'We never gave up hope': Parents celebrate arrival of baby girl after spending £100,000 on EIGHT rounds of IVF
After spending tens of thousands of pounds over the best part of a decade on seven failed IVF courses, the experts were clear on one thing - Sarah Francis would never have a baby.
The judgement seemed even more clear-cut after she learned she had a rare condition which made her immune system attack any unborn child. But she and her husband Darren, 38, decided to try just one more time - bringing their total spend on treatments to £100,000 - and were rewarded with daughter Evie.
Today, as she hugged her precious child, Mrs Francis had an important message for other would-be parents faced with the same agonising process. 'We want other people going through the same thing to know there can be a happy ending. Just don't give up,' she said.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/c98gbo
Saturday 31 July 2010
Friday 30 July 2010
Does having children really make you happy?
As I turn the pages of our family photo albums, I see countless pictures of our children growing up.
Most of the shots capture moments of happiness or achievement: my daughters are laughing on care-free holidays under azure summer skies, or clutching a medal, holding a certificate, winning a race.
These albums, stored in a memory chest I have created for my family, are a record not just of my children's happiness and achievements, but my own as well. I love to look at the pictures of us, it's a sort of proof that I'm living the 'parental dream'. Or that's what I thought.
But now I'm being told that my parental happiness is a delusion and that my photo albums - like my parental memory bank - contain only the moments I have chosen to archive.
Mothers and fathers, according to the latest research by top scientists, simply choose to forget - or else don't admit to - all the other hideous stuff which makes us miserable on an almost daily basis; the tears, the tedium and the tantrums.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/bwX7pK
Most of the shots capture moments of happiness or achievement: my daughters are laughing on care-free holidays under azure summer skies, or clutching a medal, holding a certificate, winning a race.
These albums, stored in a memory chest I have created for my family, are a record not just of my children's happiness and achievements, but my own as well. I love to look at the pictures of us, it's a sort of proof that I'm living the 'parental dream'. Or that's what I thought.
But now I'm being told that my parental happiness is a delusion and that my photo albums - like my parental memory bank - contain only the moments I have chosen to archive.
Mothers and fathers, according to the latest research by top scientists, simply choose to forget - or else don't admit to - all the other hideous stuff which makes us miserable on an almost daily basis; the tears, the tedium and the tantrums.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/bwX7pK
Tuesday 27 July 2010
How your personality effects when you choose to have children
A woman's personality can affect when she chooses to have her first child, according to a new study. The research found that traits such as 'conscientiousness' and 'openness' were associated with delaying motherhood, while more neurotic or extrovert women were more likely to have children young.
The study of over 16,000 mothers, by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, looked at the relationship between fertility, education and personality traits.
Researchers cross-referenced five different personality types - conscientious, neurotic, open, agreeable and extrovert - with the age at which the women had their first child.
Lara Tavares, the author of the study, said that the average educated woman had their first child two years later than her average less-educated counterpart - but analysis of personality traits could explain this timing gap more clearly.
'Personality traits influence both education and fertility decisions,' she said. 'More 'open-minded' people might be less vulnerable to the social pressure for having children.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/d1KW6T
The study of over 16,000 mothers, by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, looked at the relationship between fertility, education and personality traits.
Researchers cross-referenced five different personality types - conscientious, neurotic, open, agreeable and extrovert - with the age at which the women had their first child.
Lara Tavares, the author of the study, said that the average educated woman had their first child two years later than her average less-educated counterpart - but analysis of personality traits could explain this timing gap more clearly.
'Personality traits influence both education and fertility decisions,' she said. 'More 'open-minded' people might be less vulnerable to the social pressure for having children.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/d1KW6T
Sunday 25 July 2010
IVF pregnant women more at risk of death
Researchers believe the increased threat may come from the body rejecting donated eggs or underlying health problems that may come to the fore during artificial conception.
They want increased vigilance so that the exact nature of the risk can be calculated.
"Women should be counselled and made aware of the risks they are taking and deaths should be properly reported," Professor Didi Braat at Radboud University in the Netherlands told the Sunday Times.
Prof Braat looked at the deaths between 1984 and 2008 in the Netherlands but believes they will apply to any developed country.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/akaNG3
They want increased vigilance so that the exact nature of the risk can be calculated.
