. That is why I'm a sperm hunter."

Her obsession with getting pregnant started a year ago, when she attended the birth of a friend's baby. She says: "The moment I saw my friend hold her newborn child, I had a huge desire to feel that love too. "I've always loved babies and wanted to be a mother from a very young age but from that moment it become an obsession. I have made it my mission in life to get pregnant."

For more on this story follow the link: http://foreign.peacefmonline.com/entertainment/201008/71834.php

Offspring of sperm donors seek changes so they can find their fathers more easily

2010-08-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Katrina Clark and Lindsay Greenawalt have much in common. Bright women in their 20s, raised by single mothers, keenly curious about the men whose donated sperm helped give them life.

Clark's search for her father succeeded after only a month, though with a bittersweet aftermath. Greenawalt is still searching, seven years after she started — persisting despite doubts and frustrations.

"I've dreamt of you since I was a little girl," Greenawalt wrote to her unknown dad in a Father's Day blog posting in June. "There are so many things I want to know about you."

Greenawalt, who lives near Cleveland, and Clark, a college student in Washington, D.C., are part of an increasingly outspoken generation of donor offspring. They want to transform the dynamics of sperm donation so the children's interests are given more weight and it becomes easier to learn about their biological fathers.

One specific goal — a ban on anonymous sperm donations — seems far-off in the United States, although Britain and several other European countries have taken that step.

But the voices of donor offspring are being heard more widely and clearly than ever, thanks to Internet-based social networking and other recent developments.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.wtvr.com/sns-ap-us-sperm-donor-dads,0,321887.story

Jennifer Aniston branded 'destructive to society' after saying women don't need a man to have a child

2010-08-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Aniston has lost a friend in right-wing news pundit Bill O'Reilly.
He's said she was being 'destructive to our society' for saying that women don't need to wait for a man to have a child.
The 60-year-old Fox News TV rottweiler lashed out on his show at the remark by the 41-year-old actress.

'Aniston can hire a battery of people to help her, but she cannot hire a dad, OK? And Dads bring a psychology to children that is, in this society, I believe, under-emphasized. I think men get hosed all day long in the parental arena.'

In The Switch, Aniston plays Kassie, a single woman who is desperate for a baby and decides to have artificial insemination to fall pregnant.
Her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who is in love with her, drunkenly switches the donor sperm with his own, and doesn't tell her.
Speaking at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, Aniston said she still wishes for a family of her own.
'Yeah, I have said it years before and I still say it today,' she said. But will she turn to the 'turkey baster' method, like Kassie?
'I don't have plans on that, no,' says Aniston. But speaking to Entertainment Weekly recently, she hinted 'I'm on the verge of it in some way... it's something I long for.'

People magazine quotes Jennifer saying, 'the point of the movie is what is it that defines family? It isn't necessarily the traditional mother, father, two children and a dog named Spot.

'Love is love and family is what is around you and who is in your immediate sphere.
'That is what I love about this movie. It is saying it is not the traditional sort of stereotype of what we have been taught as a society of what family is.'

For more on this story follow the link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1302526/Jennifer-Aniston-destructive-saying-women-dont-need-man-child.html

Complaints against Marie Stopes TV ad rejected

2010-08-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Despite 1,054 complaints from the public, GPs and MPs, the advisory watchdog has quashed criticisms against the first televised abortion advertisement in the UK.

The campaign, which was broadcast throughout May and June of this year, was condemned by some as misleading, offensive and harmful for its advice surrounding unplanned pregnancy.

A spokeswoman from the ProLife Alliance said, ‘It is preposterous to assert that the ad was not misleading.’

The television commercial was criticised for promoting abortion, for failing to take in to account the views of fathers and for offending religious beliefs.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/health/494386/complaints-against-marie-stopes-tv-ad-rejected.html

The old ones are the best - survey shows older generation have higher quality sperm

2010-08-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

The results of a recent sperm investigation come as no surprise to many experts. They warn that older generations may actually be more fertile than younger guys.

Environmental influences and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles, they say, may be triggering these plummeting sperm counts.

