DONOR SIBLING GATHERING 2008 (2nd annual)Everyone is invited -- donor offspring (children & adults), parents, donors, friends, families & anyone else interested in attending। Saturday, June 28, 2008।Irvine Regional Park,
www।IrvineParkRR.com 1 Irvine Park Road, (Santiago Canyon, 6 miles east of the City of Orange), Orange, CAInfo: Michelle jorgenson, Putergirl1970@yahoo।com
http://www।webspawner.com/users/donorsiblingsummer/index.HTMLFYI: 15 people attended the first Donor Sibling Gathering, held in Sacramento, CA, in June 2007, including: a sperm donor, a donor conceived adult & her husband, a lesbian couple & their young daughter, a married couple & their son (the 1/2 sibling of the lesbians’ daughter).
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Why don't you dim the lights, darlin'?
Lights in fertility clinics may damage embryos
MacKenna RobertsProgress Educational Trust26 August 2007
[BioNews, London]
A study has found that exposure to the 'harsh' cool-white fluorescent lighting commonly used in fertility clinics, research labs and most office environments could be particularly damaging to an embryo's healthy development. A joint team of researchers in Hawaii and Japan conducted the study on mouse embryos and found that certain types of light exposure are more damaging to embryo development than others.The study also indicates that mammalian embryos, which develop in dark wombs, lack a protective mechanism that other animals, such as amphibious frogs or fish which lay external eggs, possess in order to cope with exposure to light. These results were published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Sunlight and cool-white fluorescent office light, which is blue-white in appearance, were the most detrimental to the mice embryo development while warm-white light, which is typically used to illuminate homes and residential environments and has a yellow-white colour, was significantly less damaging, according to Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi, a retired reproductive biology specialist involved with the University of Hawaii study in collaboration with Manami Takenaka and Toshitaka Horiuchi of the Prefectural University of Hiroshima.
They found that even reducing light-exposure to ten seconds for direct sunlight and to a few minutes for blue-white light, still caused damage to the embryos in the study.It appears that the light stimulus triggers a stress response in the embryos that hampers their healthy development.
When exposed to light, the embryos produced increased levels of radical oxygen which is toxic to cellular development, explained Dr. Yanagimachi.
He added that the study has lent support to his belief that light is a neglected environmental factor in embryo development.The researchers suggest that labs which deal with human and animal embryos would improve their success in embryo development if they
(1) replace 'harsh' office lighting with 'softer' warm-white light bulbs for illumination, thereby reducing damage to reproductive materials when they are unavoidably exposed to light in the lab, and
(2) generally attempt to minimise light exposure as much as possible during each stage of embryo development that is manipulated outside of the uterus including during egg extraction, sperm insemination and fertilisation.
MacKenna RobertsProgress Educational Trust26 August 2007
[BioNews, London]
A study has found that exposure to the 'harsh' cool-white fluorescent lighting commonly used in fertility clinics, research labs and most office environments could be particularly damaging to an embryo's healthy development. A joint team of researchers in Hawaii and Japan conducted the study on mouse embryos and found that certain types of light exposure are more damaging to embryo development than others.The study also indicates that mammalian embryos, which develop in dark wombs, lack a protective mechanism that other animals, such as amphibious frogs or fish which lay external eggs, possess in order to cope with exposure to light. These results were published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Sunlight and cool-white fluorescent office light, which is blue-white in appearance, were the most detrimental to the mice embryo development while warm-white light, which is typically used to illuminate homes and residential environments and has a yellow-white colour, was significantly less damaging, according to Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi, a retired reproductive biology specialist involved with the University of Hawaii study in collaboration with Manami Takenaka and Toshitaka Horiuchi of the Prefectural University of Hiroshima.
They found that even reducing light-exposure to ten seconds for direct sunlight and to a few minutes for blue-white light, still caused damage to the embryos in the study.It appears that the light stimulus triggers a stress response in the embryos that hampers their healthy development.
When exposed to light, the embryos produced increased levels of radical oxygen which is toxic to cellular development, explained Dr. Yanagimachi.
He added that the study has lent support to his belief that light is a neglected environmental factor in embryo development.The researchers suggest that labs which deal with human and animal embryos would improve their success in embryo development if they
(1) replace 'harsh' office lighting with 'softer' warm-white light bulbs for illumination, thereby reducing damage to reproductive materials when they are unavoidably exposed to light in the lab, and
(2) generally attempt to minimise light exposure as much as possible during each stage of embryo development that is manipulated outside of the uterus including during egg extraction, sperm insemination and fertilisation.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
A funny new if writer
If you haven’t read the invitrogoddessby Jodi Panayotov, you should.
an excerpt from her work...
Tip to Conceive: Be a Guest on Jerry Springer
During my darkest hours, when I thought I'd never be a mother, I turned to a number of shows for comfort that showed a sizable lapse in judgement on my part.