"Women should be counselled and made aware of the risks they are taking and deaths should be properly reported," Professor Didi Braat at Radboud University in the Netherlands told the Sunday Times.
Prof Braat looked at the deaths between 1984 and 2008 in the Netherlands but believes they will apply to any developed country.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/akaNG3
Friday 23 July 2010
Scientists say more and more women are changing their sexuality in midlife
Beverli Rhodes was a divorced mum with four daughters from two marriages when she shared her first lesbian kiss.
She was 30 and says the experience was a revelation. 'It was as if a switch had been turned,' she says. Although she insists that she had hoped and intended that her two marriages would last for life, she says she also knew from that point on that she would only ever be sexually attracted to women. Beverli, now 49, went on to have several lesbian relationships before meeting her current female partner Crystyn Day, 50, a photographer with whom she lives in Ashford, Kent.
Remarkably Crystyn, too, had previously been living a heterosexual life and has a grown-up daughter from an 11-year marriage. Now, new research has identified Beverli and Crystyn as members of an intriguing group. A comprehensive study of female sexuality will be presented to the American Psychological Association's annual meeting next month and it has found a surprising growth in the numbers of so-called 'late-blooming lesbians' - women who have switched their sexuality once they've passed the age of 30. High-profile examples include Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon, now 43, who began a relationship with Christine Marinoni in 2004.
The findings raise fascinating questions over the long-held belief that sexual preferences may be partly genetic and are fixed early in life. They also suggest that female sexuality may be more 'fluid' than men's, accounting for the fact that some women sustain long and often fulfilling marriages before developing lesbian or bisexual tendencies in early middle age - often leaving behind them a devastated husband and utterly bewildered children.
While the phenomenon of married women falling in love with other women is nothing new, in the past it was generally only bohemian, upper class women who dared to be overt about their lesbian tendencies - women like the married writer Virginia Woolf, who was 40 when she began a long love affair with Vita Sackville-West, who was also middle-aged and married.
But the new research suggests that this could be changing. And while some have previously concealed their sexuality to keep their families together, many women have no prior inclination to change their sexual preference until their mid-life revelations.
The consequences can be traumatic.
Beverli Rhodes insists she had 'never entertained the thought of being in a gay relationship' when she was growing up. She married George, a company director seven years her senior, and quickly had three babies. When the marriage broke up after seven years, she says: 'I simply thought that we were too young when we'd married and had grown apart.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/a0Ko7d
She was 30 and says the experience was a revelation. 'It was as if a switch had been turned,' she says. Although she insists that she had hoped and intended that her two marriages would last for life, she says she also knew from that point on that she would only ever be sexually attracted to women. Beverli, now 49, went on to have several lesbian relationships before meeting her current female partner Crystyn Day, 50, a photographer with whom she lives in Ashford, Kent.
Remarkably Crystyn, too, had previously been living a heterosexual life and has a grown-up daughter from an 11-year marriage. Now, new research has identified Beverli and Crystyn as members of an intriguing group. A comprehensive study of female sexuality will be presented to the American Psychological Association's annual meeting next month and it has found a surprising growth in the numbers of so-called 'late-blooming lesbians' - women who have switched their sexuality once they've passed the age of 30. High-profile examples include Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon, now 43, who began a relationship with Christine Marinoni in 2004.
The findings raise fascinating questions over the long-held belief that sexual preferences may be partly genetic and are fixed early in life. They also suggest that female sexuality may be more 'fluid' than men's, accounting for the fact that some women sustain long and often fulfilling marriages before developing lesbian or bisexual tendencies in early middle age - often leaving behind them a devastated husband and utterly bewildered children.
While the phenomenon of married women falling in love with other women is nothing new, in the past it was generally only bohemian, upper class women who dared to be overt about their lesbian tendencies - women like the married writer Virginia Woolf, who was 40 when she began a long love affair with Vita Sackville-West, who was also middle-aged and married.
But the new research suggests that this could be changing. And while some have previously concealed their sexuality to keep their families together, many women have no prior inclination to change their sexual preference until their mid-life revelations.
The consequences can be traumatic.