We've recently seen this theory in action, with two men becoming fathers in their 70s. The Sun told last month how Raymond Calvert, 79, was overjoyed at having son Jamie Rai with partner Charlotte, 25.

Meanwhile, pensioner Richard Roden, 72, announced in June that his wife Lisa, 26 - with whom he has 18-month-old twins Emily and Ruby - is pregnant again.

But these super-fertile old chaps may be a dying breed, warns sperm expert Dr Allan Pacey from the University of Sheffield.

He says: "We think sperm counts have declined in recent years. For some reason, today's men are not as fertile as their fathers. The main theory is that something in the environment - we don't know what - is affecting the development of the testicles in the womb.

"When men reach adulthood, their testicles perform less well and produce fewer sperm."

Bulging waistlines and unhealthy diets may also be contributing to lower sperm counts.

But older sperm is more likely to have genetic defects, he cautions, with babies born to older dads more likely to have health problems.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/3082192/Older-generation-are-more-fertile.html#ixzz0vj77hkPc

Sperm donor inquiry to close

2010-08-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

A Senate inquiry into rules governing sperm and egg donation in Australia will stop accepting submissions on Friday.

Issues up for discussion include payments for donors, the number of offspring born from each donor, and the rights of donor conceived persons.

A same-sex couple wrote to complain about time constraints placed on using sperm from the same donor, as well as the number of women that could use sperm from the same donor under NSW’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Act.

“As of January 1 2010 the definition of how many people were allowed to use the same donor in Australia [changed to] ‘how many women’ rather than … ‘how many families’,” the couple wrote.

“I cant see any reasonable reason for this change in legislation which would only affect lesbians. It seems very homophobic.”

Most submissions to the inquiry have been from donor-conceived children calling for the same rights to information about their donors as adopted persons have about biological parents.

For more on this case follow the link: http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2010/07/28/sperm-donor-inquiry-to-close/28603

Jennifer Aniston gives her views on sperm donation

2010-07-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-07-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

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.

.
'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

2010-07-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-19T09:36:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-07-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-07-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

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'

2010-07-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

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/

Would you ask a friend for his sperm?

2010-06-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

Women are saying they would choose a male friend to father their children if they had not met their ideal partner by a certain age, according to a recent study. Would you?

Independent research commissioned by Vitabiotics Pregnacare Conception (a vitamin supplement to support healthy conception) reveals that 56 per cent of women would look to a male friend as a sperm donor. Women aged 28-31 were most likely, at 64 per cent, to consider this option based on a survey of 3,103 single men and women aged 25-45.

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopolous said: 'Reconstituted families, same sex families and single parent families are much more prevalent these days and rather than ascribing to the 'norm' it seems that women and men are more flexible with their definition of 'family'.'

Is it a woman's right to have a family at any cost or is this a case of natural instinct taking over from common sense? Have you considered what is best for the child?

Would you consider using a friend as a sperm donor or have you considered it and been put off by the legal ramifications of having a child with a friend?

For more on this follow the link: http://www.ivillage.co.uk/pregnancyandbaby/fertility/conception/articles/0,,4_716575,00.html

How to sell sperm...

2010-06-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

The role of humour in sperm donor recruitment is almost as controversial as the subject matter.

Unlike either oocyte or embryo donation, sperm donation presents a massive PR problem - masturbation. At least since Onan came to a sticky end, masturbation (aka 'self-abuse') has both suffered censure and has provided a fertile source for low-grade humour.

Various tactics have been employed to attract men to donate sperm. In jurisdictions where there are no externally-imposed restrictions on the use of enticements, financial inducement seems to work reasonably well and major US sperm banks adopt what may best be described as a casual approach to recruitment.

The website of Xytex entices potential donors with the less than eye-catching slogan 'become a sperm donor with Xytex'. California Cryobank is a little more imaginative with 'Give the gift of family'.

The website of Cryos International, which claims to be 'the world's largest international network of sperm banks, offering our services to clinics and private customers in more than 60 countries', is the epitome of low-key, providing no obvious indication that it is seeking to recruit donors at all.