I have no way to explain it other than I was in an altered state of consciousness and these programs, obviously designed for people like myself, filled a kind of void.
The void was created when I gave up my job, my leisure pursuits and most of my friends in the obsessive pursuit of parenthood and there was something about watching shows like Jerry Springer, where a cast of freaks aired their cataclysmic lives on stage, that distracted me from my own impending madness.
The truth is, I was feeling like a bit of a freak myself and therefore identifying increasingly with his guests. Had there been a show entitled, ‘Women Who Can't Stop Taking Their Temperature and Checking Their Mucous', who knows, I may have signed up. God knows I needed to get out more…
A curious piece of knowledge I unwittingly gained when watching Jerry Springer, was that the vast majority of his guests had achieved parenthood in some shape or dysfunctional form. It didn't matter what their circumstances were, what shape or form their lives took, whether they were a pimp or a paedophile, they had an offspring or ten out there. If my memory serves me correctly there was even a man who had managed to impregnate an unidentified farm animal.
Now clearly either this show or the people who applied to be on it had some secret fertility ingredient that loving couples at IVF clinics missed out on. I don't know what it was but I do intend on studying the show further to find out.
To read some Free Excerpts and more articles by the author go to http://invitrofertilitygoddess.com
an excerpt from her work...
Tip to Conceive: Be a Guest on Jerry Springer
During my darkest hours, when I thought I'd never be a mother, I turned to a number of shows for comfort that showed a sizable lapse in judgement on my part.
I have no way to explain it other than I was in an altered state of consciousness and these programs, obviously designed for people like myself, filled a kind of void.
The void was created when I gave up my job, my leisure pursuits and most of my friends in the obsessive pursuit of parenthood and there was something about watching shows like Jerry Springer, where a cast of freaks aired their cataclysmic lives on stage, that distracted me from my own impending madness.
The truth is, I was feeling like a bit of a freak myself and therefore identifying increasingly with his guests. Had there been a show entitled, ‘Women Who Can't Stop Taking Their Temperature and Checking Their Mucous', who knows, I may have signed up. God knows I needed to get out more…
A curious piece of knowledge I unwittingly gained when watching Jerry Springer, was that the vast majority of his guests had achieved parenthood in some shape or dysfunctional form. It didn't matter what their circumstances were, what shape or form their lives took, whether they were a pimp or a paedophile, they had an offspring or ten out there. If my memory serves me correctly there was even a man who had managed to impregnate an unidentified farm animal.
Now clearly either this show or the people who applied to be on it had some secret fertility ingredient that loving couples at IVF clinics missed out on. I don't know what it was but I do intend on studying the show further to find out.
To read some Free Excerpts and more articles by the author go to http://invitrofertilitygoddess.com
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Asherman's Syndrome
Asherman's Syndrome
by Angie Boss, Asherman's Syndrome is a gynecological disorder causing a decrease in menstrual flow, abdominal pain, cessation of menstruation and infertility. In females with the disorder, such symptoms and findings occur due to inflammation of the lining of the uterus (endometritis) and the development of bands of scar tissue abnormally joining portions of the uterus (intrauterine adhesions and synechiae). Dr. Stefan Semchyshyn describes Asherman?s Syndrome as a house overrun by cobwebs.? The scar tissue becomes so dense that is impossible for a baby to grow.
The condition can be very mild, or it can be severe and irreversibly damage the uterine cavity. It is common for the diagnosis of Asherman's Syndrome to be made if a woman has had a previous D & C and the following symptoms: history of infertility, unusually light and sometimes infrequent periods, and history of early miscarriage. These intrauturine adhesions can occur spontaneously or as a result of trauma to the uturus, such as surgical scraping or cleaning of tissue from the uterine wall (also known as a dilatation and curettage, or a D & C . It is more likely to occur when there is an infection that presents itself either before or after . Once this condition is present, early miscarriages often occur.
Infections of the endometrium (e.g., tuberculosis) or other factors may be involved as well. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recommended in a report in 1987 that adverse effects of abortion on the physical health of the woman require further study. One infertility problem that is clearly appearing as a post-abortion complication, says Koop, is Asherman's Syndrome. Although the data is spare, National Center for Health Statistics surveys of hospital discharges with Asherman's Syndrome detect an increase from 1988 (7000) to 1992 (9000), with 1989 and 1991 reporting 11,000 cases. Other countries outside the U.S. report a much higher number of cases. Some researchers suspect the availability of safer abortions, with fewer post-abortion infections, keeps the number of cases lower in the U.S.