Beverli Rhodes insists she had 'never entertained the thought of being in a gay relationship' when she was growing up. She married George, a company director seven years her senior, and quickly had three babies. When the marriage broke up after seven years, she says: 'I simply thought that we were too young when we'd married and had grown apart.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/a0Ko7d
Wednesday 21 July 2010
My Weird and Wonderful Family - on TV tonight
MY WEIRD & WONDERFUL FAMILY
Wednesday 21st July 21:00 Channel 4
Cutting Edge goes behind the headlines to intimately portray how gay millionaires Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow's determination to have more children has affected them and their kids.
Barrie and Tony talk more to Channel 4 about how their family came about, and they offer advice to others in similar situations.
Channel 4: You've clearly been very honest and upfront with your children about how they were conceived. How important is it to be truthful?
Barrie and Tony: Yes we have been very honest with everyone; our kids know their own story. They have the facts and this is how we wanted it to be always. We knew that it would be hard to keep things secret and we didn't want to just do it on the QT. With the internet it's impossible to not let them know everything upfront which is what we have done. There would always be people or kids at school ready to tell them about what they have found. I don't think going into adulthood is going to be much of a problem for the kids. They are very well adjusted, normal kids.
Channel 4: Do you have advice for others, in a similar situation to yourselves, who might be considering the same route to starting a family?
To read more go to http://bit.ly/a6YUlL
Wednesday 21st July 21:00 Channel 4
Cutting Edge goes behind the headlines to intimately portray how gay millionaires Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow's determination to have more children has affected them and their kids.
Barrie and Tony talk more to Channel 4 about how their family came about, and they offer advice to others in similar situations.
Channel 4: You've clearly been very honest and upfront with your children about how they were conceived. How important is it to be truthful?
Barrie and Tony: Yes we have been very honest with everyone; our kids know their own story. They have the facts and this is how we wanted it to be always. We knew that it would be hard to keep things secret and we didn't want to just do it on the QT. With the internet it's impossible to not let them know everything upfront which is what we have done. There would always be people or kids at school ready to tell them about what they have found. I don't think going into adulthood is going to be much of a problem for the kids. They are very well adjusted, normal kids.
Channel 4: Do you have advice for others, in a similar situation to yourselves, who might be considering the same route to starting a family?
To read more go to http://bit.ly/a6YUlL
Tuesday 20 July 2010
Alternative Families Show 2010
Demystifying the Process of Becoming a Parent for the Gay Community and Single People
Saturday 23rd October 2010 from 10am to 5pm
GRAND CONNAUGHT ROOMS, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON
• Thinking of becoming a parent?
• Want to understand the options available to you?
• Are you considering IVF, adoption or surrogacy?
• Want to understand your rights as a parent?
• Need help deciding on known or anonymous donors?
• Want to find support networks for same-sex parents?
The alternative families show brings together all the information you need to make informed choices on parenthood. From conception, adoption, legal rights, to support networks the show will give you access to information from top UK advisors in their field. A one-stop shop for the lesbian and gay community, this is your opportunity to get some real facts surrounding same-sex parenting. For single people we present the options to becoming a parent.
Pride Angel will be attending the Alternative Families Show where they will be happy to answer any questions relating to donor conception and co-parenting.
Pride Angel is the leading worldwide connection site, fertility forum and blog for lesbian, gay, single and infertile couples, wishing to become parents through co-parenting and donor conception. Specialising in health screening advice, fertility law support, along with artificial insemination and fertility products available to purchase. Registration is free at www.prideangel.com
Tickets to the show cost £5 and can be purchased on the alternative families show website.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/dm2koV
Saturday 23rd October 2010 from 10am to 5pm
GRAND CONNAUGHT ROOMS, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON
• Thinking of becoming a parent?
• Want to understand the options available to you?
• Are you considering IVF, adoption or surrogacy?
• Want to understand your rights as a parent?
• Need help deciding on known or anonymous donors?
• Want to find support networks for same-sex parents?
The alternative families show brings together all the information you need to make informed choices on parenthood. From conception, adoption, legal rights, to support networks the show will give you access to information from top UK advisors in their field. A one-stop shop for the lesbian and gay community, this is your opportunity to get some real facts surrounding same-sex parenting. For single people we present the options to becoming a parent.
Pride Angel will be attending the Alternative Families Show where they will be happy to answer any questions relating to donor conception and co-parenting.