More brash recruitment efforts have come from elsewhere. In 2005, the Albury Reproductive Medicine clinic in New South Wales, Australia achieved international celebrity (or notoriety) following its advertisement for potential donors in a University of Calgary student magazine to whom it was offering a two-week, all-expenses paid trip down-under.

Recent sperm donor recruitment campaigns in the UK have tackled the masturbation 'problem' head on - most notably the National Gamete Donation Trust's (NGDT) 'Give a Toss' campaign (for non-UK readers of this commentary the campaign title cleverly - if not tastefully - played on the twin British slang meanings of 'toss'. First, as a euphemism for 'masturbation' - as in 'have a toss' or to 'toss off' - second, to refer to 'caring', as in the negative rendition of the term 'couldn't give a toss', meaning 'do not care').

For the full article follow this link:http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_59862.asp

Neurotic women 'more fertile than laid-back peers', say scientists

2010-06-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

Neurotic women are more fertile and have more babies than their laid-back female counterparts, new research revealed yesterday.

The surprising study investigated the link between personality traits and fertility in populations with traditionally high birth rates.

Scientists found that women with higher levels of neuroticism and men who were rated as extrovert were likely to have a significantly higher number of children.

Women with above average neuroticism are characterised as being prone to anxiety, depression and moodiness.

Researchers also found a link between maternal personality traits and their offspring's physical condition.

Neurotic women were more likely to have malnourished children with decreased body mass index (BMI), suggesting their negative personality trait carries a cost for families.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1285152/Neurotic-women-fertile-laid-peers-say-scientists.html#ixzz0rlfnUmq8

Caroline was fathered by a sperm donor - so why does she bitterly resent the stranger who gave her life?

2010-06-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

The act will have been brief, impersonal and utterly bereft of emotion - but 25 years on, the moment that Caroline Halstead was conceived is causing her lasting heartache.

For she was fathered by an anonymous sperm donor and, like a growing number conceived in this way, she has struggled to come to terms with the fact that she is the product of a scientific process rather than a loving union.

'I was conceived in a petri dish by artificial insemination at a Harley Street Clinic in London,' she says, describing the fertility treatment her mother sought when her husband was diagnosed as infertile.

'In my view, it is a horrible, clinical way to be conceived. All my life I've felt as if I'm only half a person.'

A Surrey housewife and mother who is expecting her second child in August, Caroline is haunted by the thought of her conception - and the fact that, unlike her children, she will never know or even meet her biological father.

Her feelings are far from isolated. A new study, the first of its kind into the effects of donor conception on offspring, reveals the complex and often troubling emotions adults born in this way can experience. They feel confusion, isolation and hurt, more acutely, even, than those who have been adopted.

Nearly half of those surveyed by the Commission on Parenthood's Future were disturbed that money was involved in their conception.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1289042/Caroline-fathered-sperm-donor--does-bitterly-resent-stranger-gave-life.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0rleRexW2

Fertility forum makes world a prettier place

2010-06-24T03:59:00.000-07:00

Even ugly people deserve beautiful babies.

That’s the peculiar sentiment of a fertility introduction service launched last week by the founders of BeautifulPeople.com.

Remember them? They’re the guys who helped pretty people hook up online, unapologetically weeding out the aesthetically challenged so beautiful people could browse their own kind.

Now Greg Hodge and Robert Hintze are bringing the world one step closer to resembling the cast of a beer commercial or Calvin Klein ad.

Through Beautiful Baby, the site invites men and women to increase their odds of having a good-looking kid by introducing them to a beautiful person willing to donate an egg or sperm.

The virtual sperm bank and egg-donor program is open to anyone, even people who are less than comely, Hodge says. Members offer donor services in a web forum to anyone hoping to increase their chances of conceiving a beautiful baby.

BeautifulPeople.com launched in 2002 and boasts 600,000 members worldwide; hopefuls submit a photo and current members vote on he or she is worthy of inclusion. Hodge began the new project when he realized fertility clinics were advertising on the site.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.thestar.com/article/827713--fertility-forum-makes-world-a-prettier-place

Sperm holds key to healthy pregnancy

2010-06-24T03:57:00.000-07:00

A man's sperm can contribute to a healthy pregnancy but also runs the risk of being rejected if not entirely compatible with his partner, new research has found.