The diagnosis of Asherman's Syndrome is not always certain. The condition may be diagnosed in one of several ways. Your doctor could check serum progesterone levels every couple of weeks to see if you ovulate. If you ovulate (serum progesterone above 2.5 ng/ml) and still don't have a period, then Asherman's is a consideration. Following a simple, in-office ultrasound, a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) may be performed. An HSG is an X-ray of the uterus and works as long as this X-ray is performed by a method that uses a small tube placed just inside the cervix. Unfortunately, HSGs are now usually performed by placing a small balloon catheter into the uterus. This technique is quick and easy to do and is excellent for evaluating the fallopian tubes, but according to some physicians, it can miss Asherman's syndrome.
Consequently, some doctors prefer to use a procedure called saline hysterosonography, which uses ultrasound. After determining there is no pregnancy, a tiny catheter is placed into the cervix. Saline fluid (salt water) is injected into the uterus and the ultrasound is repeated. This technique can show the intrauterine adhesions quite well. The gold standard for diagnosis, however, is hysteroscopy, which involves placing a small viewing device into the uterus to see the inside.
If Asherman?s Syndrome is diagnosed, surgery is routinely performed to rid the uterus of scar tissue. Some physicians have treated Asherman?s with an IUD, but that is thought to cause an increase in ectopic pregnancies. If not treated, Asherman's Syndrome patients suffer with symptoms including infertility, menstrual irregularities, pelvic pain, miscarriages and ectopic pregnancy. Although the etiology behind how Asherman's Syndrome effects fertility is not totally certain, explanations include: the adhesions block sperm migration up in the uterus; and the embryo cannot implant into the uterine lining, thus it implants in the cervix or fallopian tube (ectopic pregnancy) and/or a miscarriage occurs.
Following treatment of Asherman's Syndrome, the rate of fertility restoration is high, but not 100 percent. Success rates are above 85 percent when adhesions are minimal. However, if scar tissue has replaced most of the uterine cavity, there is little hope of restoring normal uterine function.
For more information, contact the
National Woman?s Health Network
514 10th Street NW
Suite 400
Washington D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 628-7814
Fax: (202) 347-1168
e-mail: none available
Related Articles:
1. Tricopoulos, D., Handiness, N., Danezis, J., Kalandidi, A., Kalapothaki, V., "Induced Abortion and Secondary Infertility," 83, 1976, pp. 645-650.
2. Hogue, C.J.R., Cates, W., Tietze, C., "Impact of Vacuum Aspiration Abortion on Future Childbearing: A Review," 15, 3,1983, pp. 119- 126.
3. Daling, J.R., Emanuel, I., "Induced Abortion and Subsequent Outcome of Pregnancy in a Series of American Women," 297, 23, 1977, pp. 1241-1245.
4. Koop, C.E., "A Measured Response: Koop on Abortion," 21, 1989, p. 31.
5. Klein, S.M., Garcia, C.R., "Asherman's Syndrome: A Critique and Current Review," 24, 9, 1973, pp. 722-735.
6. Ismajovich, B., Lidor, A., Confino, E., David, M.R, Treatment of Minimal and Moderate Intrauterine Adhesions (Asherman's Syndrome), Journal of Reproductive Medicine 30, 10, 1985, pp. 769-772.
by Angie Boss, Asherman's Syndrome is a gynecological disorder causing a decrease in menstrual flow, abdominal pain, cessation of menstruation and infertility. In females with the disorder, such symptoms and findings occur due to inflammation of the lining of the uterus (endometritis) and the development of bands of scar tissue abnormally joining portions of the uterus (intrauterine adhesions and synechiae). Dr. Stefan Semchyshyn describes Asherman?s Syndrome as a house overrun by cobwebs.? The scar tissue becomes so dense that is impossible for a baby to grow.
The condition can be very mild, or it can be severe and irreversibly damage the uterine cavity. It is common for the diagnosis of Asherman's Syndrome to be made if a woman has had a previous D & C and the following symptoms: history of infertility, unusually light and sometimes infrequent periods, and history of early miscarriage. These intrauturine adhesions can occur spontaneously or as a result of trauma to the uturus, such as surgical scraping or cleaning of tissue from the uterine wall (also known as a dilatation and curettage, or a D & C . It is more likely to occur when there is an infection that presents itself either before or after . Once this condition is present, early miscarriages often occur.
Infections of the endometrium (e.g., tuberculosis) or other factors may be involved as well. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recommended in a report in 1987 that adverse effects of abortion on the physical health of the woman require further study. One infertility problem that is clearly appearing as a post-abortion complication, says Koop, is Asherman's Syndrome. Although the data is spare, National Center for Health Statistics surveys of hospital discharges with Asherman's Syndrome detect an increase from 1988 (7000) to 1992 (9000), with 1989 and 1991 reporting 11,000 cases. Other countries outside the U.S. report a much higher number of cases. Some researchers suspect the availability of safer abortions, with fewer post-abortion infections, keeps the number of cases lower in the U.S.
