Acupuncture increases fertility treatment success rates

If you are receiving fertility treatments or concerned about your ability to get pregnant, consider including a natural, complementary practice thousands of years old: acupuncture. From an Eastern perspective, acupuncture helps your body get back to a balanced state to prepare for conception. From a Western perspective, we don’t know why it works, but we see that it does. In a study of 225 women by researchers at the University of Witten/Herdecke in Dortmund, Germany, acupuncture was combined with conventional fertility treatments. This addition of acupuncture led to a pregnancy rate of 28.4 percent – compared to a pregnancy rate of 13.8 percent among the women who used conventional treatments alone. How acupuncture works Acupuncture is the insertion of fine needles into certain locations on the body. In traditional Chinese medicine, the energy force of “chi” or “qi” is believed to flow through certain pathways in the body, called “meridians.” Acupuncture is thought to help balance the chi. There are a few scientific theories explaining chi energy and meridians , but none have been scientifically proven. Nonetheless, acupuncture has been established as a beneficial practice for many people. Researchers have determined some of the underlying mechanism of how acupuncture works. It stimulates the release of endorphins, which reduce pain and produce a sense of well-being. Acupuncture also increases blood flow to the area, which can promote healing and improve organ function. Acupuncture also helps to reduce inflammation. How it fits in with different fertility treatments Women trying different fertility methods may include acupuncture. I treat some women whose approach is to try to get pregnant without taking hormones or undergoing invasive medical procedures. Other women come for acupuncture as they are undergoing a lengthy process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). While most fertility specialists won’t treat patients unless they’ve tried unsuccessfully to conceive for six months to a year, a woman can start seeing an acupuncturist long before she hopes to get pregnant — especially if she has any fertility concerns. Seeing an acupuncturist sooner rather than later allows for your health to be assessed over a couple of menstrual cycles. Women can start acupuncture treatment a few months before IUI (intrauterine insemination) or IVF. In general, I encourage patients to come in at least a few months before they hope to conceive. Article: 16th January 2015 www.health.clevelandclinic.org

Cryos have donor sperm for both treatment at a clinic and for home insemination

Despite of the growing demand for donor sperm from every corner of the world, the world’s largest sperm bank maintain the leading position and continue to grow the donor database with qualified sperm donors. This means, that Cryos offers a large range of donor sperm that meets your type of treatment whether it is for home insemination or treatment at a clinic, and we supply donor sperm to both single women, lesbian and heterosexual couples. We operate with a wide range of standards including UK, so if you are getting your fertility treatment at a clinic you must choose a donor with a UK standard being non-anonymous donors. If you are not getting treatment at a clinic but want to undertake home insemination, you do not have to take the standard into consideration, but you can choose among all of our donors. If you decide to order to do home insemination, you will receive detailed instructions including information on how to handle the straw. Cryos is customer focused, so to help you through the decision making process and getting answers to your questions, Cryos has created a Resource Centre accessible from our website. You will find films about e.g. choosing the donor, all delivery information and a comprehensive Questions & Answers-section. Additionally, a professional customer service team is ready to answer your questions via e-mail or phone. Also, Cryos does not charge any fee for pregnancy slots, so don’t worry about that cost. Visit www.dk.cryosinternational.com/donor-sperm for more info.

Happy New Year 2015 from Pride Angel

Happy New Year 2015! to all our members and those just of you who are just starting out on your journey towards becoming parents, we send you are best wishes, love and a little bit of “Pride Angel Dust”. We are really excited about 2015 as we are going to be introducing lots of new content and features to our website, so make sure you do come back and check them out. We have a really good feeling about this year, and that it is going to be blessed with hundreds of new Pride Angel Babies. Article: 1st January 2015 www.prideangel.com

Pride Angel Journey - Apprehensions

Most pregnant women and their partners await the birth with at least a little apprehension – and with good reason: my friends alone have provided me with enough childbirth horror stories to last a lifetime – failed epidurals, forceps and the nightmare that is otherwise known as ‘induction’. We weren’t worried about these things. After my long but calm and straightforward labour with little Luna, and after a good few months of reading books on ‘natural’ childbirth, we were confident that our home birth would be a smooth, gentle, pleasant affair. I still had apprehensions though. Firstly, Luna. She would be approximately 13 months at Willow’s birth. She always co-slept with me; she was exclusively breastfed and still fed through the night; she was unused to other people looking after her and prone to separation anxiety. How could I both be a supportive birth partner and give Luna what she needed? And secondly, how could I be a supportive birth partner? When I was giving birth, the midwife had praised Sal’s efforts, suggesting she could be a professional doula. Sal had planned every tiny detail of her forthcoming labour. I meanwhile, was working full time and spending every spare moment with Luna who would cling to me from the moment I stepped through the door. How could I possibly find time to learn the reflexology techniques, memorise the birth mantras and work out which homeopathy remedy should be used when? We inflated the birth pool and had a practice run: all three of us bobbing about in a big hot tub in the steamy, humid living room. Then, 9 days before Sal’s due date, when Luna was exactly 13 months old, after weeks of pushing trolleys and holding hands, she finally walked unaided – she was ready to be big sister. We had arranged for my brother and his partner to come and stay the weekends either side of the due date – Monday 16th June. They would look after Luna. Sal, knowing that the time was right because we had people to care for Luna, would go into labour on one of the two weekends. I thought it would be the second of the two weekends: surely most babies are late? It was Sunday 15th June. “Lins,” Sal said. I opened my eyes. She was talking at normal volume at 7.30am in a room with a sleeping toddler – why would she do that?! “Lins, I think it’s starting!” Article: by Lindsey, West Yorkshire 7th December 2014