University of Adelaide Professor Sarah Robertson said semen had special qualities that contributed to a healthy pregnancy, including helping to prepare the female body for nurturing the fetus.

But some sperm fail to communicate with the female reproductive tract and while a man can appear to be fertile, his semen can be rejected if the woman's body doesn't consider it compatible.

"We used to think that if a couple couldn't get pregnant, and the mans semen test was normal, the problem lay with the woman," Professor Robertson said in a statement on Wednesday.

"But it appears this is not always the case.

"We have discovered that sperm doesn't just fertilise an egg.

"It actually contains signalling molecules that are responsible for activating immune changes in women so they can accept a foreign substance in the body, in this case sperm, leading to conception and a healthy pregnancy.

"It's rather like a two-way dance."

For more on this story follow the link: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/sperm-holds-key-to-healthy-pregnancy-20100624-yzft.html

Pregnancy smoking test suggested

2010-06-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

All pregnant women should be tested for smoking so that they can be given quitting advice if necessary, a health watchdog says.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said carbon monoxide tests should be carried out on every expectant mother.

If implemented, every woman would have the breath test at her first ante-natal appointment.

Midwives criticised the test, saying it could make the women feel "guilty".

NICE said the guidelines were not aimed at penalising smokers but were designed to help women and their families give up smoking during and after pregnancy.

"During pregnancy, smoking puts the health of the women and her unborn baby at great risk both in the short and long-term, and small children who are exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to suffer from respiratory problems," Professor Mike Kelly, Nice director of the centre of public health excellence, said.

"One of our recommendations is for midwives to encourage all pregnant women to have their carbon monoxide levels tested and discuss the results with them.

"This isn't to penalise them if they have been smoking, but instead will be a useful way to show women that both smoking and passive smoking can lead to having high levels of carbon monoxide in their systems."

The guidelines were welcomed by the Royal College of Midwives, but it urged "non-judgemental" support for women smokers.

For more info on this story follow the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10399242.stm

Mobile phone masts no cancer risk for babies - study

2010-06-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

Living close to a mobile phone mast does not increase the chance of a pregnant woman's baby developing cancer before he or she reaches the age of five, a study from Imperial College London has found.

Researchers looked at almost 7,000 children and found those who developed cancer aged four or younger were no more likely to have a birth address close to a mast than their peers.

The study included 1,397 British children aged up to four who were registered with leukaemia or a tumour in the brain or central nervous system between 1999 and 2001.

The proximity of their birth address to a mast was compared to that of four healthy children of the same gender who were born on the same day, chosen randomly to act as controls.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College London and the study's lead author, said: "People are worried that living near a mobile phone mast might affect their children's health.

"We looked at this question with respect to risk of cancers in young children. We found no pattern to suggest that the children of mums living near a base station during pregnancy had a greater risk of developing cancer than those who lived elsewhere."

The study, published on the website of the BMJ medical journal, is the largest of its kind and was funded by the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hp4wZECxDaV2dq8I0ILkHYvTY8Eg

Offspring of donor sperm face torment

2010-06-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

People conceived through sperm donation are more likely to experience depression, delinquency and substance abuse, according to a new survey.

The survey - conducted by the New York-based Commission on Parenthood's Future - also found that those conceived through sperm donation experienced greater confusion about their own identity than those who were adopted or raised by their biological parents.

The donor-conceived adults also experience significant isolation from their families and widespread concern that they might be related biologically to someone they could date.

A report on the findings, called My Daddy's Name Is Donor: A New Study of Young Adults Conceived Through Sperm Donation, was published June 3 and is available online at www.familyscholars.org.

It is touted as the first representative, comparative study of the experiences of those conceived through sperm donation.

For more on this story follow rhe link: http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2010/0621/donor062110.shtml

New mothers 'can't afford not to return to work'

2010-06-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

Most mothers who return to work after having a baby are forced into it for financial reasons, research reveals today.

The findings highlight the problems facing women who desperately want to stay at home to raise their children, but simply cannot afford to.

