Month: September 2018

Uterine Transplants

Uterus transplantation — ethically just as problematic as altruistic surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source Eurekalert

In 2014, the first child to have been gestated in a donated uterus was born. Although research into uterus transplantation is still in an early phase, many see the donations as a success. Researchers at universities including Linköping University have studied ethical aspects of uterus transplantation. The results show that uterus transplantation with living donors is ethically just as problematic as altruistic surrogacy.

A number of research projects on uterus transplantation are under way around the world. Thus far, trials have resulted in the birth of ten children who were gestated in a transplanted uterus; eight of these were in Sweden. Being able to transfer a uterus from one woman to another, so that an infant is born, can be seen as a success in a medical sense. However in Sweden there has been little in the way of ethical discussion.

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France, Free Access To IVF

France – French ethics report: All women should have IVF access

Intended Parents

Source Connextion France

The French national ethics committee has reiterated its stance in favour of extending medically-assisted reproduction to all women, including lesbians, and lifting anonymity of sperm donors in some cases.

The report, delivered on September 25 by the Comité Consultatif National d’Éthique (CCNE), confirms the viewthat all women – including homosexual couples and single women – should have free access to the medical procedure (usually IVF).

The committee is also in favour of allowing women to freeze embryos for future use – if the woman in question is within a certain age range.

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Embryos Destroyed

Frozen embryos ‘mistakenly’ destroyed at University of Washington Medical Center

Intended Parents

Source Kiro7
Only KIRO 7 has learned that dozens of women hoping to have children are dealing with heartbreaking loss after their frozen embryos were mistakenly destroyed at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Tina Mankowski, director of strategic communications for UW Medicine, confirmed to KIRO 7 that 31 patients were affected and that the destruction happened in 2014.

However, the mistake was not known publicly until one of the couples recently filed a complaint for damages in King County Superior Court.

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Australia, Infertility

Australia – What not to say when someone is struggling to conceive

Intended Parents

Source The West Australian

In this day and age you are sure to know someone that has struggled with fertility, perhaps a friend or family member, or you yourself have either been on — or are on — the harrowing journey yourself.

For those experiencing infertility, it can be an extremely isolating time says Genea Hollywood fertility specialist Dr Julia Barton.

“They’re often surrounded by friends starting their own families and asking why they aren’t pregnant and they can find themselves feeling resentful and even jealous. They don’t feel comfortable talking about what’s happening to them and in some cases patients tell me they avoid social events because they don’t want to be exposed to the questioning and have to watch others having happy family moments,” says Dr Barton.

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Early Menopause, UK

UK – Woman who went through menopause aged 11 defies doctors by giving birth

Intended Parents

Source Coventry Telegraph

A pole dancing instructor from Nuneaton who was told she would never become a mum after going through the menopause aged just 11 has defied doctors by having her own little miracle.

Tiny Oryn is now five weeks old – and the perfect baby according to mum Amanda Lewis.

Amanda, 31, was only 11 when her periods stopped and she was later diagnosed with premature ovarian failure – better known as early menopause.

But despite being told she would never have her own child, her and her partner Tom Hill, 28, managed to conceive on their first go at IVF using a donor egg.

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Fertility over 50, India

Asia – Motherhood in 50s is not impossible anymore

Intended Parents

Source Asian Age

Medical advances have given career-oriented, independent women the choice to delay their pregnancy successively.

New Delhi: Wanting to be a mother again or even for the first time at an age when generally women have hit menopause (after turning 50) has become a possibility, with better chances and more success rates.

On one hand, medical advances have given career-oriented, independent women the choice to delay their pregnancy successively; while on the other, women can choose to have a second or third child at the age.

There are women who may have gotten married late or those who want to have children in second marriages; some were too busy to pursue a career as well as also those who simply wanted to have a second child, but after a long break, planned a late pregnancy.

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AMH Test, Anti-Mullerian Hormone, Australia

Australia – ‘Egg timer test’ for fertility: What is it and does it work?

Intended Parents

Source ABC.NET.AU

Originally developed as a tool for IVF, in the US the test is being increasingly marketed to the general population of women as a way of finding out how long they have left to have children, a recent social studies of science conference in Sydney was told.