New centre brings integrated cutting edge fertility, gynaecology and IVF treatment to the North West

Reproductive Health Group have recently opened the newest and most modern clinic in the North West, at Daresbury Park, in Cheshire. We have called the clinic the Centre for Reproductive Health, and we are different for two main reasons: • it was designed by consultants and embryologists to meet the very highest standards in patient care. • as well as offering the latest fertility techniques, including genetic testing and EEVA embryo selection, the clinic also has a fully-equipped operating facility in which we carry out day case surgical procedures. We promise that we will only recommend the best care pathway for patients, once we have carried out all the appropriate investigations that could reveal the cause of the apparent infertility. That is why, unlike other IVF clinics, the Centre for Reproductive Health is equipped with the vey latest equipment for gynaecology and urology day case procedures. Whilst we believe we have built a market leading facility, we are even prouder of the team of highly experienced embryologists, nurses and support staff who we have recruited to join us – they all share our commitment to quality, and to delivering the best possible outcomes for our patients. We work with a number of associates and have satellite clinics in Manchester, Preston, Cheadle and London.

Coverting your civil partnership to a marriage?

As of the 29 March 2014, marriage for same-sex couples in England and Wales became a reality and many have already tied the knot. At the time the Same Sex Couples (Marriage) Bill was passed there was no immediate provision for those in a civil partnership to be able to convert this to a marriage if they chose. However, in the recently published ‘The Marriage of Same Sex Couples (Conversion of Civil Partnership) Regulations 2014’ it is now the case that from 10 December 2014 civil partnerships can be converted to marriage. But how will this work and what does it mean in practice? In order to convert a civil partnership into a marriage, most couples will need to follow the prescribed ‘standard procedure’. There are specified procedures for the less common scenarios, such as couples that are housebound, detained persons and for couples where a person is seriously ill and is not expected to recover. No matter which procedure is used, there is to be no religious service used at a conversion. The standard procedure involves a fairly straightforward process where couples must attend a register office together. They must give the registrar the following information in order to be able to sign an official declaration: forenames, surname, date of birth, sex, rank or profession, address and the date and place of the formation of the civil partnership. Afterwards, the registrar must register the conversion declaration as soon as is practicable. There should also be no need to pay a fee provided the civil partnership was registered before the 29 March 2014 and the conversion takes place before 10 December 2015. It should therefore be an easy process to convert a civil partnership into a marriage and couples may use this as an opportunity to celebrate the ability to have their union recognized as now being a marriage. Prior to the change in law allowing same-sex marriage, the distinction between a marriage and civil partnership was always an uncomfortable one in terms of terminology as it seemed to suggest same-sex couples were the ‘same, but different’. The ability to convert should now at least address that imbalance, but in actual fact, does this somehow undermine the status of a civil partnership? From a legal perspective, the distinctions between a civil partnership and a marriage are minimal, as was the original intention of Parliament when the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was created. When couples in a civil partnership separate and they wish to formally bring the legal relationship to an end then they need to apply to the court to dissolve their civil partnership. The process is the same as for heterosexual couples when getting divorced other than same-sex couples cannot rely on adultery as a ground for dissolution. With same-sex marriage it will be possible to become divorced as opposed to dissolution and adultery can be relied upon as a ground, but only if the adultery took place with a member of the opposite sex. Additionally, when trying to resolve financial matters, the parameters that lawyers and judges use are identical as for same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. This means that, for those who wish to convert their civil partnership to a marriage, it should make no practical or legal difference. It would appear therefore that for those who wish to convert their legal union, it really comes to down to personal choice as to whether they wish to become married or to simply remain as civil partners. It will no doubt be very important for many couples to be allowed the status they always felt they should have had and be recognized as legally married. There is a wealth of further information at nataliegambleassociates.com Article: 28th October 2014 www.gaystarnews.com

Pride Angel at the Fertility Show 2014

Another successful year at the Fertility Show, with over 5,000 visitors over the weekend. Erika Tranfield co-founder of Pride Angel was delighted to give a talk this year about the benefits of known donation and co-parenting. Alongside Fertility Lawyer Nicola Scott of Natalie Gamble Associates, who explained the legal considerations and how preparing a legal agreement can help clarify intentions. The Fertility Show gave visitors a wide range of quality information about fertility treatments and how complementary therapies and nutrition can enhance fertility and improves chances of having a healthy pregnancy.