The diagnosis of Asherman's Syndrome is not always certain. The condition may be diagnosed in one of several ways. Your doctor could check serum progesterone levels every couple of weeks to see if you ovulate. If you ovulate (serum progesterone above 2.5 ng/ml) and still don't have a period, then Asherman's is a consideration. Following a simple, in-office ultrasound, a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) may be performed. An HSG is an X-ray of the uterus and works as long as this X-ray is performed by a method that uses a small tube placed just inside the cervix. Unfortunately, HSGs are now usually performed by placing a small balloon catheter into the uterus. This technique is quick and easy to do and is excellent for evaluating the fallopian tubes, but according to some physicians, it can miss Asherman's syndrome.
Consequently, some doctors prefer to use a procedure called saline hysterosonography, which uses ultrasound. After determining there is no pregnancy, a tiny catheter is placed into the cervix. Saline fluid (salt water) is injected into the uterus and the ultrasound is repeated. This technique can show the intrauterine adhesions quite well. The gold standard for diagnosis, however, is hysteroscopy, which involves placing a small viewing device into the uterus to see the inside.
If Asherman?s Syndrome is diagnosed, surgery is routinely performed to rid the uterus of scar tissue. Some physicians have treated Asherman?s with an IUD, but that is thought to cause an increase in ectopic pregnancies. If not treated, Asherman's Syndrome patients suffer with symptoms including infertility, menstrual irregularities, pelvic pain, miscarriages and ectopic pregnancy. Although the etiology behind how Asherman's Syndrome effects fertility is not totally certain, explanations include: the adhesions block sperm migration up in the uterus; and the embryo cannot implant into the uterine lining, thus it implants in the cervix or fallopian tube (ectopic pregnancy) and/or a miscarriage occurs.
Following treatment of Asherman's Syndrome, the rate of fertility restoration is high, but not 100 percent. Success rates are above 85 percent when adhesions are minimal. However, if scar tissue has replaced most of the uterine cavity, there is little hope of restoring normal uterine function.
For more information, contact the
National Woman?s Health Network
514 10th Street NW
Suite 400
Washington D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 628-7814
Fax: (202) 347-1168
e-mail: none available
Related Articles:
1. Tricopoulos, D., Handiness, N., Danezis, J., Kalandidi, A., Kalapothaki, V., "Induced Abortion and Secondary Infertility," 83, 1976, pp. 645-650.
2. Hogue, C.J.R., Cates, W., Tietze, C., "Impact of Vacuum Aspiration Abortion on Future Childbearing: A Review," 15, 3,1983, pp. 119- 126.
3. Daling, J.R., Emanuel, I., "Induced Abortion and Subsequent Outcome of Pregnancy in a Series of American Women," 297, 23, 1977, pp. 1241-1245.
4. Koop, C.E., "A Measured Response: Koop on Abortion," 21, 1989, p. 31.
5. Klein, S.M., Garcia, C.R., "Asherman's Syndrome: A Critique and Current Review," 24, 9, 1973, pp. 722-735.
6. Ismajovich, B., Lidor, A., Confino, E., David, M.R, Treatment of Minimal and Moderate Intrauterine Adhesions (Asherman's Syndrome), Journal of Reproductive Medicine 30, 10, 1985, pp. 769-772.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
We Need Your Stories!
We are currently co-authoring a very important book published by Simon &Schuster called “Funding Fertility—How to Bring Home a Baby without Breaking the Bank.” In this book, we address many of the barriers associated with paying for the high costs related to infertility treatments and adoption.
This includes the “sticker shock” that we all get when we find out how much everything is going to cost, how to make cost-effective decisions (i.e., finding cheaper medication options, selecting certain clinics, undergoing certain procedures, considering “special deals”) without sacrificing quality of care, actually having to come up with the money without completing going broke, dealing with insurance companies and the lack of coverage, and much, much more.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! We are currently compiling stories from people struggling with infertility (or considering adoption)—either currently, in the past, or in the future—to include in our book. These stories can highlight the good, the bad, or the ugly in terms of having to come up with the money to pay for your treatments and/or adoption. Through this book, we hope to shed more light on this nearly completely fee-for-service (and not covered by insurance!) side of medicine so we can allow more of the 10 million people out there experiencing infertility access to the ability to have a baby that they so desperately want without having to suffer financially.
Having a baby should be a basic human right available to everyone, not a commodity in which some people make a lot of money! Please help us change in the current system for the better by sharing your stories and experiences.
You can remain anonymous and all correspondence will be treated with utmost confidentiality. PLEASE SEND ALL STORIES, EXPERIENCES, AND QUESTIONS TO
FUNDINGFERTILITY@YAHOO.COM.
Thanks so much for you help!
Evelina Sterling and Angie Boss
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