Wearing tight Y-fronts really does affect sperm counts

UK study has shown that men with unhealthy lifestyles produce as much swimming sperm as those living more sensibly. But those who wore tight underwear instead of loose boxer shorts and did manual work had lower sperm counts. Under current guidelines, GPs are supposed to warn men diagnosed with infertility of the dangers of alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs. Infertile men are also urged to avoid being overweight. In some cases, fertility treatment is delayed to allow couples time to improve their lifestyles. But the new research suggests none of these factors has much impact on the number of swimming sperm a man produces. Co-author Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said men should still take care of themselves, without feeling the need to ''become monks''. '''In spite of our results, it's important that men continue to follow sensible health advice and watch their weight, stop smoking and drink alcohol within sensible limits. But there is no need for them to become monks just because they want to be a dad. "Although if they are a fan of tight Y-fronts, then switching underpants to something a bit looser for a few months might be a good idea.'' Scientists recruited 2,249 men from 14 fertility clinics around the UK and asked them to fill out detailed lifestyle questionnaires. Information was then compared from 939 men who produced low numbers of swimming sperm and 1,310 men who produced higher numbers. The results, reported in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that men with poor quality sperm were 2.5 times more likely to have had testicular surgery, and twice as likely to be of black ethnicity. They were also 1.3 times more likely to do manual work, not wear loose boxer shorts, or not to have had a previous conception. But men's use of tobacco, alcohol and recreational drugs made little difference, as did their weight as measured by body mass index (BMI). Study leader Dr Andrew Povey, from the University of Manchester, said: ''Despite lifestyle choices being important for other aspects of our health, our results suggest that many lifestyle choices probably have little influence on how many swimming sperm they ejaculate. For example, whether the man was a current smoker or not was of little importance. The proportion of men who had low numbers of swimming sperm was similar whether they had never been a smoker or a smoker who was currently smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. ''Similarly, there was little evidence of any risk associated with alcohol consumption. ''This potentially overturns much of the current advice given to men about how they might improve their fertility and suggests that many common lifestyle risks may not be as important as we previously thought. ''Delaying fertility treatment then for these couples so that they can make changes to their lifestyles, for which there is little evidence of effectiveness, is unlikely to improve their chances of a conception and, indeed, might be prejudicial for couples with little time left to lose.'' The number of swimming sperm broadly correlates with how fertile a man is likely to be. It also often determines the type of fertility treatment that is offered. Fellow expert Professor Nicola Cherry, formerly at the University of Manchester and now with the University of Alberta in Canada, added: ''The higher risk we found in manual workers is consistent with earlier findings that chemicals at work could affect sperm and that men should continue to keep work exposures as low as possible.'' Article: 13th June 2012 www.telegraph.co.uk

Canadian sperm donor and lesbian couple fight for rights over child

Lesbian parents in Canada say they had an agreement: Rene deBlois would donate his sperm for artificial insemination and play no role in the life of any child that resulted. Mr. deBlois says he signed that deal “under duress,” had second thoughts when Tyler Lavigne was born and is now demanding that the courts recognize him as a father with liberal access rights. The resulting dispute in the Northern Ontario town of Cochrane is headed for a potentially precedent-setting trial, tackling head on the legal murkiness that often surrounds the increasingly common exchange of donated eggs and semen. “We’re doing what we think is best for our child. He’s being raised in a happy and healthy environment,” Nicole Lavigne, one of Tyler’s mothers, said in an interview Tuesday. “His family is complete…. I think it’s very important that people be secure that the family they’ve created won’t be disrupted.” The donor, on the other hand, said in his Ontario Superior Court application that Ms. Lavigne, an acquaintance from elementary school days, has failed to respond with her part of their original bargain, by carrying a child for him. “[Ms. Lavigne] threatens and intimidates [Mr. deBlois] with the existence of the contract,” the document said. “He is no longer comfortable with the arrangement, and would like the contract voided.” Growing numbers of children are being born in Canada as a result of in-vitro fertilization and other forms of “assisted” reproduction, often to same-sex couples. When donations are obtained anonymously from sperm banks, and in the few provinces with laws that directly address the issue, parenthood is generally uncontested. In situations where couples and single people make arrangements with sperm donors they know, however — especially in provinces that lack such legislation — the rights of the various parties remain largely unresolved. A smattering of mostly lower-court rulings have addressed the question, but most of the cases have had complicating factors, such as a past relationship between the donor and recipient. The Cochrane dispute, however, boasts the most clear-cut set of facts of any to reach the courts, making it an ideal legal testing ground, said Fiona Kelly, a University of British Columbia law professor who studies the issue. Same-sex and other advocacy groups are planning to request intervenor status in the trial, expected to begin this fall, though the issue is important to single people and heterosexual couples, as well, said Michelle Flowerday, a Toronto lawyer representing Ms. Lavigne and her partner of 15 years, Selena Kazimierski. “It raises so many important issues,” she said. “The issues are really close to the heart of parenting.” According to Mr. deBlois’s application, filed a few months after Tyler’s birth in October, 2010, he remembers Ms. Lavigne as a “bully” from their time at Commando Senior Public School with whom he had not been in contact since 1992 when she approached him in 2008 about donating sperm. She initially offered to carry a second child for him, but the agreement that he eventually signed did not touch on that part of their discussion, saying only that he would relinquish rights to the first child, the donor’s application says. As Mr. deBlois supplied sperm on a sometimes daily basis, Ms. Lavigne performed artificial insemination at home, conceiving in 2010. Feeling he had been coerced into the deal, he asked the court after Tyler was born to require that he be officially recognized as the father and given “general and liberal” access to the boy, the application says. Mr. deBlois was not available to comment, but Ms. Lavigne said the court action came out of the blue and left the couple “shocked,” the tension exacerbated by a small-town culture that is not always tolerant of same-sex parenting. “It’s been very stressful,” she said. Prof. Kelly said judges in similar cases have tended to side with the sperm donor, but argued the Cochrane case, involving a stable couple and a child they have raised from birth, should offer the court a clear choice. “To decide in favour of the donor in this case, with these facts, would suggest that a lesbian couple in Canada can never be the sole legal parents of a child conceived with a known donor,” said Prof Kelly. “This would be an extremely troubling outcome.” Article: 5th June 2012 www.news.nationalpost.com Read more about fertility and parenting law in the UK.

