Source Western Journal
What We’re Doing Right And What Can Be Better About IVF
Source Forbes
This afternoon I leave for Denver for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) meetings, a conference I have attended since 1988. Having lived in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) world in varying roles for three decades, I offer the following observations about what’s good and what’s bad about assisted reproduction today.
What Can Be Better:
Access—still. There are 7 million women with infertility in the United States. Using in vitro fertilization, approximately 1% of those successfully deliver a baby per year. Imagine another area of medicine where the percentage is that low. This brings us to…
An Altruistic Gift: What to Consider If You’re Thinking About Becoming an Egg Donor
Source Rush PR News
Self-fulfillment is something we all strive to achieve, but how we obtain this feeling remains very different for each of us.
Some people find a sense of achievement in pursuing a high-flying career, while others want to feel they’ve helped others in a life-changing, significant way.
If you’re amongst the latter, you may be considering egg donation. After all, what better way to fulfill your own existence – and others – than by offering the gift of life itself?
Why single embryo transfer during IVF sometimes results in twins or triplets
Source Science Daily
It has been known for some time that it is better to transfer a single embryo to a woman’s womb during assisted reproduction treatment (ART) rather than several embryos in order to avoid a multiple pregnancy and the risks associated with it such as fetal deaths, miscarriage, premature delivery and low birthweight. However, even when single embryo transfer (SET) is performed, some women still become pregnant with twins or even triplets.
How Canada became an international surrogacy destination
Source The Globe and Mail
Here’s an arresting statistic: Almost half of the babies born to Canadian surrogates in the province of British Columbia in 2016 and 2017 were for intended parents who lived outside the country. That’s 45 of the 102 babies born to surrogates there – 44 per cent.
What’s the national tally on such outbound babies? We don’t know. Rather, we aren’t told. The number could presumably be calculated, since individual physicians carry out the procedures and bill for them, and provinces issue birth certificates. But the information is not publicly available. Then again, we should hardly be surprised: In Canada, we don’t even know the total number of babies born to surrogates for any parent, Canadian or otherwise. I and others have been asking around for some time now.
Students turn to sperm and egg donation to make money
Source State Press
College students are always looking for creative ways to make money to pay their bills and other necessary expenses, and some students have used sperm and egg donation to make money while also helping out families in need.
Making a deposit at the sperm bank
Conner Jensen, a junior studying intermedia art, has produced three children and has contributed to six current pregnancies from donating his sperm to Phoenix Sperm Bank.
Jensen was 18 when he first started and has now been a donor for two years. Jensen says his friends would always joke about donating their sperm in high school.
“It’s actually really difficult to get in the program because you have to have a high sperm count. One day, I was like ‘I’ll just give it a shot!’” Jensen said.
U.S. Supreme Court denies request to hear Iowa surrogacy case
Source Des Moines Register
The United States Supreme Court has denied a request to review an Iowa case involving whether a Cedar Rapids man who paid a surrogate to birth a baby is the child’s legal parent.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in February that surrogacy contracts are enforceable in the state. The losing party filed a petition in May asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
The Iowa case was one of several dozen distributed for consideration by the justices at a Sept. 24 conference. On Monday, the court issued a list of orders showing it had denied certiorari, or declined to take up the case.
That means that the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision in the case will stand, at least until the U.S. Supreme Court has another opportunity to hear a case involving surrogacy
How Dangerous Is It for Overweight Women to Go Through IVF?
Source Healthline
The television show “This Is Us” has taken on a lot of emotional issues in its first two seasons, not the least of which was the death of husband and father Jack.
This season, the popular drama series is dealing with another controversial, important topic — obesity and fertility.
“This Is Us” follows the lives of five family members — including Kate, a woman who’s obese and has faced weight-related stigma throughout her life.
Australia – Meet the Aussie mum who’s ‘renting’ out her womb
Source Lifestyle Yahoo
An Aussie mum who advertised her womb for ‘rent’ is now expecting for the first time as a surrogate, telling her kids the baby “is not ours to keep”.
Michelle Griffin, 26, shares Leilani, four, and Isaac, three, with her hubby Trent, but is now 13 weeks along with a bub for a couple who have struggled with fertility problems.
The professional birthing coach from Perth told Yahoo Lifestyle she has always been ‘honest’ with her kids, who are just as excited as she is about helping another family.
