Researchers have created the first artificial human ovary. The advance provides a potentially powerful new means for conducting fertility research and could also yield infertility treatments for cancer patients.
“An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3D tissue structure with triple cell line,” said Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the US.
Carson said that the ovary not only provides a living laboratory for investigating fundamental questions about how healthy ovaries work, but also can act as a testbed for seeing how problems, such as exposure to toxins or other chemicals, can disrupt egg maturation and health, reports the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.
Clinically, the artificial ovary could play a role in preserving the fertility of women facing cancer treatment in the future, said Stephan Krotz, a Houston fertility doctor who is the paper’s lead author and a former fellow in Carson’s lab, said a Brown University release.
Immature eggs could be salvaged and frozen before the onset of chemotherapy or radiation, he said, and then matured outside the patient in the artificial ovary.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/cYCPhx
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Gay and lesbian couples now allowed to adopt in New South Wales
Gay and lesbian couples are finally allowed to adopt in New South Wales, Australia, after it was first proposed 10 years ago by MP Clover Moore.
The bill to allow same-sex couples to adopt in New South Wales, Australia, has narrowly passed in the lower house.
It passed a vote 46-44 last week, and after amendments were made, passed 45-43.
The bill was introduced by independent MP Clover Moore, who agreed yesterday to insert a clause allowing faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.
Another amendment was added today to allow birth parents the right to state their preference that their children are not adopted by gay couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.
Church groups welcomed the amendments, saying they were necessary to prevent people and organisations being sued for expressing their beliefs.
However, gay rights groups in the state have said they are concerned that the gay community is not being vocal enough in supporting the laws and has urged people to write to their MPs.
To read more go to
The bill to allow same-sex couples to adopt in New South Wales, Australia, has narrowly passed in the lower house.
It passed a vote 46-44 last week, and after amendments were made, passed 45-43.
The bill was introduced by independent MP Clover Moore, who agreed yesterday to insert a clause allowing faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.
Another amendment was added today to allow birth parents the right to state their preference that their children are not adopted by gay couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.
Church groups welcomed the amendments, saying they were necessary to prevent people and organisations being sued for expressing their beliefs.
However, gay rights groups in the state have said they are concerned that the gay community is not being vocal enough in supporting the laws and has urged people to write to their MPs.
To read more go to
Friday, 10 September 2010
Paying egg donors will not solve the problems of IVF
Yes, there are shortages and the system is expensive. But fees would not fix it, says Francoise Shenfield
Simon Jenkins argues for market criteria to be applied to egg donation (In the name of purity, public funds are wasted on the rich, 25 August). Britain's regulator in this field, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, will soon rule on the issue of compensation to egg donors.
Jenkins raises interesting points, in particular: "If we do not pay what the market requires, we will get shortage, profiteering and unfairness." But two important points should be made in the face of his pragmatic market approach – advocating a deregulated payment to donors to increase numbers – and his hatred of "money–loathing", which he says is "rife in the British public service".
First, other factors such as the ending of donors' anonymity may also be relevant to the shortage, as shown by the only European study published to date, by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. And when, as Jenkins points out, "couples travel to Spain" and other countries in search of donors, it may also be because they prefer anonymity. It may be easier to recruit anonymous donors too.
To read more go to
Simon Jenkins argues for market criteria to be applied to egg donation (In the name of purity, public funds are wasted on the rich, 25 August). Britain's regulator in this field, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, will soon rule on the issue of compensation to egg donors.
Jenkins raises interesting points, in particular: "If we do not pay what the market requires, we will get shortage, profiteering and unfairness." But two important points should be made in the face of his pragmatic market approach – advocating a deregulated payment to donors to increase numbers – and his hatred of "money–loathing", which he says is "rife in the British public service".
First, other factors such as the ending of donors' anonymity may also be relevant to the shortage, as shown by the only European study published to date, by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. And when, as Jenkins points out, "couples travel to Spain" and other countries in search of donors, it may also be because they prefer anonymity. It may be easier to recruit anonymous donors too.
To read more go to
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Women are prepared to pay up to £50,000 on IVF to have a baby
Women are prepared to pay up to £50,000 to realise their dreams of motherhood, a study has found.