Pride Angel is the leading worldwide connection site, fertility forum and blog for lesbian, gay, single and infertile couples, wishing to become parents through co-parenting and donor conception. Specialising in health screening advice, fertility law support, along with artificial insemination and fertility products available to purchase. Registration is free at www.prideangel.com
Tickets to the show cost £5 and can be purchased on the alternative families show website.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/dm2koV
Monday 19 July 2010
Lesbian mum is not a 'parent' Judge rules
The High Court has decided that a lesbian (non birth) mother does not have to financially support the ten year old child she conceived together with her partner. In a landmark decision, the court has ruled that even though the mother was awarded ’parental responsibility’ for her child and the right to full involvement in her child’s care, she cannot be held financially responsible because, at law, she is not a ‘parent’.
The decision highlights the complexity of concepts of parenthood as they apply to same sex parenting, and the problems that arise when relationships break down.
It is not the first time that there have been difficulties over maintenance and financial responsibility. Sperm donor Andy Bathie (represented by G&G partner Natalie Gamble) was pursued for maintenance by the CSA after the lesbian couple he donated to split up, because (as a biological father who had donated outside a licensed clinic) the law treated him, rather than the lesbian non-birth mother, as the children’s other ‘parent’.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9FJsFw
The decision highlights the complexity of concepts of parenthood as they apply to same sex parenting, and the problems that arise when relationships break down.
It is not the first time that there have been difficulties over maintenance and financial responsibility. Sperm donor Andy Bathie (represented by G&G partner Natalie Gamble) was pursued for maintenance by the CSA after the lesbian couple he donated to split up, because (as a biological father who had donated outside a licensed clinic) the law treated him, rather than the lesbian non-birth mother, as the children’s other ‘parent’.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9FJsFw
Saturday 17 July 2010
Telling your child they were conceived through IVF
To Tell or Not to Tell: When Your Child Is Conceived Through In Vitro Fertilization: Author Helps Parents Explain the Process
For Claudia Santorelli-Bates it seemed like the obvious choice to talk to her own children about how they were conceived through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Bates, who is the author of "I Can't Wait to Meet You," recommends the discussion for all families that have used IVF to conceive a child, but she says, "It seems that many families haven't thought about sharing their child's conception or are often adamantly opposed to speaking about it with them. It reminds me of adoption back when families made the choice to never tell their child that they were adopted."
Bates believes think that honesty is the best policy, especially when so much time and love went into families who use assisted reproduction. "I feel the world is opening up about the topic of IVF. When I share how my children were born I always hear things like, 'oh I didn't know that,'" she explained. This type of response is frequently viewed as being negative. "When discussing IVF, I am also met with other responses such as 'we did it the old fashioned way,'" explains Bates.
However, for many couples, doing it "the old fashioned way" isn't an option. But the end result is the same -- a child that is brought into the world for all the right reasons, nurtured and loved by parents. But what about telling your child that they were conceived through in vitro fertilization? Bates feels it is a necessary part of the process and when a child starts asking questions about how they were brought into the world she has some very real concerns and suggestions.
Explaining the birds and the bees used to be commonplace. Simple to understand from a child's perspective, but clearly it is not applicable in the case of children born through IVF. In these days of delayed parenthood and assisted reproduction, simply explaining the mechanics of intercourse doesn't always answer the question of "where did I come from?" Bates believes that parents who have turned to IVF to have a child need to guide children with informed information about the reproductive process when they're ready to listen and their curiosity has peaked. The process of telling a child that they were conceived through IVF involves guiding children through IVF, donor insemination, surrogacy, adoption and the question of why some children might have more than one set of parents.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/b3t81P
For Claudia Santorelli-Bates it seemed like the obvious choice to talk to her own children about how they were conceived through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Bates, who is the author of "I Can't Wait to Meet You," recommends the discussion for all families that have used IVF to conceive a child, but she says, "It seems that many families haven't thought about sharing their child's conception or are often adamantly opposed to speaking about it with them. It reminds me of adoption back when families made the choice to never tell their child that they were adopted."
Bates believes think that honesty is the best policy, especially when so much time and love went into families who use assisted reproduction. "I feel the world is opening up about the topic of IVF. When I share how my children were born I always hear things like, 'oh I didn't know that,'" she explained. This type of response is frequently viewed as being negative. "When discussing IVF, I am also met with other responses such as 'we did it the old fashioned way,'" explains Bates.
