April 28, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 2:05 pm
The United States has a flourishing egg donation business that sees young women being paid for donating their eggs, often to pay for things like university tuition. There are also of course women in difficult financial situations who also self their eggs to clinics in order to supplement their day-to-day living.
In the UK the situation is very different as it is completely illegal for anyone to profit financially in any way from egg donation, in this country is seen very much as a selfless act of generosity rather than a business.
But now they public consultation by Nuffield Council on Bioethics is to look into the whole issue of donations, including not only eggs but organs and tissues as well. At issue is the donation of not only renewable resources such as eggs, sperm and blood was also non-renewable donations such as hearts and eyes.
This possible change of heart has come about because of a drastic shortage of all kinds of donations, currently there are over 1000 patients waiting on various transplant lists, but in 2009 there were only 3550 transplants.
There is currently a need for 500 additional sperm donors and well over 1000 egg donors per year. As the law stands at present donors are only permitted to claim very small amounts in expenses, and absolutely no kind of direct or indirect payments.
The study will look into the possibility of payments, but will also consider other, non-financial payments, such as basic thank you letters sent from recipients to the donor. However it seems that there is simply a change in official attitudes towards all kinds of donations and in particular eggs
April 23, 2010
Filed under: Celebrity babies — Alan @ 7:07 pm
In order to celebrate the Queen’s 84th birthday photos from her developing years have been released. The images show Princess Elizabeth at age seven months posing for Marcus Adams in 1926.
A selection of the prints can be viewed from this Saturday on through February of 2011 at Windsor Castle. The Queen will be in the castle for her birthday and to the Troop Royal Horse Artillery who will offer a 41 gun salute in her honour in London.
The photographs show the Queen in a white dress barefoot and in separate frames with her parents the then Duke and Duchess of York and later George VI and now Queen Elizabeth on December 2nd of 1926.
The Queen Mother considered two of the photos that will be in the exhibit to be her prize possessions and until now were kept safely in a leather picture case. One of them shows her looking straight into the camera while in the other photo she is in the arms of her mother.
Another set of photos from January 1927 will also be on display, in which she was caught playing with Victorian glasses and holding photos of her parents in another one.
A note written by the young princess’s nurse who took care of the Queen while her parents were away on a tour will also be on display at the exhibition. The letter sits beside a photo of the young Queen with a large smile on her face laughing.
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:04 pm
Parenting expert Dr. Penelope Leach claims that parents that allow their young babies to cry themselves to sleep may be harming their brain development.
Leach stated that new scientific tests show that when a parent ignores their cries, high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, begin to build up. According to Leach, if this happens for significant periods of time it is ‘toxic’ to the baby’s brains.
Her suggestion is that any crying period bout that lasts over 30 minutes should be avoided because it will be damaging to their development.
Leach continued to say that she is not referring to a child that is awake and simply gurgling, but a child that is screaming loud and in agony and no one is taking the time to respond to. When this happens, the stress hormone is continuously released, which is harmful to young children.
Her findings are all compiled and published in her newest book entitled The Essential First Year- What Babies Need Parents to Know.
Leach is known as a parenting expert and psychologist who rose to fame in the 1970’s when she wrote the book Your Baby and Child.
She said that it does not matter if a parent is able to figure out what has caused the baby to start crying, but just that they respond before a child’s expectations have been altered.
She added that there is no evidence that actually allowing a child to cry themselves to sleep will help them learn to sleep on their own through the night.
April 17, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 3:00 am
Fertility scientists from the US have said that air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide may affect the outcome of invitro fertilization.
The US team said that it studied the outcomes of the first IVF treatments of 7,403 women at the Hershey Medical Center at Penn State, Shady Grove Fertility in Maryland, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the New York Columbia University over a seven year time span stretching from 2000 to 2007.
Penn State Professor Duanping Liao stated that they found that there are significant links that show air pollution may increase the risks of blood-clotting and inflammation. These two factors are linked with reproductive health along with many other ill human health effects such as chronic conditions, mortality, and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers from the study feel their findings could be used to show how air pollution may damage human reproduction in general because IVF allows scientists to take a look of air pollutants on reproduction in a controlled setting.
Liao continued to say that the findings from the study could be used to look at how air quality plays a role in fertilization, delivery, and pregnancy due to the fact that IVF is a highly timed process with a high level of control allowing them to see the time of exposure to air pollutants in relation to reproductive factors.
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 2:59 am
The UK’s first clinic that stands alone in that is solely focused on getting new sperm donors has opened as a merger of two sperm banks the Louis Hughes Sperm bank and the London Women’s Clinic bank. The new partnership will be called the London Sperm Bank which is fully licensed by the fertility watchdog organization the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Dr. Kamal Ahuja, the scientific director of the LSB, stated that the new partnership will offer revived hope for the many women who otherwise may have trouble receiving fertility treatment due to a shortage of proper donor sperm.
The goal of the LSB is to extend its stock of available sperm vials up to 10,000 so that women will have both a wider choice when seeking donors and a speedier service overall.
At the present the LSB will serve all of the London’s Women’s Clinics but hopes to broaden its audience to other properly licensed fertility clinics throughout the UK by the year 2011.