Surrogacy in India - why the UK law needs to change

Indian surrogacy is a hot media topic, with several stories over the past week about couples being stuck in India waiting for British passports for their biological children. As far as we are concerned, this isn’t really news – it is the shared experience of every British parent who has had a child through surrogacy in India, and something we deal with on a daily basis. A surrogacy industry has grown rapidly in India over the past few years, attracting Western intended parents with limited surrogacy options at home. Although the Indian parliament is considering introducing Indian surrogacy laws (one feature of the proposed Bill being to restrict surrogacy for foreign parents), there is widespread doubt about when or if these laws will ever be passed. With no law to regulate Indian surrogacy as things stand, a profitable surrogacy market has sprung up. Clinics rely on Indian contract law to draw up binding agreements between surrogates and intended parents, and registrars facilitate naming intended parents on Indian birth certificates. All together, it adds up to an affordable but unregulated way of having a child for infertile and gay couples. But Indian surrogacy is not as simple as it seems for British intended parents. UK law says that the surrogate is the mother of the child and, if she is married, her husband is the father, and these rules apply no matter where in the world the child is conceived. In practice this means that getting named on an Indian birth certificate is false comfort, since the Indian birth certificate will not be recognised for any UK legal purposes. Getting home is just the first hurdle. Most children born to British parents through surrogacy in India are born ‘stateless’ – they have no nationality anywhere in the world – because of the mismatched laws on parenthood. British parents have to apply to the Home Office for their child to be registered as a British citizen on a discretionary basis. Since the process takes many months, parents must routinely be prepared for a long stay in a foreign country with their newborn child. ....Read more of this article Article: 7th June by Natalie Gamble Associates

IVF has higher risk of complications and multiple births

A recent report states that there is a higher risk of complications and multiple births in pregnancies that result from IVF techniques. A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said there were increased risks of premature births, low birth weight and congenital abnormalities. However, it said the vast majority of IVF children were as healthy as other children. IVF accounts for over 1% of UK births. Advances in fertility research have allowed more infertile couples to have children and at an older age. Risks The Royal College's Scientific Advisory Committee reviewed the risks of IVF, which it said were directly related to the number of foetuses and that IVF techniques appeared to double the risk of twins. It said: "About one in four of all IVF pregnancies result in a multiple birth in the UK owing to the common practice of replacing two or three embryos." It also said there was a 23% increased risk of a premature birth, but the risk remained low. "IVF pregnancies still demonstrate an increased risk of low birth weight," it said. Heart defects, cleft lips and other congenital anomalies are also more common. It said around 5% of all babies were diagnosed with an abnormality, but IVF babies were around a third more likely to have a problem. Long term Later in life, the report said there were no differences in brain, language or behavioural development and there "appears to be little impact at age 12". Prof Jenny Kurinczuk, director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, said: "IVF pregnancies carry an increased risk of poor birth outcomes and complications. Nevertheless the majority of the children born following IVF will have a good outcome just like any other children. "The poor birth outcomes and complications may be a combination of treatment and underlying features of the couple such as older maternal age. However, treatment strategies can be altered to improve outcomes such as the adoption of elective single embryo transfer." Read more about alternatives to IVF such as home insemination and the Duo-fertility monitor which is as effective as one cycle of IVF after 6 months of use. Article: 6th June www.bbc.co.uk

