Month: February 2018

Egg Donation, Embryo Freezing, Frozen Eggs, ICSI, Infertility, UK

UK – Shropshire and Mid Wales Fertility Centre moving to new home

Intended Parents

Source: Shropshire Star
For more than a quarter of a century, it has been helping thousands of couples realise their dreams of becoming parents.

An embryologist at The Shropshire and Mid Wales Fertility

The Shropshire and Mid Wales Fertility Centre is one of the top IVF clinics in the UK.

But it has outgrown its current home at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and is now set to move to a new facility on the outskirts of Shrewsbury.

From this summer, the centre will be operating from Severn Fields Health Village in Sundorne.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the facility, says it will mean better facilities for patients and the multi-professional fertility team.
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New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Toni Street: How I explained surrogacy to my girls 

Intended Parents

Source: NZ Herald

Telling your kids that they’re about to get a younger sibling can be tricky at the best of times.

But having to explain that their baby brother will be born via surrogate has made for an added twist for The Hits host Toni Street to navigate.

Street – who announced she will have her third child with the help of her best friend Sophie Braggins – says she decided to “keep it really simple” when breaking the news to her daughters, Juliette, 5, and Mackenzie, 2.

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compensation, New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Calls for surrogates to be compensated – as Toni Street announces baby news

Intended Parents

Source:  NZ Herald

A leading surrogacy lawyer and doctor have called for a law change to allow compensation to be paid to women who bear a baby for someone else.

Broadcaster Toni Street last night went public on how she and her husband Matt France’s third child is being carried by a surrogate – Street’s best friend Sophie Braggins.

The couple turned to a surrogate after Street was diagnosed with a rare and incurable auto-immune condition shortly after she gave birth to Mackenzie in mid-2015.

Zandra Wackenier, who has represented surrogate mothers and “intending parents” in dozens of applications to authorities, says she supports a continuation of commercial surrogacy in New Zealand, but she also believes surrogates should be compensated for their out-of-pocket expenses.

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endometriosis, India, Infertility, Surrogacy

India – Ending the option of carrying a child is about taking control of the body

Intended Parents

Source:  HindustanTimes

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American actress Lena Dunham’s poignant article in the March issue of the US Vogue about her decision to have her womb surgically removed at 31 when many young women begin considering having a baby is not just about her ending her decade-long battle against endometriosis.

It’s about choice and taking control of her body, even if it means ending the option of carrying a child.

The night before the surgery, when the nurse asked her one last time: “Is there any chance you could be pregnant?” The star of the TV series, Girls, said: “‘Well, not after tomorrow,’ I say. I wish there were a word for when nobody likes your jokes but you make them anyway.”

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Egg Freezing, Frozen Eggs, Infertility

How does the modern woman like her eggs? Frozen!

Intended Parents

Source:  The Big Smoke

Egg storage for IVF

As more and more women are deciding to have children later, the method of freezing one’s eggs is the preferred method. But is it safe?

In recent times, more and more women are choosing to have children at a later age. Often this is a result of having decided to focus on career first, or from not finding the right partner. In fact, women today are having their first baby at an average age of 28.4 years, which is an all-time high, and as a result, there’s a growing demand for social egg freezing. Read more

Infertility, Sperm Donation, Sperm Donor

Daughter of sperm donor tracks down 40 siblings born to same man

Intended Parents

Source:  Metro

Kianni Arroyo, who has made contact with 40 other people born to the same sperm donor father as her (Picture: Kianni Arroyo)

A woman whose father was a sperm donor has tracked down 40 siblings born to the same man, and is sharing her encounters with them online.

Kianni Arroyo, from Orlando, Fl, first began the project five years ago, when she was a high school sophomore.

She has since discovered four sets of twins, and siblings as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Kianni, 21, is the oldest known sibling born to the donor, with the youngest a baby who is just five months old

Kianni, who works as a waitress, told Metro US: ‘I was raised just by my mom, and she’s always been honest with me about the fact that I was born to a sperm donor.

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Infertility, intended parents, New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Baby joy for Toni Street – via surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source:  New Zealand Herald

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Toni Street and her best mate Sophie Braggins. Braggins is acting as Street’s surrogate and carrying her third child, due in August.

Broadcaster Toni Street and her husband are expecting their third child – this time via a surrogate mother.