However, for many couples, doing it "the old fashioned way" isn't an option. But the end result is the same -- a child that is brought into the world for all the right reasons, nurtured and loved by parents. But what about telling your child that they were conceived through in vitro fertilization? Bates feels it is a necessary part of the process and when a child starts asking questions about how they were brought into the world she has some very real concerns and suggestions.
Explaining the birds and the bees used to be commonplace. Simple to understand from a child's perspective, but clearly it is not applicable in the case of children born through IVF. In these days of delayed parenthood and assisted reproduction, simply explaining the mechanics of intercourse doesn't always answer the question of "where did I come from?" Bates believes that parents who have turned to IVF to have a child need to guide children with informed information about the reproductive process when they're ready to listen and their curiosity has peaked. The process of telling a child that they were conceived through IVF involves guiding children through IVF, donor insemination, surrogacy, adoption and the question of why some children might have more than one set of parents.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/b3t81P
Thursday 15 July 2010
Couples forced to advertise for egg donors due to national shortage
Desperate women with fertility problems have been placing newspaper adverts in a bid to find egg donors due to a national shortage, it emerged today.
Egg donations have declined steadily in recent years, following a change in the law in 2005 that allows children to trace donor parents.
Now with waiting lists stretching to over a year for donor eggs, some women have been placing appeals in local newspapers in their efforts to conceive.
Diana Smith, 44, who has already had two failed pregnancies, placed an advertisement in her local Northamptonshire paper yesterday, detailing her plight.
'We have been trying for a family for a long time but now we need to find an egg donor,' it read. 'Could you be that special person to help our dreams of a family come true?'
Mrs Smith, who has struggled to stert a family after she had a fallopian tube removed, was faced with a year-long wait for eggs before she could begin IVF treatment at the CARE Fertility Clinic in Northampton.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/dtm7n6
Egg donations have declined steadily in recent years, following a change in the law in 2005 that allows children to trace donor parents.
Now with waiting lists stretching to over a year for donor eggs, some women have been placing appeals in local newspapers in their efforts to conceive.
Diana Smith, 44, who has already had two failed pregnancies, placed an advertisement in her local Northamptonshire paper yesterday, detailing her plight.
'We have been trying for a family for a long time but now we need to find an egg donor,' it read. 'Could you be that special person to help our dreams of a family come true?'
Mrs Smith, who has struggled to stert a family after she had a fallopian tube removed, was faced with a year-long wait for eggs before she could begin IVF treatment at the CARE Fertility Clinic in Northampton.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/dtm7n6
Tuesday 13 July 2010
I couldn't be a mother.... until I went to Spain
As more and more hopeful parents are forced abroad to seek donor eggs, Victoria Macdonald recalls the agony and joy of her IVF quest
In a coffee shop the other day, a woman came over to tell me, at some length, just how cute my baby daughter is. Of course, I was hardly likely to disagree, but after a while the woman straightened up, looked long and hard at me and said: “So, does she take after her father, then?”
Later that week I was telling a friend just how determined Gabriella was becoming. My friend laughed and said: “Well, we know who she gets that from.”
There was an awkward pause. Because Gabriella does not get that from me. And, yes, she does look a lot like her father and not one bit like me. She has brown hair with a hint of red, chubby little cheeks, a perky nose and elegant long fingers. I do not.
But then it is not surprising we are so different in appearance. Although I carried her through 36 weeks of pregnancy and gave birth this time last year, there is no genetic link between us at all since Gabriella was conceived after we travelled to Spain for a donated egg.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9nuW07
In a coffee shop the other day, a woman came over to tell me, at some length, just how cute my baby daughter is. Of course, I was hardly likely to disagree, but after a while the woman straightened up, looked long and hard at me and said: “So, does she take after her father, then?”
Later that week I was telling a friend just how determined Gabriella was becoming. My friend laughed and said: “Well, we know who she gets that from.”
There was an awkward pause. Because Gabriella does not get that from me. And, yes, she does look a lot like her father and not one bit like me. She has brown hair with a hint of red, chubby little cheeks, a perky nose and elegant long fingers. I do not.