Australia – Why I’ve decided not to fix my infertility’
Source Body and Soul
On paper, Ally Hensley had everything she needed to have a baby. But did she want to…
On January 8 this year, I walked into an IVF clinic with my pregnant best friend. She had already conceived naturally twice, so we weren’t there for her. I had an appointment to explore egg retrieval for the purpose of egg freezing.
I kept telling myself, I was ‘creating options.’ However, it was much deeper than that – I was trying to explore how I really felt about motherhood.
It’s a strange situation when, for your entire adult life, you’ve known that you’re infertile but you’re also not sure if you’re even maternal. When, from the age of 16 you’ve been saving money for a surrogate but you’re not entirely sure if you’d want children, even if you can have them.
Embryo Freezing And Gamete Donation: Malta’s Laws On Assisted Reproduction Have Just Changed, And Here’s What That Means
Source Lovin Malta
You may have blinked and missed it, but yesterday heralded a not-unsubstantial change in the way all things fertility-related are to be regulated in Malta. The amended law on assisted reproduction was approved and passed and started being implemented as of 1st October.
What I will attempt to do is give you a little summary of what can and can’t be done in Malta from this point on, and what has actually changed. Once again, I’ll refrain from rhetoric and judgement. You’re all grown-ups and capable of forming your own opinions, however, the unfortunate (or fortunate) thing is, the die has been cast and this is the law that Maltese residents must abide by for the future.
‘We’re appealing for help to pay for a surrogacy and make our dream of becoming parents come true’
Source Manchester Evening News
A couple have launched an online crowdfunding appeal to pay for a surrogate to make their dream of becoming parents come true.
Jamie Potts and her partner Mike, who live in Eccles, Salford, long for a child of their own and have been trying to start a family for years.
But complications with Jamie’s health mean she is unable to carry a baby herself. Now, she has taken to the gofundme fundraising platform to appeal for donations from the public.
The 36-year-old has been through two rounds of IVF, and both her and Mike, 26, have endured heartache after heartache after each attempt failed.
New Zealand – Toni Street slams ‘outdated’ surrogacy adoption process and spurs PM to promise ‘fixing’ the law
Source TVNZ
Broadcaster Toni Street has elicited a promise from the prime minister that updating adoption laws is on the Government’s agenda after the media personality posted on social media about having difficulty adopting her biological son born via a surrogate.
Street wrote in an Instagram post that she had signed a change.org petition for the New Zealand Adoption Act to be updated.
“It is incredibly hard for loving parents to adopt in this country and our vulnerable children deserve better,” she wrote.
International couples see Oregon as surrogacy
Source Bend Bulletin
London couple recently traveled all the way to Bend to start a family. Sorab Shroff, 39, and his partner, Peter Maguire, 55, found a surrogate in Bend two years ago, and she carried their first child, Colette, who was born Sept. 11 at St. Charles Bend.
An international couple seeking surrogacy in Oregon is not unusual. The state has become a popular destination for couples from around the globe who are pursuing surrogacy.
STRESSED EMBRYOS HAVE HIGHER SURVIVAL RATES DURING IVF
Source The Bobr Times
IVF technology in which egg extracted from the woman’s body and fertilized in vitro, i.e. in vitro. After that begins the stage of cultivation of the embryo within two to five days, then it is transferred back into the woman’s uterus. Over time it is recommended to transfer no more than four embryos to avoid multiple pregnancy. However, the likelihood of a successful pregnancy and birth with IVF is roughly the same as with natural conception: pregnant on average a third of women.
IVF Was the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done, and I Want to Do It Again
Source PopSugar
Nothing could have prepared me for how hard the IVF process is. No amount of chats with my doctor or time spent online reading other women’s stories were enough to truly help me understand what it would be like. Kind of like how I couldn’t really know what parenthood involved just because my coworker had a baby. Nope, it wasn’t until I went through IVF that I learned just how much the experience would test me physically and emotionally. From that first blood test that measured my hormone levels to the day I got my pregnancy test results, I would be pushed to the brink of what my mind and body could handle. And yet, knowing what I know now, I would still do it again. In fact, I want to do it again.
Uterus transplantation — ethically just as problematic as altruistic surrogacy
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.
France – French ethics report: All women should have IVF access
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.
Frozen embryos ‘mistakenly’ destroyed at University of Washington Medical Center
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.
Australia – What not to say when someone is struggling to conceive
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.