September 2008 Blog Archive
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Male-Factor Infertility Linked with Cell Phones
Much of the infertility information that we discuss on fertility blogs is female-factor infertility caused by a variety of different things including simply the aging of women who wish to get pregnant later in life. However, there is also such a thing as male-factor infertility. It, too, can be caused by many different things and new research shows that one of those things is the use of cell phones.
Research has found that men who use hands-free devices with their cell phones but who leave their cell phones in their pants pockets while using these devices are taking chances with their fertility rates. Basically any guy who is keeping his cell phone too close to where his sperm is kept and who is using the phone there is exposing himself unnecessarily to harmful radiofrequency electromagnetic waves. This compromises fertility and could lead to the need for fertility treatments to have children later in life.
Learn more
here.
Question of the Day: Are cell phones generally linked with infertility?photo link
Monday, September 22, 2008
UVC Lights Improve CPR Rates for IVF Patients
An extensive multi-year research project has discovered that the use of UVC lights can improve CPR rates for patients who are using IVF to get pregnant.
That's a lot of acronyms there. Let's break it down:
- UVC lights: These are "ultraviolet c" lights which emit energy that has the potential to destroy over ninety percent (and sometimes close to one hundred percent) of the germs that can be harmful to embryos in a lab.
- CPR: This is the acronym which stands for "clinical pregancy rates". It refers to the success rates of lab-assisted pregnancies.
- IVF: This is the commonly-used acronym for the process of in vitro fertilization which many couples use when struggling with fertility issues and seeking to get pregnant.
What this research study means is that it is possible to improve the success rates for those couples that are using in vitro fertilization to get pregnant. This can be done in the lab through the assitance of advanced technology that incorporate Ultraviolet C lights into the process to reduce the germ factor of the procedure.
The full details of this research can be learned
here.
Question of the Day: Should UVC lights be used to improve fertility rates for IVF patients?photo link
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
California Rules Man's Sperm Dies With Him
There is a woman in California who has really been struggling with a unique (and devastating) problem relating to her infertility issues. She and her husband had started the process of infertility treatment by IVF. This included that the man had made a sperm deposit. However, the husband died just one month after beginning this process.
The woman still wants to be able to have a baby that genetically belongs to her now-dead husband. She has been suing to get custody over that sperm so that she can continue with the IVF using the sperm that her husband had left her.
The problem is that he technically did not leave this sperm to her. When filling out the various forms that are involved in infertility treatment, he had checked a box that says the sperm should be destroyed upon his death. Most likely he didn't expect to die anytime soon and checked the box because he didn't want his sperm used by anyone other than his wife.
However, the California courts
have ruled that his wishes as expressed by this form are to be honored. The woman can not use the sperm for IVF.
Question of the Day: Should this woman be allowed to use her dead husband's sperm for IVF?photo link
Monday, September 15, 2008
Celebrity Infertility Issues: Kyle MacLachlan
Kyle MacLachlan is a male celebrity who you probably know best from his role as Bree's husband on the show Desperate Housewives. Although his own wife (Project Runway executive producer Desiree Gruber) is no Desperate Housewife, the couple has certainly had their problems in the recent past. One of those problems was a struggle with infertility.
The issues that came up for the couple were not the typical ones that you hear about when you are discussing fertility problems. One of the issues was that Desiree suffers from thrombophilia, a medical problem in which blood clots form so easily that she needed to inject herself with blood thinners on a daily basis.
These medical issues along with the couple's advancing age (although they are by no means old - they are in their forties - they're also not in the prime for conceiving a child) made it difficult to get pregnant. With the help of specialists, they did successfully conceive and now have a
seven-week old son.
Question of the Day: What other medical conditions do you know of that can lead to problems with fertility?photo link
Friday, September 12, 2008
Learning about Cryopreservation from Animals
Cryopreservation (better known as egg freezing) is rapidly becoming a viable way for someone to protect their ability to have children even when their bodies have to undergo disease treatment (such as that for ovarian cancer) which would otherwise render them infertile. This is a relatively new field that is just starting to get popular and therefore there is still a lot to be learned about the topic.