Conference presenter Moira Kyweluk, who is completing a PhD at Northwestern University, said internet activity suggests the test is also being used in the same way in Australia, despite controversy over its effectiveness.

“I looked at blogs online where women were talking about getting an AMH test done as a way to get a baseline measure of their fertility. This is the same rhetoric as being used in the US,” Ms Kyweluk said.

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IVF Treatment, UK

UK – Thousands of couples could be spared gruelling IVF with new 5p-sized device that spots infertility before any unnecessary treatment

Intended Parents

Source Daily Mail

Doctors and engineers at the University of Southampton have created a sensor the size of a 5p piece that could diagnose the cause of unexplained infertility.

Infertility is a huge problem in Britain, with one in six couples struggling to conceive. 

Yet in a third of infertility cases doctors can find no cause.

So thousands of couples turn to expensive and difficult IVF in a bid to start a family. 

Of the 68,000 cycles of IVF conducted in the UK every year, 32 per cent, more than 22,000, have no diagnosis of the cause of the infertility. 

But the Southampton team believe their new device, which is to undergo its first major NHS-backed trial next year, could plug this gap and bring down the number of couples undergoing unnecessary IVF.

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Egg Donor, egg donor children

What happened when I told my adult daughter she was conceived with a donor egg

Intended Parents

Source Washington Post

It was 1992 and I had just turned 50. Unwanted invitations to join AARP were arriving regularly in my mailbox, when what I really yearned for was another go at motherhood, which I felt as ready to take on as I had when I’d given birth to my son, Jake, 11 years earlier.

I felt this way even though my friends thought I was seriously unbalanced and even though, at the time, older women taking advantage of the newly emerging fertility technologies were being criticized for selfishly saddling their kids with decrepit mothers. I weighed the caveats carefully, but decided that I was no more crazy or selfish than any other woman who ached to hold an infant in her arms.

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Denmark, IVF

Why is IVF so popular in Denmark?

Intended Parents

Source BBC

Despite previous attempts to limit access to treatment, Denmark now has the biggest proportion of babies born through assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the world.

Visit any park in Denmark and the chances are many of the children playing there were born using IVF or donor sperm. Denmark leads the world in the use of ART to build families – an estimated 10% of all births involve such techniques.

Everyone in Denmark knows someone who has gone through IVF and talking about it is no taboo – chats at the schools gates or even church frequently revolve around the origins of people’s children.

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Australia, Reproductive Law

Woman can use donor sperm in IVF without estranged husband’s consent, court rules

Intended Parents

Source The Guardian

Federal court finds Victorian law discriminated against the woman on the basis of her marital status.

A Victorian woman will not need her estranged husband’s permission to undergo IVF using donor sperm following a ruling by the federal court in Melbourne.

The court heard that the woman, who cannot be named, has been separated and living apart from her husband since late 2017. The woman wanted to try to conceive through IVF using donor sperm, but was told by a Melbourne reproductive clinic that under Victoria’s Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act she first needed her husband’s consent.

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Australia, IVF, Law

Australia – Woman challenges laws that require estranged husband’s IVF consent

Intended Parents

Source The Age

A woman who wants to conceive a child using donor sperm has launched a court challenge to existing laws that bar her from accessing IVF without her estranged husband’s consent.

The Victorian woman, known to the court as “LR”, says she is being discriminated against on the basis of her marital status.

The woman is still legally married, but separated and estranged from her husband, the Federal Court in Melbourne heard on Thursday.

She intends to divorce him when the 12-month waiting period is over, and wants to undergo in-vitro fertilisation to become pregnant, using her own eggs and donor sperm.

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Europe, Surrogacy

The Surprising Answer To Where In The World Surrogacy Is (Il)Legal (European Edition)

Intended Parents

Source Above The Law

Europe is way behind America in allowing people to grow their families through assisted reproductive technology

Here in the United States, we have a patchwork of laws, or a lack of laws, that vary from state to state. While California and Nevada, for example, have helpful and inclusive surrogacy-specific legislation, Michigan and Arizona have anti-surrogacy legislation. Many states fall in the middle with no law, or partially helpful or unhelpful laws. The Empire State, surprising us all, is among the states unhelpful for hopeful parents. Legislation was recently proposed to bring New York into the 21st century, but for now, it’s still pending. Thankfully, at least the District of Columbia, Washington state, and New Jersey all passed pro-surrogacy laws in the last 18 months. Hopefully New York will follow suit.