Street has opened up on the happy family news for her and husband Matt France and also spoken of the serious health battle that has required them to use a surrogate – Street’s best friend Sophie Braggins – to add to their current family of two young daughters.

Street – a co-host of the The Hits’ popular morning radio show – and France will welcome a baby boy into their family in August.

They have gone public as a rising number of Kiwi families face a range of fertility issues, with some looking at the option of investigating surrogacy.

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Infertility, intended parents, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Supreme Court says contracts with surrogate mothers are legal

Intended Parents

Source: RadioIowa

State-Judicial-Building
The state Judicial Building.

The Iowa Supreme Court rules that contracts made with surrogate mothers are legal in the state.

The case involves a couple from Cedar Rapids who were nearing 50 years old when they married in 2013 and decided they wanted to have a child. They placed an online ad in 2015 and signed an agreement to have the Muscatine woman serve as the surrogate mother. Both embryos implanted in the surrogate mother took hold — but the twins were born prematurely and one died.

The surrogate mother then refused to give up the surviving baby, saying the surrogate contract was not legal in Iowa. The district court, after genetic testing, ruled the contract is enforceable, terminated the parental rights of the surrogate mother and her husband, and awarded the Cedar Rapids man permanent legal and physical custody.

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Egg Donor, Sperm Donor

New Details About The Pregnant Virgin Who Used A Sperm Donor Because Even Kissing Grossed Her Out

Intended Parents

Source: Your Tango

She plans on being a virgin forever.

Lauren is a 29-year-old virgin. Oh, and she’s pregnant.

Lauren decided to skip sex and use sperm from a donor to have her first child and it worked. She is expecting her baby, who will likely be named after a character in Game of Thrones, in June. “People know I’m single and having a kid by myself,” Lauren said in an interview with VICE. “But they don’t necessarily know the virgin part of it.”

Lauren is very comfortable with her “virgin” label and doesn’t seem to want to change that anytime soon, maybe never. Part of the reason she’s not in any rush to get laid is due to the gland disorder she has had all her life. “I was born with hypopituitarism, which means my pituitary gland is not formed properly,” Lauren explained to VICE. “It doesn’t send the right hormonal messages to the other glands in the body, like the adrenaline gland or the ovaries.”

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Gestational surrogacy, intended parents, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Iowa Supreme Court to Rule Friday on Landmark Surrogate Case

Intended Parents

Source: WHOTV

DES MOINES, IOWA — Surrogate rights in Iowa have fallen under the microscope.

“Genetically, it is not her child, it is a child with genes of other people she agreed to carry,” said Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Waterman.

In January of 2016, Paul and Chantele Montover entered an agreement in Linn County for a surrogate to carry their child but surrender custody immediately upon birth.

“We decided to not use an agency, but our clinic gave us several websites of people advertising to be surrogates,” said Chantele.

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Donor Eggs, Egg Donation, Egg Donor, Egg Freezing, IVF, UK

‘TOLD I’D NEVER BE A MUM’Mum reveals how her miracle baby defied doctors who told her she’d never be a parent after going through the menopause at 11-years-old

Intended Parents

Source: The Sun

Amanda Lewis is pregnant with the baby that doctors told her she’d never have after going through the menopause at just 11

But now, 17 years on, pole dance and fitness instructor Amanda is 13 weeks pregnant, thanks to an egg donor.

However, after she gives birth she will have to go through “the change”, again.

Amanda, 30, from Nuneaton, Warks, says: “From the day I was told I was going through the menopause, I grew up quickly.

“I’d started my periods when I was ten but I hadn’t had any since I was 11.

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Egg Donor, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

UK – Catholic group attacks Tom Daley for ‘depriving’ baby of mother

Intended Parents

Source: PinkNews

(Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

Current AffairsCatholic group attacks Tom Daley for ‘depriving’ baby of mother

A Catholic group has lashed out at gay Olympic hero Tom Daley – for having a baby.

Daley, 23, revealed this week that his expecting a baby with his Oscar-winning husband Dustin Lance Black, 43.

It is believed that the pair are having the child via surrogate, posting a selfie with an ultrasound scan.

The high-profile gay couple’s decision to start a family has led to a tidal wave of homophobic comments.