Most would take on extra work, sell possessions and sacrifice pensions to fund fertility treatment if they had difficulty conceiving. And they would be willing to spend an average of £15,000 on IVF – with one in ten prepared to shell out as much as £50,000. One in five would even consider moving house if it meant better fertility treatment on the NHS.
More than 90 per cent said they would cut back on holidays, eating out, clothes and beauty products to pay for treatment. And it is the grandparents-to-be who they are increasingly turning to for financial help, with 30 per cent of women having treatments asking their parents or other family members for money, up from 14 per cent last year. Three quarters of women think the cost in the UK is too expensive, 30 per cent said they would look at going abroad for treatment. In Hungary a single cycle costs £1,464.
The poll of more than 2,000 women aged 30 to 45, carried out by Red magazine, found that more than half of those questioned had tried to conceive – and 39 per cent had encountered problems.
The Red Annual National Fertility Report also revealed that one in ten women who struggled to conceive had undergone some sort of fertility treatment, spending an average of £8,678.
Nearly 45,000 cycles of IVF are performed in Britain each year. In the private sector, each one can cost more than £5,000. The survey found 95 per cent of women thought the differences in NHS IVF provision, depending on where you lived, was unfair with 22 per cent saying they would move house or consider moving to get better IVF treatment for free.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/bNvbVV
Most would take on extra work, sell possessions and sacrifice pensions to fund fertility treatment if they had difficulty conceiving. And they would be willing to spend an average of £15,000 on IVF – with one in ten prepared to shell out as much as £50,000. One in five would even consider moving house if it meant better fertility treatment on the NHS.
More than 90 per cent said they would cut back on holidays, eating out, clothes and beauty products to pay for treatment. And it is the grandparents-to-be who they are increasingly turning to for financial help, with 30 per cent of women having treatments asking their parents or other family members for money, up from 14 per cent last year. Three quarters of women think the cost in the UK is too expensive, 30 per cent said they would look at going abroad for treatment. In Hungary a single cycle costs £1,464.
The poll of more than 2,000 women aged 30 to 45, carried out by Red magazine, found that more than half of those questioned had tried to conceive – and 39 per cent had encountered problems.
The Red Annual National Fertility Report also revealed that one in ten women who struggled to conceive had undergone some sort of fertility treatment, spending an average of £8,678.
Nearly 45,000 cycles of IVF are performed in Britain each year. In the private sector, each one can cost more than £5,000. The survey found 95 per cent of women thought the differences in NHS IVF provision, depending on where you lived, was unfair with 22 per cent saying they would move house or consider moving to get better IVF treatment for free.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/bNvbVV
Sunday, 5 September 2010
IVF postcode lottery as NHS cuts costs
Childless couples are facing a widening postcode lottery after NHS officials ordered GPs to slash the amount of fertility treatment on offer to cut costs, stark new figures show.
Women in some areas are being denied access to the treatment altogether while others are facing new restrictions which appear to flout national guidelines.
One in five local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) said they had cut the number of IVF procedures they had funded over the past three years, the study by the health magazine, Pulse, found.
Some trusts have frozen funding for IVF completely while reduced the number of cycles on offer.
Funding chiefs blamed the economic downturn and the looming spending cuts for the decision but campaigners said many infertile couples were now being denied a “fundamental right”.
Under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (Nice) GPs are advised to offer women under 40 up three cycles of IVF on the NHS.
But several trusts have recently ordered family doctors to cut the number of cycles on offer to two or one.
Nine PCTs – in Luton, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Portsmouth, Bolton and West Kent – admitted they had not funded any IVF treatment for two years, acccording to the Pulse study.
NHS Warrington, which recently stopped all funding for IVF until at least 2011 insisted its priority had to be maintaining “high quality local healthcare”.
NHS Brighton and Hove, which now funds only two cycles, said the limit was in line with a region-wide policy across the south east of England.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/aX7JJt
Women in some areas are being denied access to the treatment altogether while others are facing new restrictions which appear to flout national guidelines.
One in five local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) said they had cut the number of IVF procedures they had funded over the past three years, the study by the health magazine, Pulse, found.
Some trusts have frozen funding for IVF completely while reduced the number of cycles on offer.
