Australia, Embryo, Singapore, Sperm Donation, Surrogacy

Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE) 2022 Congress: Frozen embryos, sperm and eggs will be big travellers in post COVID-19 cross border reproductive care

Yahoo!

SINGAPORE, May 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have major impacts on the nature of cross border reproductive care where infertile couples and individuals in the past travelled extensively abroad to access medically assisted conception.

The 2022 Congress of the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE) heard that as the pandemic unfolded, access to fertility care in other countries was severely curtailed because of border closures, the adverse effects of COVID-19 during pregnancy, and vaccine hesitancy issues.

Australian fertility specialist, Dr Clare Boothroyd, said today restrictions on commercial surrogacy emerged as coronavirus and its variants spread throughout the world and there was a sudden shortage of donated sperm, eggs and embryos.

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Embryo, Frozen Eggs, Frozen Sperm

Extra sperm, eggs, embryos mean parents must make decisions

Source Chicago Tribune

It was 2008, and for more than a year, Patrick and Kate Sandusky had been trying to get pregnant.

Facing infertility, the Lakeview couple hadn’t thought about having too many chances to have children. Eventually, a fertility specialist said a procedure Kate had undergone years earlier would mean they needed in vitro fertilization. Through IVF, the couple had three children — now 9-year-old twins and a 6-year-old daughter.

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Australia, Embryo, Gestational surrogacy, Infertility, intended parents, IVF, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Australia – Surrogacy success for Hunter family with new baby after years of heartache, IVF, and two surrogates.

Source: Newcastle Herald

Priceless: Kristy and Craig Darken with baby Henry, born via a surrogate. Kristy described the process as akin to having all of the ingredients to make a cake, but baking it in someone else’s oven. Picture: Kelsey Mlekus Photography

BY the time Kristy and Craig Darken found out they were going to be parents, they had almost given up all hope of holding a child of their own in their arms.

It had been close to eight years of highs and lows, of hope and of devastation, as the Elermore Vale couple trod the testing track of having a baby via a surrogate.

But then, countless counselling sessions, IVF, two surrogates and 10 embryos later, a tearful late night phone call came from Kristy’s sister, Rebecca.

“She was crying her eyes out,” Kristy said.

“I thought she was crying because she knew it was our last try. I thought she was devastated. Then finally, she said, ‘I’m pregnant. It worked’.

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Donor Eggs, Donor Embryos, Egg Donation, Egg Donor, Embryo, Gay Parenting, Gestational surrogacy, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

3 Questions Queer People Should Ask Before Growing Our Families

Source: Forbes

Traditional methods aren’t typically available for queer people to grow their families, and growing families non-traditionally can be expensive. What are the options and costs for queer couples and individuals to consider when family planning?

3 Questions Queer People Should Ask Before Growing Our Families – photo by Shutterstock

The cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old, not including family planning or college, is estimated by the USDA to be about $245,340. For many LGBT families, this is the minimum cost. This is why lack of financial planning when family planning could put queer families at financial risk.

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Embryo, Gestational surrogacy, Infertility, Jewish, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

One Woman’s Body, Another Woman’s Baby

Source: Jewish Journal

A large chalkboard in the kitchen of the Sherman Oaks home of Sam and Rachel Simkin proclaims, “Please excuse the mess, we are making memories.” Those memories are being made with their children: Jonah, 9, Penina, 7, Vered, 4, and their 12-year-old golden retriever, Nagy.

Rachel, 38, is finishing pumping breast milk for the fourth baby she gave birth to in November. He was nicknamed “Baby G” while in utero. However, he is not the Simkins’ son. Rachel was a gestational surrogate, implanted with an embryo created via in vitro fertilization with Mr. and Mrs. G’s egg and sperm.

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Egg Donor, Embryo, Gay Parenting, Same Sex, Surrogacy

Gay couples find path to parenthood at Greenwich Hospital

Source: Greenwich Time

Douglas Graneto (left) and Wear Culvahouse (right) with their 8-year-old daughter Katie (middle).

GREENWICH — When Wear Culvahouse, a Greenwich obstetrician-gynecologist, delivered a baby for the first male same-sex parents at Greenwich Hospital in 2004, he saw doors opening for himself as well.

The team assembled to to help the male couple included personnel from labor and delivery, the nursery and administration. They set up two rooms at Greenwich Hospital: One for the new fathers to learn how to bathe, feed and change their baby, and one for their surrogate to recover.

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Embryo, Hysterectomy, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

This woman was her own son and daughter-in-law’s surrogate, and whoa

Source: Hello Giggles

While still not often discussed, fertility issues affect so many women and families in our culture. And Kayla Jones, 29, knew conceiving would be impossible after receiving a partial hysterectomy as a teenager.

But while Kayla’s uterus was removed, her ovaries weren’t — meaning she could still potentially have a child that was biologically hers with the help of a gestational surrogate. And that’s where her mother-in-law, 50-year-old Patty Resecker, came in.

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Egg Donor, Embryo, Sperm Donor, UK

Women selected for mitochondrial donation in UK

Source: BioNews

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has granted permission for doctors to create the UK’s first ‘three-person’ children by mitochondrial donation. Doctors at Newcastle Fertility Centre successfully applied to treat two women and are now allowed to create embryos by combining fertilised eggs created through IVF with mitochondria from a female donor. The resulting embryos will be implanted in the two women.

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Embryo, Infertility, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Following years of loss and infertility, Nampa woman steps in to carry twins for younger sister

Source: Idaho Press-Tribune

“That’s my son,” Richardson remembers thinking. “I just caught my son.” Her sister, Andrea Friesen, laid her head back on the hospital bed and sobbed with relief. “Every single nurse, doctor, everybody in there had tears in their eyes,” the sisters’ father, Don Larson, said. “And it was just that final relief of, oh my goodness, it’s finally over, and it was successful.”

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Cancer, Donor Eggs, Donor Embryos, Embryo, Embryo Freezing, India

India – Fertility preservation techniques offer ray of hope to young cancer survivors

Source:  ANI

New Delhi [India], Feb 3 (ANI): About 50% of the cancer patients in India are under the age of 50. Apart from other things, this alarming rate of young cancer victims has also created concerns about preservation of their fertility.

However, experts indicate that the recent technologies and advancements in the IVF sector can help cancer patients to keep the fertility window open for a longer time. Today, cancer victims not only have a better rate of survival but can also think about raising a child and starting a family.

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Embryo, Embryo Freezing, UK

UK – Man ends bid to fulfil late wife’s dream for a child

Source: BBC

A man who lost his wife to cancer said he is ending their bid to have a child through a surrogate.

Emmy Coates died in June, aged 31, just 18 months after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

She and husband Jake, 32, had planned to use embryos, frozen after her cancer spread, in order to have a baby.

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Embryo, Embryo Freezing

Woman Has Baby From Embryo Almost As Old As Her

Source: Vital Updates

Tina and Benjamin Gibson, 26 and 33 respectively, weren’t able to have children. That is, until Tina gave birth to their daughter, Emma Wren Gibson, who was frozen as an embryo for 24 years.

Tina said she remembers thinking that she simply wanted a baby. Whether that baby was record-setting or not, wasn’t in Tina’s thoughts.

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