Researchers asked mothers with children under the age of three what was their 'main' reason for going back to work.

More than 50 per cent said financial pressure, particularly significant debt problems, was to blame.

The most common answer was simply: 'Money was tight', while others said: 'We were in serious debt by the time I returned to work and needed the income to repay it.'

Just one in five said their main reason for going back to work was because they wanted to continue with their career, and 16 per cent said they wanted 'an alternative in my life to home and family'.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1287556/New-mothers-afford-return-work.html#ixzz0rD25SHvl

Inbred sperm fertilise fewer eggs

2010-06-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Males with genetically-related parents have been found to have sperm that fertilise fewer eggs when compared with non-inbred males, according to a latest research.

Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of two genetically-related parents, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits.

Research into the breeding habits of the red flour beetle shows that the reduced fitness of inbred beetles, known as 'inbreeding depression', reveals itself in competitive scenarios.

Inbreeding is a potentially important problem in declining species across the world, and conserving genetic variation is now recognised as a priority by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

For more info on this story follow the link:http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_inbred-sperm-fertilise-fewer-eggs_1397571

Barmaid, 22, who didn't know she was pregnant gives birth on the toilet (she thought 'pain' was caused by moving barrels)

2010-06-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

A barmaid revealed today how she woke in the night complaining about back ache - and gave BIRTH to a baby girl in her loo 30 minutes later.

Joanne Weller, 22, had no idea she was eight months pregnant after waking up with stabbing pains in her back at 4.45am at home.

She thought the pain was caused by working extra shifts at the pub worsened by moving barrels about in the cellar the evening before.

Joanne had continued to have her periods up to when she gave birth four weeks early.

She said: 'I wasn't even showing a bump, there was no clue I was pregnant.'

Her worried mother, Valerie, 52, phoned NHS Direct who advised her to call an ambulance as she may have appendicitis or kidney problems. But just half an hour later she felt the urge to push and healthy 6lb 1/2oz baby Madison Grace fell into the toilet basin.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1287064/Barmaid-22-didnt-know-pregnant-shocked-giving-birth-toilet.html#ixzz0r2OPLKMv

Pregnant Women Warned Not to Wear Stilettos

2010-06-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Women are putting their feet at risk while pregnant by wearing unsuitable footwear such as high-heeled shoes, a group of leading chiropodists and podiatrists warned Tuesday.

A poll of 1,000 pregnant women found 66 percent regularly wore flip flops, 32 percent wore high heels, 53 percent ballet pumps and 30 percent Ugg boots.

Of those questioned, seven out of 10 British pregnant women admitted to suffering from foot problems including swollen ankles (37 percent), swollen feet (45 percent) and arch and heel pain (16 percent).

Lorraine Jones, from the U.K.-based Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, said women were feeling under pressure to wear fashionable footwear but were risking long-term damage, as well as strains to their ankles and ligaments.

"Weight gain and hormonal changes in pregnancy have a huge impact on the body," she said.

"Muscles and ligaments soften and stretch because of an increase in the ovarian hormone, relaxin, which makes your feet more prone to ankle and ligament strains on a daily basis."

Jones' coworker Nita Parmar said, "Pregnancy can be an uncomfortable time for many expectant mothers, but the good news is that there are a variety of ways in which foot pain or discomfort whilst you are expecting can be prevented or alleviated."

The society recommended footwear with a strap, laces or Velcro and a heel height of 1.2 inches.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,594690,00.html

I'm trying for Bin Laden's grandchild: Briton's surrogacy deal with son of terror chief

2010-06-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

A British woman has agreed to become a surrogate mother to Osama Bin Laden's grandson.

Louise Pollard is having fertility treatment in an attempt to conceive using the sperm of Bin Laden's son Omar and the eggs of his British wife Jane Felix Browne.

The couple have been unable to have children since marrying in 2007 and contacted 24-year-old Miss Pollard through a surrogacy website.

If she is successful, it will mean that the world's most wanted terrorist will have a British grandchild.