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Australia, IVF costs

Australia – The cost of IVF

Intended Parents

Source The West

Making babies can be an expensive business when you need a helping hand.

With one in six couples likely to experience difficulties, many want-to-be parents are turning to fertility treatment to help them conceive.

The financial impost, though, can be considerable depending on the provider and the extent of help required.

While many fertility treatments attract a rebate from Medicare, there can be significant out-of-pocket costs. For example, one IVF cycle can set patients back from $1000-$7000.

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Genetic Testing, UK

UK – What You Might Learn

Intended Parents

Source Genome Web

The UK’s Human Fertility and Embryology Authority has called on consumer genetic testing companies to better warn their customers that testing could reveal family secrets and point them to where they can get counseling, the Guardian reports.

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India, Surrogacy

India – Embracing surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source Asian Age

Lisa Ray recently introduced her twin daughters to the world and has been as open about her journey towards motherhood, as she was about her battle against cancer. With a large number of celebrities conceiving their children via surrogacy, it seems to have become a trend. Bollywood stars like Shahrukh and Gauri Khan, Farah Khan and Shirish Kunder, Sohail and Seema Khan are no strangers to this procedure. Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cristiano Ronaldo also adopted the method. We find out what makes surrogacy so desirable.

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Infertility, Ireland

Ireland – What are your options?

Intended Parents

Source Independent

Sometimes the cause of infertility is difficult to diagnose, writes Áilín Quinlan. But there are tests available and steps you can take if you are finding it difficult to conceive

You’ve been struggling to conceive, and your GP has now advised you to explore your options in terms of fertility treatment.

One of the first things you need to realise is that your age is crucial and time may be of the essence when it comes to pregnancy and birth emphasises Dr Hans Arce, Medical Director of the Repromed fertility clinic in Dublin.

“The main limiting factor in fertility is the age of the woman,” he says.

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IVF, UK

UK – IVF mothers and babies’ ‘urgent need’ for health-check database

Intended Parents

Source The Telegraph

Babies born through IVF and their mothers may be suffering a raft of health problems but nobody is aware because they are not being monitored, a leading fertility doctor and MP have warned.

Professor Geeta Nargund, the founder and medical director of Create Fertility and MP Siobhain McDonagh, are calling for the Human Fertility and Embryology Act to be amended to merge NHS and fertility databases.

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Baby Factories, Ukraine

Ukraine – “Baby factories” in the Ukraine exposed

Intended Parents

Source Bioedge.org

Damning reports have emerged of systemic exploitation in Ukrainian surrogacy businesses, with one expert labelling some of the worst clinics “baby factories”.
An Al Jazeera feature article published this week details the harrowing story of several surrogates and clients of the Ukraine’s largest surrogacy company, BioTexCom.
The company, which employs thousands of surrogates and accounts for over half of the surrogate births in the country each year, has been accused of grossly mistreating women and providing surrogates with substandard medical care.

According to Al Jazeera, the BioTexCom offers women generous remuneration (around US$11,000 plus a monthly stipend). Yet it provides “employees” with terrible accommodation during pregnancy, threatens fines if women break strict rules imposed during pregnancy, and fails to provide adequate medical attention through the nine months of child-bearing.

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Fertility Benefits, IVF, UK

UK – Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness London launch IVF campaign

Intended Parents

Source PMLive

Specialist health and wellness advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness London has partnered up with Fertility Network to launch a new IVF campaign.

The new campaign targets fair access to IVF treatments in the UK, where 3.5 million people are affected by fertility issues, but cannot get access to treatment under the National Health Service.

Titled #Scream4IVF, the campaign features screaming faces of patients who have been affected by infertility.

Additionally, the advertising agency is calling out to the public, influencers and celebrities to take part by donating their scream on social media, which will result in the world’s longest scream of IVF.
It will then be played at a rally outside Parliament on 10 October this year.

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