But then it is not surprising we are so different in appearance. Although I carried her through 36 weeks of pregnancy and gave birth this time last year, there is no genetic link between us at all since Gabriella was conceived after we travelled to Spain for a donated egg.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9nuW07
Sunday 11 July 2010
10 ways to tell your ready for a baby
Every time you switch on the television you see nappy adverts, everyone you know seems to be revealing they are pregnant, but how do you know whether you are ready to be a parent? The answer is it's such a big life-changing event that the no-one is really prepared for what it entails, but there are some tell-tale signs to suggest that you are willing to swap your high heels for comfy flats, short skirts for elasticated waists and are willing to sacrifice the spareroom for a nursery…
1. You and your partner have discussed buying a kitten Or a dog/rabbit/Guinea pig or all of the above! You obviously have the urge to nurture, feed, cuddle and have some level of responsibility and you are obviously prepared to part with some cash for pet food/vet bills. Is your need for a pet actually hiding your need for a baby? Are you seeing how your partner deals with a pet first before you announce you want a baby, or, are you testing them to see how much poo they end up scooping up in the park, or keeping note of the early morning dog walks your partner offers to do? If you find yourself talking about your pet incessantly, dressing it up, cancelling nights out or rushing home to give your pet a cuddle, it is safe to say you are ready for a baby!
2. You prefer a night in to a night out Yep, it happens to the best of us, the thought of donning our glad rags and going out on the town is far less appealing than settling down on the sofa with an M&S ten-pound meal deal and Desperate Housewives on the TV. Essentially your lifestyle is ready for a baby.
3. You dream of babies If you have dreams of yourself walking along with a babe in arms, or holding a toddler's hands, it's fair to say that you're ready for a baby. Even if your conscious mind is screaming NO, NO BABIES, your sub-conscious mind is already in a baby store loading up the trolley.
4. You stop and admire other people's babies If you find other peoples snotty, whingy babies cute then you are definitely ready for a baby. If you talk naturally to children and volunteer for babysitting your friend's children it's time for you to embrace the fact that you are more than ready for your own.
5. Your spare room looks empty and sad Isn't it time you started shopping for butterfly wallpaper or train bedcovers? Doesn't your spareroom deserve to be more than just a room you pile the clean washing into before you (groan) get around to ironing it.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/djzciz
1. You and your partner have discussed buying a kitten Or a dog/rabbit/Guinea pig or all of the above! You obviously have the urge to nurture, feed, cuddle and have some level of responsibility and you are obviously prepared to part with some cash for pet food/vet bills. Is your need for a pet actually hiding your need for a baby? Are you seeing how your partner deals with a pet first before you announce you want a baby, or, are you testing them to see how much poo they end up scooping up in the park, or keeping note of the early morning dog walks your partner offers to do? If you find yourself talking about your pet incessantly, dressing it up, cancelling nights out or rushing home to give your pet a cuddle, it is safe to say you are ready for a baby!
2. You prefer a night in to a night out Yep, it happens to the best of us, the thought of donning our glad rags and going out on the town is far less appealing than settling down on the sofa with an M&S ten-pound meal deal and Desperate Housewives on the TV. Essentially your lifestyle is ready for a baby.
3. You dream of babies If you have dreams of yourself walking along with a babe in arms, or holding a toddler's hands, it's fair to say that you're ready for a baby. Even if your conscious mind is screaming NO, NO BABIES, your sub-conscious mind is already in a baby store loading up the trolley.
4. You stop and admire other people's babies If you find other peoples snotty, whingy babies cute then you are definitely ready for a baby. If you talk naturally to children and volunteer for babysitting your friend's children it's time for you to embrace the fact that you are more than ready for your own.
5. Your spare room looks empty and sad Isn't it time you started shopping for butterfly wallpaper or train bedcovers? Doesn't your spareroom deserve to be more than just a room you pile the clean washing into before you (groan) get around to ironing it.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/djzciz
Friday 9 July 2010
Manchester Pride UK 2010
THE BIG WEEKEND Friday 27 - Monday 30 August 2010
It's just weeks to go until the Manchester Pride 2010 Big Weekend bursts across the city, we're excited to announce the first round of acts set to grace the main stage...Find out who's lined up for your entertainment...
CORONATION STREET JOIN MANCHESTER PRIDE IN WHAT WILL BE THEIR BIGGEST PARADE EVER!