Funding chiefs blamed the economic downturn and the looming spending cuts for the decision but campaigners said many infertile couples were now being denied a “fundamental right”.
Under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (Nice) GPs are advised to offer women under 40 up three cycles of IVF on the NHS.
But several trusts have recently ordered family doctors to cut the number of cycles on offer to two or one.
Nine PCTs – in Luton, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Portsmouth, Bolton and West Kent – admitted they had not funded any IVF treatment for two years, acccording to the Pulse study.
NHS Warrington, which recently stopped all funding for IVF until at least 2011 insisted its priority had to be maintaining “high quality local healthcare”.
NHS Brighton and Hove, which now funds only two cycles, said the limit was in line with a region-wide policy across the south east of England.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/aX7JJt
Friday, 3 September 2010
Why older women are more prone to fertility problems
Scientists have discovered why women are more likely to suffer from miscarriages and infertility problems if they try to have babies later in life.
Their study also sheds light on why children born to women in their late 30s and early 40s are at greater risk of Down's Syndrome and other genetic conditions.
The team of British researchers found that as a woman gets older levels of a crucial protein that helps eggs prepare for the moment of fertilisation decline sharply.
The drop increases the risk that an egg will end up with the wrong number of chromosomes and be faulty. The finding raises the prospect of new drugs to help keep eggs healthy as women get older.
Researchers have long known that these eggs deteriorate over time and that babies born to women in their late 30s and early 40s are at greater risk of genetic disorders.
However, the reason why the eggs of older women are less healthy has been unclear. Girls are born with a set of immature egg cells that will last for their entire reproductive life. Each immature egg contains two sets of 23 chromosomes - the chains of DNA that contain instructions on how to build and maintain a human being.
Before the eggs can be fertilised, they must complete a complex process of 'ripening' called meiosis in which half of these chromosomes are ejected.
To read more go to
Their study also sheds light on why children born to women in their late 30s and early 40s are at greater risk of Down's Syndrome and other genetic conditions.
The team of British researchers found that as a woman gets older levels of a crucial protein that helps eggs prepare for the moment of fertilisation decline sharply.
The drop increases the risk that an egg will end up with the wrong number of chromosomes and be faulty. The finding raises the prospect of new drugs to help keep eggs healthy as women get older.
Researchers have long known that these eggs deteriorate over time and that babies born to women in their late 30s and early 40s are at greater risk of genetic disorders.
However, the reason why the eggs of older women are less healthy has been unclear. Girls are born with a set of immature egg cells that will last for their entire reproductive life. Each immature egg contains two sets of 23 chromosomes - the chains of DNA that contain instructions on how to build and maintain a human being.
Before the eggs can be fertilised, they must complete a complex process of 'ripening' called meiosis in which half of these chromosomes are ejected.
To read more go to
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Thousands attended Manchester Pride's Parade and Festival 2010
Thousands of people attended Manchester's 20th annual gay Pride parade and celebrations over the Bank Holiday weekend.
The parade, part of the Big Weekend that concludes Pride week, was this year led by Sir Ian McKellen. Despite damp weather, organiser Jackie Crozier told the BBC that the turnout was "fantastic".
She added: "We're absolutely delighted with the amount of people who turned out and also the people that put so much effort into their parade entries."
The parade set off from the centre of Manchester, on Deansgate, travelling up the city's main shopping street before snaking through St Anne's Square, past Albert Square and ending in the Gay Village. Making up the parade were more than 100 groups and floats, including one featuring cast members of Coronation Street, the Manchester-set soap which has now been on screen for 50 years, and has recently introduced its first lesbian character.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/aTy1IR
The parade, part of the Big Weekend that concludes Pride week, was this year led by Sir Ian McKellen. Despite damp weather, organiser Jackie Crozier told the BBC that the turnout was "fantastic".
She added: "We're absolutely delighted with the amount of people who turned out and also the people that put so much effort into their parade entries."
The parade set off from the centre of Manchester, on Deansgate, travelling up the city's main shopping street before snaking through St Anne's Square, past Albert Square and ending in the Gay Village. Making up the parade were more than 100 groups and floats, including one featuring cast members of Coronation Street, the Manchester-set soap which has now been on screen for 50 years, and has recently introduced its first lesbian character.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/aTy1IR
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