According to the LSB website, the goal of the institution is to give all UK women the best choices among donors without worrying about spending money to travel abroad. Additionally, the website said that the LSB is supportive of the anxiety of the HFEA of women taking a chance by getting sperm from unlicensed sources.
One reasons for the current shortage of sperm donors may be the fact that donor anonymity was removed back in 2005 and the new right that children conceived using donor sperm may now request the information of the donor when they reach age 18.
April 10, 2010
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 6:36 pm
A new study from Japanese researchers at Fukuoka University found that babies that are born to mothers who consumer a large amount of yellow and green vegetables and fruit have a lesser risk of birth eczema, which is a skin condition in which itchy red dry patches appear across the skin.
Even without the study, most people know that eating habits affect the way that people feel. Still, leader of the study, Dr. Yoshihiro Miyake and his research team studied 763 women and their babies to see if the mother’s lifestyle habits and eating habits affected their children.
The women in the study were around the age of 30 and each around 17 weeks pregnant. Researchers then gathered more data once the children were born and reached the ages of 16 to 24 months old.
The team found that 32% of children born from mothers who consumed citrus fruits and yellow and green vegetables versus 54% of children that were born from mothers that did not. They additionally found that a Vitamin E rich diet can reduce the chance of having an infant that wheezes.
This study along with other previous studies cements the fact that key foods should be consumed during pregnancy in order to prevent children from developing allergies throughout their infancy.
Also known, is the fact that healthy women that choose to breastfeed are able to offer their children the best nutrition compared to women who choose not to breastfeed.
April 9, 2010
Filed under: Baby items — Alan @ 2:06 am
Scientists are criticizing the Government for failing to take action on a chemical that has been banned in other countries for its toxic implications that is commonly used to manufacture baby bottles.
Denmark was the first country in Europe to ban the use of bisphenol, known commonly as BPA, in any container that is designed for use by young children amidst growing proof that the chemical can cause serious health problems and may slow brain development of children.
Although many mainstream baby bottle companies have already started producing BPA-free product lines, a new investigation this week found that high street retailers Mothercare and Boots are still selling older BPA contaminated bottles to the public.
Mothercare plans to continue selling the old line through the beginning of August while Boots plans to phase the BPA bottles out over the next few weeks.
The British Government has discarded the idea of banning BPA and continues to maintain that BPA is not a threat to health. The stance is in direct opposition to many Western Governments who have issued temporary bans until there is clearer evidence stating otherwise.
France has backed a temporary ban and three US states and Canada have forbidden the use of BPA in baby products.
The FDA in America reversed its stance in January stating that steps should be taken to minimize the amount of exposure citizens have to BPA after years of also stating that the chemical is not a health risk. The EPA, the second largest health body in the US, also announced that it will investigate the effect of BPA on the environment.
April 1, 2010
Filed under: Infertility — Alan @ 12:18 am
Some surprising discoveries have been made about the properties and potential uses of different drugs available to the medical profession today, but some are a little more momentous than others.
In the case of Kerry Horan, it was the conception and birth of a healthy child after years of failed attempts. The drug used in her case was Viagra, commonly known as an erectile dysfunction medication exclusively for men.
A series of tests and treatments at the Assisted Conception Unit of Calderdale Royal Infirmary as well as private agencies confirmed that there was low blood flow around her womb and that the lining was too thin to support the growth of an embryo. She also had an unusually strong immune system that was attacking the embryos as invaders.
Ms. Horan said that she and her husband had almost given up, but then she read about Dr. George Ndukwe at Care Fertility in Nottingham. After a consultation with the doctor and another series of detailed tests, she agreed to his suggestion of the experimental use of Viagra as a means of improving blood flow and thickening the walls of her uterus. After an uncomfortable nine days of treatment, tests indicated that an embryo could be safely implanted, and the result was the birth of a baby girl nine months later.
Dr. Ndukwe and others in the medical profession emphasized that Viagra was not the only treatment implemented. They all said that no one should try the drug as a fertility treatment without close medical supervision, as it is still very much in the experimental stages.
Filed under: Celebrity babies — Alan @ 12:14 am
Dannii Minogue’s role as one of three judges on the popular TV show X Factor is apparently still in question at this time, but the latest word is that Simon Cowell has given her two weeks to assure him that her pregnancy and the birth of her first baby in July will not undermine her performance on the show.
Simon’s fears, according to various sources, are that Dannii will not be able to cope with the hectic schedule at X Factor while occupied with a new baby. She is currently in Australia, where she intends to remain for the birth, so she will have to miss the live auditions for the show that will be taking place in June.
Cowell definitely doesn’t want to face the kind of uproar that followed the sacking of Denise Van Outen from ‘Over the Rainbow’, and he is certainly aware of the outrage from Dannii’s fans if she is removed from the show.
He may opt to keep her on in a lesser role such as mentor, or try to find stand-in judges until she is able to continue in that capacity. The other option is to replace her with a new judge; his spokesman says that nothing has been decided.
From Dannii, the word is that she wants to continue as a judge on the live shows but the decision rests with Cowell and the producers of X Factor. Her popularity with audiences is such that fans are rallying round to support her return, some even threatening that they will simply stop watching the show if she’s not on it.