The cast and crew of Corrie will take part in the parade as part of the show’s 50th birthday with a top secret entry called 'Cobbles on Parade'. Manchester Pride are delighted that Corrie are their biggest parade yet!
BIG WEEKEND MAIN STAGE
Each year the main stage brings a fantastic variety of international and local artists to entertain you over all four days of the Big Weekend... The line up includes names such as Belinda Carlisle, Beveley Knight, Heaven 17 and many more....
The Big Weekend is over 70 hours of fun, wild, extravagant partying and you'd be out of your mind to miss it! If you want to get yourself a part of the action, you'll need to make sure you get your hands on a ticket
Weekend Tickets cost £17.50 and Day Tickets £10.00 if purchased before 27 August 2010 and the proceeds go towards helping LGBT community groups and HIV organisations.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cT49DC
It's just weeks to go until the Manchester Pride 2010 Big Weekend bursts across the city, we're excited to announce the first round of acts set to grace the main stage...Find out who's lined up for your entertainment...
CORONATION STREET JOIN MANCHESTER PRIDE IN WHAT WILL BE THEIR BIGGEST PARADE EVER!
The cast and crew of Corrie will take part in the parade as part of the show’s 50th birthday with a top secret entry called 'Cobbles on Parade'. Manchester Pride are delighted that Corrie are their biggest parade yet!
BIG WEEKEND MAIN STAGE
Each year the main stage brings a fantastic variety of international and local artists to entertain you over all four days of the Big Weekend... The line up includes names such as Belinda Carlisle, Beveley Knight, Heaven 17 and many more....
The Big Weekend is over 70 hours of fun, wild, extravagant partying and you'd be out of your mind to miss it! If you want to get yourself a part of the action, you'll need to make sure you get your hands on a ticket
Weekend Tickets cost £17.50 and Day Tickets £10.00 if purchased before 27 August 2010 and the proceeds go towards helping LGBT community groups and HIV organisations.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cT49DC
Wednesday 7 July 2010
IVF treatment: How do we decide who deserves a baby?
New criteria to assess women eligible for IVF treatment may not solve old problems
IVF on NHS for women over 40" ran one front-page headline last week. A casual reader of that and similar articles could have been forgiven for concluding that the rule banning women aged 40 or over from accessing state-funded fertility treatment is being scrapped. It isn't, but it might be.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has recently begun looking at whether its existing guideline on fertility needs to be updated. First issued in 2004, this medical world equivalent of a tablet of stone has always been tinged with controversy. Its main recommendation – that women aged 23 to 39 meeting set medical criteria should get up to three cycles of IVF on the NHS – is widely ignored by the local NHS organisations in England and Wales who are meant to approve it and foot the bill.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cF6FzB
IVF on NHS for women over 40" ran one front-page headline last week. A casual reader of that and similar articles could have been forgiven for concluding that the rule banning women aged 40 or over from accessing state-funded fertility treatment is being scrapped. It isn't, but it might be.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has recently begun looking at whether its existing guideline on fertility needs to be updated. First issued in 2004, this medical world equivalent of a tablet of stone has always been tinged with controversy. Its main recommendation – that women aged 23 to 39 meeting set medical criteria should get up to three cycles of IVF on the NHS – is widely ignored by the local NHS organisations in England and Wales who are meant to approve it and foot the bill.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cF6FzB
Monday 5 July 2010
What's driving UK fertility tourism? First study published
Expensive UK fertility treatment and long waiting times related to a shortage of egg and sperm donors are the major reasons people seek fertility treatment abroad, according to the first academic study into cross-border reproductive care.
Researchers from De Montfort University (DMU), in collaboration with the universities of Sheffield, Huddersfield and Swansea, interviewed 51 people. They found that 71 per cent of those interviewed went abroad to seek treatment using donor gametes. Out of those, 46 per cent of couples were having treatment using donor eggs, 12 per cent using donor sperm and 10 per cent using donor egg and sperm.
The high cost of treatment in the UK was cited as another reason couples seek treatment abroad; most IVF (in vitro fertilisation) is not funded by the NHS and can cost a minimum of £4,500. The participants were also interviewed about their experiences abroad. The majority of couples were very positive and reported high standards of care.