Some people are
suggesting that perhaps doctors and researchers studying this area of fertility treatment should consider learning something from the animal population. More specifically, it is believed that the cryopreservation techniques used in farming and in reducing endagerment of species could be useful to teaching us something about how to improve cryopreservation for humans.
To date, these two areas of cryopreservation have been kept mostly separate. However, a recent workshop on the topic has led more people to believe that the animal world and the human world could learn a lot from one another in order to improve the cryopreservation techniques for both sides.
Question of the Day: Should cryopreservation for humans be studied with an eye towards the same procedure in animals?photo link
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
AFA Conference Coming Up
The American Fertility Association has a conference coming up in New York in a couple of weeks that people dealing with fertility and infertility issues may want to consider attending. The conference covers topics of interest to all different types of people and families regardless of the reason that they are interested in fertility topics.
Some of the issues that are going to be discussed in panels and presentations at this conference include:
- IVF
- Freezing of eggs
- PCOS
- Egg and sperm donation
- Surrogacy
- Adoption
As you can see, this conference is really going to cover all of the basis in terms of what options are out there for people dealing with fertility issues. This makes it a great place for discussions to occur and learning to take place.
The conference is scheduled for October 5th and
registration is only $40 per person so if you happen to be in the New York area and are truly interested in issues related to infertility then you might want to think about attending this event.
Question of the Day: What would you hope to learn from attending this type of infertility awareness event?photo link
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Oldest Mother of Triplets Gives Birth After Successful IVF
A woman in France who is nearly sixty years old has
just given birth to three healthy triplets after successful use of in vitro fertilization to get pregnant. This makes her the oldest known woman to birth triplets. And it makes her the subject of a lot of debate right now.
There is a law in France which prohibits doctors from using IVF on women who are too old to naturally reproduce. As a result, this woman engaged in the popular act of medical tourism to go to Vietnam to get her fertility treatments. She returned to France to have the babies.
Some say that the fact that she successfully gave birth to healthy triplets points to the validity of IVF treatments for older women who are no longer able to reproduce naturally. Others say that she took a big risk that she shouldn't have taken despite the results.
The controversy that she has stirred up is a two-fold controversy. First, there is the issue of whether or not fertility treatments should be used for older women. And second, there is the issue of medical tourism. There are strong arguments on both sides of each of these issues.
Although this controversy is surrounding the case, it is likely that the woman is remaining out of the middle of it and she begins to tend to the new babies that she's got to care for!
Question of the Day: What is your stance on the two issues of infertility that arise as a result of this case?photo link
Monday, September 08, 2008
Fertility Problems and Acupuncture
One of the things that constantly comes up when discussing options for treating infertility is the alternative health method of using
acupuncture to improve fertility. Many women believe that this can be a viable method of improving the likelihood that they will conceive either
naturally or as a supplemental service to IVF.
The majority of studies that have looked at the use of acupuncture for treating fertility have found that it is
unlikely that IVF rates are improved when acupuncture is used to assist the results. However, there is one
new report that gives some hope to those women who really want to go the acupuncture route for treating their infertility problem.
The report looks specifically at the use of acupuncture for women who are suffering from fertility problems caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This condition causes a hormonal balance that alters the menstrual cycle and eventually causes problems with fertility. It is believed by the experts involved with the report that acupuncture can be used to regulate the hormones and therefore to improve fertility rates for this set of women.
Question of the Day: What do you think about using acupuncture to treat fertility problems?photo link
Friday, September 05, 2008
Link Between Appetite Gene and Infertility
Most people know that there is some relationship between a woman's dietary healthfulness and her fertility level. A woman who is severely underweight or severely overweight will be more likely to suffer from fertility problems because the body doesn't feel that it is fit to carry and birth a child. A
new study has found that there is a specific gene which may be related to both fertility levels and appetite. This link could lead to improved medical treatment for women dealing with fertility related to problems with this gene.
What the study discovering this link found is that there is a hormone called leptin which informs the brain as to how properly-fed the body may be. There is a gene that can cause the information from leptin to be incorrect. Therefore, the body believes that it is not properly fed even when it is. This can lead to weight problems including obesity and it may also lead to problems with fertility that result from the body's confusion about its own ability to carry a baby.