What it is really like in a Fertility Clinic

I have just finished a photo shoot, something else I have never done before, but recently accepted as part of my "self awareness/maturing" process. With my hair done and makeup still on, sporting high heels and a smart dress, I ascend to the 10th floor of a Manhattan high-rise in a desirable neighborhood to the lobby of fertility heaven. My first shock comes when I notice that the majority of the patients in the waiting room have their partner with them. I'm handed a questionnaire that everyone else seems to have filled out at home. I stare at it, thinking to myself that I have no time to answer the endless questions that would require the presence of my husband. The thought crosses my mind that my husband barely remembers I'm doing this... he's somewhere on the other side of the world. I can't even reach him via phone. I remind myself that priorities in here are quite basic: If you want a child, than everything else can wait... I look around and I am aware of not exactly fitting the profile of the average person in the room. I have my wedding band and my engagement ring on. I look young, wealthy, calm and healthy, but I do not have my husband next to me and I'm leaving half of the questionnaire blank. The room is full of couples, mainly Jewish Orthodox ones, and single Asian women and young caucasian men. It's likely some of the single men and women are donors, I think, while the others are couples eager to have children. There are no light magazines to read like when you go to a nail salon, and the waiting area is quite crowded. Desperate to distract myself, I find a pamphlet on single motherhood that covers everything from adoption to IVF with donor sperm, but as a married woman, only half of it really applies to me. I find another pamphlet on fertility yoga. I don't think I have fertility problem for now, but until I go through all of the exams ahead, who knows? I pick up another one on the services offered by the center for couples dealing with infertility but this, too, doesn't necessarily apply to me... I realize how little I know about what's going on in my body. Am I fertile? Will I need to go through the extensive treatments described in the pamphlets that surround me? I feel like none of them speak to my situation. For now, I'm a "special" case, a new breed of woman... in a relationship and likely fertile, but freezing my eggs until the time feels right to have children. I'm not ready to be a mother, but I do not want to wake up one day and regret having played or let someone else play with my right to motherhood. Someone calls my name and I rise to meet her. Article: May 2012 www.huffingtonpost.com

American pro gay ad released for Father's Day

Partly in celebration of Father’s Day, and partly in response to the criticisms it received for releasing a pro-gay ad featuring a lesbian couple, the US clothing retailer JC Penney has released another pro-gay ad, this time featuring two dads. JC Penney has been under fire from the anti-gay group One Million Moms, whose actual membership is estimated to be around 40,000 at best, twice before: first for hiring comedienne Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson, then for releasing an ad featuring a lesbian couple as mothers of two children. As it happened, almost 22,500 people signed a GLAAD-initiated petition to thank the retailer for its pro-gay stance, nor did the pro-gay ad, published towards Mother’s Day, affect JC Penney’s sales or reputation. Now, as if in direct reply to these criticisms, JC Penney has released an ad for Father’s Day, featuring a real life gay male couple, Todd Koch and Cooper Smith, with their children Claire and Mason. The accompanying text reads: ’First Pals – What makes Dad so cool? He’s the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver – all rolled into one. Or two.’ One Million Moms has predictably moved to criticise the retailer, for allegedly ‘continuing down the same path of promoting sin in their advertisements.’ Repeating the same warning as last time, it warns JC Penney to remain neutral in ‘the culture war,’ lest its members and their supporters boycott the retailer altogether. ‘We must remain diligent and stand up for Biblical values and truth,’ the group’s website declares, echoing its recent criticisms of gay story-lines in comic-scripts. ‘Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.’ JC Penney has reiterated its position that it is a store for all Americans, and in reflecting the diversity of the country, would naturally include gay fathers in its collection. Article: 3rd June 2012 www.pinknews.co.uk

Surrogacy in India - what's the law for parents from the UK?

Following prominent Indian surrogacy stories in the Telegraph and Evening Standard, Natalie was interviewed on BBC Radio this afternoon to explain the law. In the absence of regulation, a commercial surrogacy industry in India has boomed over the last few years, with many Indian fertility clinics now offering surrogacy packages to foreign intended parents at a cost of around £20,000. Indian law allows intended parents to enter into a binding contract with a surrogate mother, and Indian officials register the intended parents on the Indian birth certificate. But the law is not as simple as it seems if you are a British parent. For UK legal purposes, the parents of a child born through surrogacy are the surrogate mother and, if she is married, her husband. Regardless of what the Indian birth certificate says, you will not be recognised as parents and this means that your child may well be born ’stateless’ without any right to a passport anywhere in the world. You will also have no status as the parents of your child when you come back to the UK. There are solutions – a discretionary application to the British High Commission to give a British passport, and an application to the family court for a parental order which ultimately gives a British birth certificate. However, it is important to be well prepared, and to be very careful about the ethics and safety of what you are doing, given the lack of regulation in India. Despite the sudden media coverage, none of these issues are new. In a landmark case Re X and Y in 2008, the High Court warned of the dangers of international surrogacy after twins born through a Ukrainian surrogacy arrangement were born ‘marooned stateless and parentless’ by the conflict between UK and Ukrainian law. This was the very first UK case to ratify a foreign surrogacy arrangement, and it has been followed by many others over the past four years. Exactly the same issues apply in Indian surrogacy cases, of which we have dealt with many. No parental orders have yet been refused, although the court does look at every situation carefully to ensure there is no exploitation and to protect the welfare of the child. You can find out more from our website about international surrogacy law