Lead researcher Professor Lorraine Culley from De Montfort University said the research has: 'helped to dispel some of the myths commonly associated with having fertility treatment abroad'.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cwdyDS
Researchers from De Montfort University (DMU), in collaboration with the universities of Sheffield, Huddersfield and Swansea, interviewed 51 people. They found that 71 per cent of those interviewed went abroad to seek treatment using donor gametes. Out of those, 46 per cent of couples were having treatment using donor eggs, 12 per cent using donor sperm and 10 per cent using donor egg and sperm.
The high cost of treatment in the UK was cited as another reason couples seek treatment abroad; most IVF (in vitro fertilisation) is not funded by the NHS and can cost a minimum of £4,500. The participants were also interviewed about their experiences abroad. The majority of couples were very positive and reported high standards of care.
Lead researcher Professor Lorraine Culley from De Montfort University said the research has: 'helped to dispel some of the myths commonly associated with having fertility treatment abroad'.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cwdyDS
Saturday 3 July 2010
Millionaire gay fathers celebrate arrival of twins with triple christening
A gay couple that made legal history when they fathered twins are celebrating the arrival of their fourth and fifth children.
Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow will be joined by more than 150 people at a christening service for five-month-old twins Dallas and Jasper tomorrow.
The millionaire couple, both businessmen in their 40s, said the boys were born to a surrogate mother in California in February, and would be christened at St John the Baptist Church in Danbury
They said surrogate mother Rosalind Bellamy and the egg donor - 'up-and-coming Russian supermodel' Alexandra Cooper-Strash - would be among guests.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow said he and his partner had 'angered church groups over the years'. But he added: 'It is important for us to have the children all christened.
'As a Christian family we feel that it is important for our children to be given the opportunity to follow the teachings of the church and if they decide when they are older not to, then that is their choice.'
To read more go to http://bit.ly/breFQu
Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow will be joined by more than 150 people at a christening service for five-month-old twins Dallas and Jasper tomorrow.
The millionaire couple, both businessmen in their 40s, said the boys were born to a surrogate mother in California in February, and would be christened at St John the Baptist Church in Danbury
They said surrogate mother Rosalind Bellamy and the egg donor - 'up-and-coming Russian supermodel' Alexandra Cooper-Strash - would be among guests.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow said he and his partner had 'angered church groups over the years'. But he added: 'It is important for us to have the children all christened.
'As a Christian family we feel that it is important for our children to be given the opportunity to follow the teachings of the church and if they decide when they are older not to, then that is their choice.'
To read more go to http://bit.ly/breFQu
Thursday 1 July 2010
Troubling truth about egg freezing: Its expensive and medically risky
Next month, during a rare break from her frenetic career as a violinist, Linzi Stoppard will begin the gruelling preparations required to have her eggs frozen.
Daily hormone injections will shut down her ovaries. Then, further injections will cause what is known as 'hyper-ovulation'. Instead of producing one or two mature follicles - fluid-filled sacs located inside the ovaries - she will produce dozens.
A final injection will be given to mature them. After around four weeks of treatment, Linzi, 31, will be sedated while an embryologist harvests around ten healthy eggs using an ultrasound probe and places them in a tank of liquid nitrogen, stored at -195C until such time as she needs them.
'It's a back-up plan for the future, if we find we struggle to conceive naturally when the time is right,' is the way Linzi and her husband, Will, look at it. If she cannot conceive naturally when the 'right time' comes, she hopes that doctors can use her stored, younger eggs and help her to conceive using IVF.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9lClsy
Daily hormone injections will shut down her ovaries. Then, further injections will cause what is known as 'hyper-ovulation'. Instead of producing one or two mature follicles - fluid-filled sacs located inside the ovaries - she will produce dozens.
A final injection will be given to mature them. After around four weeks of treatment, Linzi, 31, will be sedated while an embryologist harvests around ten healthy eggs using an ultrasound probe and places them in a tank of liquid nitrogen, stored at -195C until such time as she needs them.
'It's a back-up plan for the future, if we find we struggle to conceive naturally when the time is right,' is the way Linzi and her husband, Will, look at it. If she cannot conceive naturally when the 'right time' comes, she hopes that doctors can use her stored, younger eggs and help her to conceive using IVF.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/9lClsy
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