The study is in its preliminary stages and has currently only been conducted on mice so it is unclear at this time whether or not the information will ultimately have an impact on the treatment of infertility. However, it could be one area of medicine that deals with treating fertility problems in a niche group of women suffering from this type of infertility.
Question of the Day: Are appetite and infertility linked through our genes?photo link
Thursday, September 04, 2008
New Approach May Improve IVF
Doctors and researchers are always looking for ways to improve the process of in vitro fertilization. Doing so increases the success rate of the procedure which means that patients are more satisfied with the results of going through treatment for infertility. One new advance may have been made in this area recently. It's being called "lab on a chip" and is a new method of determining the fitness of embryos for transplant during IVF.
"The scientists describe development of a so-called microfluidic chip, about the size of a quarter. It is intended to automatically analyze the health of embryos intended for transplant by measuring how the embryo alters key nutrients in the tissue culture medium used to nurture embryos." (source)
Doctors do currently test the fitness of embryos to make sure that the ones that are transplanted during the IVF procedure are the ones that are most likely to lead to successful conception. However this new method is believed to be one that could be more effective and more efficient therefore improving the success rates of IVF as well as the patient's experience when undergoing this common fertility treatment.
Question of the Day: Will "lab on a chip" fitness testing become common for embryos transplanted in IVF procedures?photo link
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
UK Sets Guidelines for Reducing Multiple Births with IVF
One of the biggest concerns that women have about using in vitro fertilization to get pregnant is the fear that they are going to get pregnant with twins, triplets or even more babies than that. This has historically been the case with IVF because of the number of embryos that are fertilized in an attempt to get pregnant.
Improvements in the IVF procedure have reduced the number of multiple birth pregnancies that occur in recent years. However, there is still the risk of becoming pregnant with two or more babies at a time when using IVF to get pregnant.
The only certain way to use IVF and eliminate the risk of multiple births is to choose to use a process called single embryo transfer. As the name suggests, only one embryo can then be fertilized. The risk is greater that the IVF will be unsuccessful but some women are willing to take this risk to avoid multiple births from IVF.
New guidelines for this procedure have been set forth in the UK and are worth taking a look at for a better understanding of what it's all about. They can be examined
here.
Question of the Day: Should there be specific guidelines in place for single embryo transfer IVF in addition to those established for general IVF?photo link
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Male Infertility Linked to Use of Perfume by Pregnant Women
You struggle with infertility for years and then finally end up getting pregnant and having a bouncing baby boy. Twenty or thirty years down the line, your son discovers that he, too, has problems with infertility. Could it be genetic? Or could it be that you used perfume during the pregnancy and caused him to become infertile when he was still in the womb?
New studies have found that there is a link between infertility in males and the use of perfume by women when they were pregnant with these boys. There is an eight-to-twelve-week time period during which the male fetus is developing his reproductive abilities; perfume used by the mother during this time may have a negative impact on this development.
This information isn't yet set in stone and confirmed by the medical community. It is based on a study that was completed on rats, not one completed on humans. However it is believed to be a strong enough indicator that it is recommended that pregnant women stop using perfumes in order to reduce the risk of male factor infertility in their as-yet-unborn sons.
Question of the Day: Is male fertility impacted by pregnant women using perfume?photo link
Monday, September 01, 2008
Type 2 Diabetes Increases Male Factor Infertility
About half of the time when a couple is having problems with fertility, the problems are due in part or completely the issues related to the fertility of the male. Those men who are suffering from Type 2 Diabetes should be aware of the fact that the disease can have an impact on their fertility and may hinder their ability to father children without assistance from fertility treatments of some kind.
When present in young men, diabetes appears to have a significant impact on lowering th testosterone levels in the male. This means that his fertility levels are compromised. There are also many other complications that low testosterone can cause for younger men in regards to the overall impact of diabetes on their health and development.
This indicates that there is a need to address the problem of low testosterone in men who have Type 2 diabetes, particularly those men who are still in their twenties and early thirties. Attention should be given to this by the fertility community because of the fact that it has a direct impact on male factor infertility.
Question of the Day: What type of research should be done to impove testosterone levels in men with Type 2 diabetes and therefore to increase fertility rates in this population?photo link