So far, however, three attempts at conception have been unsuccessful. But Mrs Pollard is due to have another pregnancy test soon.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285757/Im-trying-Bin-Ladens-grandchild-Britons-surrogacy-deal-son-terror-chief.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qq8VwKUR

IVF breakthrough: Experts develop test that picks out top sperm just like an egg

2010-06-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

U.S researchers have developed a new method for selecting the best sperm during IVF treatments.

According to the team from Yale University, the method is as effective as the egg's own natural selective ability.

The technique selects the sperm with the highest DNA integrity and could be used to boost male fertility.

Senior study author, Dr Gabor Huszar, said: 'Our results could help address the fact that approximately 40 per cent of infertility cases can be traced to male infertility.'

Dr Huszar said that past semen analysis focused on sperm concentration and mobility. It was assumed that a man was fertile if he had a high sperm count and active sperm.

However, there was no information on the sperm’s fertility or its ability to attach to its mark - the female reproductive cell.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1283159/IVF-breakthrough-Experts-develop-test-picks-sperm-just-like-egg.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qSSIcXHe

Robbed of their femininity: How thousands of women are having needless hysterectomies

2010-06-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

After doctors told her she had advanced ovarian cancer and needed an urgent hysterectomy, Tracey Murray's life spiralled into chaos.

'My consultant said the cancer was extensive. I discovered that without surgery I could die within a year,' she recalls.

'The shock, of course, was profound. I was told I'd need six months of chemotherapy following the operation and that after that, my chances of living for five years were 50 per cent. I was devastated.'

Consider, then, the mix of emotions that ensued when, three weeks after Tracey, a 41-
year-old divorcee, had her womb, both ovaries and cervix removed, she was told that she did not, after all, have any form of cancer.

In fact she had endometriosis, a common condition in which pieces of her womb lining had embedded in an ovary.

And it could have been treated by cutting away the affected cells or destroying them by laser; indeed, it might have needed no treatment at all.

In either case, her hysterectomy had been unnecessary. For Tracey, this common operation - 60,000 to 70,000 are performed in Britain each year - had not proved to be a godsend, but a curse. And her case is far from isolated.

While experts have warned that the operation is absolutely necessary for cancer, critics claim the invasive procedure has become over-used.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1284776/Robbed-femininity-How-thousands-women-having-needless-hysterectomies.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qGM3lAPF

Dozens of women pregnant after IVF have terminations

2010-06-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

Every year tens of thousands of women have IVF treatment and thousands will fall pregnant. However, statistics just released by the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) under the Freedom of Information Act show a small number of those women (less than 1%) go on to terminate their pregnancy

Why women who’ve undergone a costly, stressful and sometimes painful procedure in order to conceive then go on to terminate that pregnancy isn’t recorded.

A spokesperson for the HFEA said by e-mail: “IVF is not a procedure to be undertaken lightly and we know what it means personally to the many women who make this decision every year. The HFEA does not regulate terminations of pregnancies and has no powers in relation to activities outside those described in the Act. All patients who undergo IVF are assessed, as are the implications for any child that might be born, in advance of the decision to treat.

For more info on this story follow the link: http://www.webmd.boots.com/news/20100607/dozens-of-women-pregnant-after-ivf-have-terminations

Meet the frozen sperm siblings born 15 years after their father was left infertile from cancer

2010-06-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

As a family photograph, it is hardly out of the ordinary - two-year-old Mariella hugs her baby brother Herbie.

Yet for parents Ian and Alison Morris, it is a reminder that these are the children they never thought they could have.

Mariella and seven-month-old Herbie were born using Mr Morris's frozen sperm, stored for an astonishing 13 years after cancer treatment left him infertile.

Following his successful battle against the disease, the couple had several unsuccessful attempts at starting a family using IVF and were close to giving up in despair.

But one final try, in February 2007, worked and Mariella was born the following October.

Incredibly, the couple then had a second success last year with Herbie, by which time Mr Morris's sperm had been frozen for 15 years.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1282689/Meet-frozen-sperm-siblings-born-15-years-father-left-infertile-cancer.html#ixzz0pnVk1o8V

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1282689/Meet-frozen-sperm-siblings-born-15-years-father-left-infertile-cancer.html#ixzz0pnVXX6WJ