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Law, Same Sex, Sperm Donation, Sperm Donor, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

‘My wife and my son are my family… but right now it’s like she doesn’t even exist’

Intended Parents

Source: Her

Sarah and her wife, Geraldine, welcomed their gorgeous baby boy, Lochlan, in November.

Now three-and-a-half months old, their son is – of course – the apple of his parents’ eyes.l

Born at healthy 10lbs 4oz, it’s understandably been a blissful time for the Stone McDevitt family.

However, in the midst of their happiness is a pretty significant upset: despite being a married couple and co-parents, Ger’s name is notably absent from Lochlan’s birth cert.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

What is surrogacy?

Intended Parents

Kim and Kanye are the latest celebrity couple to have a baby using a surrogate. They join the likes of Nicole Kidman, Tyra Banks, and Elton John and his partner David Furnish, who have all turned to surrogacy to have children.

It’s not just high-profile couples who are using a surrogate to help them start or add to their families. According to Surrogacy UK on average 10 children are born through surrogacy each week.

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Egg Donation, IVF, Same Sex, Shared motherhood, Sperm Donation, Sperm Donor, UK

UK – Shared motherhood: The amazing way lesbian couples are having babies

Intended Parents

Source: Cosmopolitan

It allows women to share the motherhood experience from the stage of conception.

Getty images

More and more lesbian couples are having babies thanks to a super cool fertility treatment known as ‘shared motherhood’. What’s cool about it? Both women are involved in the process, as one’s eggs are used, and the other carries the child. I know, science is awesome.

New research carried out by The London Women’s Clinic, has revealed just how successful and efficient shared motherhood fertility treatment is proving to be. So here’s everything you need to know about the process. Plus, a success story from a couple who’ve become parents this way.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law

Calling for a Radical Change of Perspective on Surrogate Motherhood

Intended Parents

Source: The Center for Bioethics and Culture

23 NGOs (including The Center for Bioethics and Culture) from eight countries and two international networks (including the #StopSurrogacyNow Coalition) have issued a renewed call to the members of the Experts’ Group of the Hague International Conference.

Specifically, we are asking them to:

1. Renounce working on any instrument which would tend to organize surrogate motherhood internationally or would favor mutual recognition in this domain;

2. Recognize the necessity of a Convention on the Abolition of Surrogacy, similar to what was done against slavery and practices analogous to slavery with the Conventions of 1926 and 1956, and to recommend that the Member States of the Conference engage in this direction within the United Nations, which is the relevant organisation in this respect.

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Infertility, Insurance, IVF, Surrogacy

How They Voted: Senate imposes state mandate for health insurance coverage

Intended Parents

Source SC News

Following the Feb. 6 legislative cutoff deadline for committee action on bills in their originating house, both chambers took up debate and voted on dozens of bills in floor sessions that lasted well into the night.

Lawmakers have until Wednesday, Feb. 14, to pass bills and move them to the opposite house for further consideration. Measures that don’t make it past this deadline, except budget-related bills, will likely be dead for this session.

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India, IVF, Semen, Sperm Donor, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

India – Using late son’s preserved semen, couple gets twin grandkids through IVF, surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source: Nyooz

Pune: The parents of a 27-year-old man, who died of brain tumour two years ago, used their unmarried son’s cryopreserved semen extracted long before his death to have grandchildren. Fusing the semen with eggs of a matching donor, doctors created embryos and transferred them into a surrogate mother’s womb.

The woman, who incidentally is the man’s aunt, delivered healthy twin baby boys two days ago. Experts, however, have raised questions about the ethics behind the procedure. The man was diagnosed with brain tumour in 2013 while pursuing higher education in Germany.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother, Ukraine

The reasons behind the surrogacy boom in Ukraine

Intended Parents

Source: NewsByte

Ukraine is in news again but for reasons apolitical. The European nation has become the go-to place for people wanting to have children via surrogacy.

Despite regional, cultural and bureaucratic barriers, what unites prospective parents and surrogate mothers is desperate need. One party needs a child, the other, money.

Here, we look at how surrogacy is making a few dreams come true in Ukraine.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Surrogate mothers could be paid more than their expenses under Senate bill

Intended Parents

Source: The Witachee Times

SPOKANE —Surrogate mothers could be paid for carrying a child for another couple under a bill that passed the Senate despite criticism that it could turn babies into “commodities like a bushel of wheat or widgets.”

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