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(sz) Health Minister Jim McGinty said the Human Reproductive Technology Amendment Bill 2007 would allow research that could lead to improvements in fertility treatments and important medical breakthroughs in the treatment of complex diseases such as breast cancer, type one diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Western Australian scientists will be able to undertake more potentially life-saving medical research under new laws introduced to State Parliament today. more…

From: »Media-Newswire.com«

(sz) Anna Behrens is 24 years old. Tall and slim, she is working toward her Ph.D. in art history at an Ivy League school. During her undergraduate years, Anna accumulated $27,000 in credit-card debt. In the fall of 2005, frustrated by her economic straits, Anna answered an advertisement in her university’s magazine promising $25,000 to a “tall, athletic woman” willing to “give a gift of life and love.” Anna visited the agent who had placed the ad, underwent medical tests at a fertility clinic, and met the couple that was searching for eggs. Through the agent, they offered her $20,000 plus medical expenses. Six weeks later, after 2 weeks of hormone injections, mood swings, and bloating, Anna returned to the clinic and had eight healthy oocytes removed. The couple took them, and Anna took her money. She will probably never know whether her eggs resulted in a successful pregnancy.
Encouraged, Anna went back to the agent in February 2006, offering to donate again. This time, as a “proven” donor, she received $22,000 from another couple, enough to eliminate her debt and pay for a Caribbean vacation.
Then, in September 2006, Anna saw another ad seeking healthy young women for egg donation. But this time, the oocytes were for research: using somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), scientists would attempt to use her eggs to generate a line of infinitely reproducing embryonic stem cells.
Intrigued, Anna answered the ad and learned that medically, the procedure was identical to what she’d already experienced. But there was no couple to meet this time and no baby to be produced. There was also no money. Instead, Anna was told apologetically, she would be reimbursed only for actual expenses — the bus fare, in her case, for trips to the in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic. more…

From: »The New England Journal of Medicine«

(sz) Nearly 100,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures are performed in the United States each year. Yet the procedure’s success rate, scientists say, could use a boost. On average, only one in three IVF procedures results in pregnancy. Many women have to undergo repeated trials before having any success. Among successful procedures, nearly one-third result in twins or other multiple pregnancies, presenting a major health risk for both mothers and babies.
Now scientists at Yale University and McGill University have found a noninvasive way to improve IVF’s overall efficiency and decrease the rate of multiple births. By analyzing the fluid surrounding embryos in culture before implantation, the researchers are able to tell which embryos are healthy and viable.
Traditionally, embryologists look for certain characteristics in a healthy embryo. With a microscope, they take stock of how fast an embryo is dividing, the number of cells it has, and its overall shape. However, fertility experts admit that these predictors are far from definitive. “The question is, how much does it tell you?” says David Adamson, incoming president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. “Something, but not nearly as much as we’d like to know.” more…

From: »Technology Review« (US-edition)

(sz) Dan Hartmann, a 32-year-old Oakland graphic artist, met his wife Susan six years ago, and like many couples they decided they wanted to start a family. There’s a complication: A blood transfusion 20 years ago left Hartmann HIV-positive.
Medical technology has existed for more than a decade to “wash” the HIV from Hartmann’s sperm, which then could be used to add a new member to the Hartmann household while mother and child remain HIV-free. Except Hartmann can’t get the treatment in California because the state bans the use of sperm from an HIV-positive donor.
“We want to have a kid, but the law here doesn’t allow fertility clinics to help a man who is HIV-positive,” Hartmann said.
Legislation will be debated Wednesday in the Senate Health Committee to permit the use of washed sperm from an HIV-positive donor to impregnate a consenting woman. more…

From: »The San Francisco Chronicle«

(sz) Tokyo, March 13: Japanese scientists have succeeded in cloning mouse embryos from unfertilised eggs, a breakthrough that could help resolve the passionate ethical debate about stem cell research.
Advocates say research involving embryonic stem cells — cells that can develop into various organs or nerves — can save lives by finding cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
But the research has provoked a furor among religious conservatives, who argue that it destroys a human life — albeit one at its earliest stage of development. more…

From: »Zeenews« (India edition)

(wz) GURNEE, Ill., March 12 /PRNewswire/ — The U.S. government Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released their annual national report of Assisted Reproductive Technology IVF success statistics. Once again the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago was among the leading U.S. clinics reporting successful IVF treatment. The data for this national report come from the 411 fertility clinics in operation in 2004 that provided and verified data on the outcomes of all IVF cycles started in their clinics (the CDC did not post the 2004 results publicly until February, 2007). more…

From: »PR-Inside«

(wz) MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 480 infertile women in Moscow, a city of 11 million, are presently on the waiting list for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, a senior obstetrician said Thursday.
“I want to dispel the myth that it is an easy procedure,” Mark Kurtser, Moscow’s chief obstetrician, said. “IVF requires a thorough medical examination, does not suit everyone and may have complications.”
He also said the women on the waiting lists had no other chance of getting pregnant, and added that the IVF treatment would be carried out for free. more…

From: »RIA Novosti« (Ru)

(sz) Thiruvananthapuram • Kerala has stolen a march over other Indian States in medical tourism, with its new crop of private super specialty hospitals offering services across various systems of medicine under roof.
However, the new branch reproductive tourism is catching up in the State, with couples desperate to have a baby availing of facilities at some of the in vitro fertilisation clinics at different centres in the State.
In recent years the term reproductive tourism has been increasingly used to refer to couples traveling from their country of residence to another in order to receive specific fertility treatment not allowed or not available in their own country.
A trend has been noticed of infertile couples in the West employing Indian women as surrogates. The Indian Council of Medical Research estimates it could become a $6-billion-a-year industry. more…

From: »The Peninsula«

(sz) In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) has come a long way since the early days of uncertainty, guesswork, and low pregnancy rates. The UK’s Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) guide to infertility1 provides national data for IVF treatments in 2003-04, showing a mean livebirth rate of 28% per cycle in women younger than 35 years. Many cycles of IVF treatment generate embryos that can be frozen for later use in the natural menstrual cycle, giving a cumulative chance of more than 40% for a livebirth per stimulated cycle for women younger than 35 years.
In view of this striking improvement in the efficiency of IVF, attention has increasingly turned to the improvement of safety and quality of care, and the patients’ experience of IVF treatment. Patients and their doctors often recall graphic television images of deep intramuscular injections, laparoscopies under general anaesthetic, and extended and stressful courses of treatment. Although many patients find IVF stressful because of the importance of the outcome to their lives, the treatment itself has become gradually but steadily safer and less unpleasant over the past decade. more…

From »Medical News Today«

(wz) There are more than 1,000 children conceived by the method of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Director of Krasnoyarsk Reproductive Medicine Center Galina Polstaynaya announced it.
The eldest children have already turned ten, as he reproductive medicine center opened 11 years ago, Polstyanaya said.
Whether this procedure will be a success depends largely on a woman’s health, according to Polstyanaya. Moreover, the chance to give birth to a baby by using vitro fertilization is higher than natural conception, 30% and 20% respectively. read…

From: »Krasnoyarsk News«