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(wz) New research finds condition damages the sperm’s DNA.
Experts have suspected as much for years and now it has been confirmed: diabetes is a threat to male fertility, according to new research by Queen’s University Belfast.
The study found the impact was strongest in people with type 1 diabetes, which is usually present from childhood, but was also apparent in men who developed the condition later.
Fertility experts at the university have been studying sperm samples from 60 diabetic men for several years, comparing them with thousands of other men without the condition. The latest study, involving examination of the semen of eight men with diabetes, found that it had disrupted the DNA in their sperm.
The researchers concluded that high blood sugar levels meant men with the condition “have a significant decrease in their ability to repair sperm DNA, and once this is damaged it cannot be restored”.
Neil McClure, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the university, said the possibility of a link between the condition and reduced fertility had been mooted before but adequate research had never been carried out.
“Male fertility has always been looked at in diabetics in a haphazard way,” he said. “Under a light microscope there’s no difference, but in DNA analysis, you see a lot more damage. Diabetes affects virtually every part of the body. It sticks little sugar molecules onto everything, so when we looked at the sperm we found a lot of these molecules. The whole way the DNA functions in the diabetic man is upset.” more…

From: »The Times«

(wz) A lesbian couple who tried to sue their doctor after having IVF twin girls shouldn’t have been allowed to take the case to court, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says.
In the first Australian case, the Melbourne parents of four-year-old twin girls sued Canberra obstetrician Sydney Robert Armellin for almost $400,000 for implanting two embryos instead of the requested one.
The ACT Supreme Court yesterday rejected the couple’s claim and ordered them to pay Dr Armellin’s legal costs.
ACT AMA president Paul Jones says the case should never have reached court.
“We think that when the outcome is a healthy baby or babies that these matters shouldn’t end up in the court,” Dr Jones said on ABC radio.
“The AMA wouldn’t dispute that where the outcome is an undesirable one people should have the right to take action.
“But as an organisation we’ve had the view for a long time that when the outcome is a healthy baby that is not an adverse outcome.” more…

From: »News.Com.Au«

(sz) New international research has recognised a man’s age as a factor in falling fertility and increased miscarriage rates.
Research presented at a recent European Society of Human Reproduction conference showed that miscarriage rates increased when the male partner was older than 35, while pregnancy rates fell among men over 40.
Andrew Kan, of IVF Australia southern Sydney, said new French research showed the age of males was a significant issue in fertility.
Dr Kan said with the average age of patients at the Kogarah-based centre now 36, it was time to educate the public about the role a man’s age had on conception.
He said the new findings added to existing evidence that showed male fertility started to dip at an earlier age than once thought. more…

From: »Fairfax-Digital«

(sz) Infertility Network UK (I N UK) agree that there should be more clinical trials to test the efficacy of new IVF techniques There are clearly questions that need answering about a number of untested and expensive techniques offered to patients in IVF clinics.
Clare Brown, Chief Executive of I N UK said ” It is confusing for patients who really are stuck in the middle of this argument, with some clinicians and clinics offering treatments like Reproductive Immune Therapy and Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) and others coming down firmly against the procedures. There needs to be more clinical trials to establish whether or not these interventions are of benefit.”
The survey also indicated that 37.7% of the clinicians surveyed said that access to IVF should be conditional on criteria based on lifestyle choices such as denying access to smokers. Speaking on this Ms Brown said ” Eligibility criteria varies across the UK as does access to treatment, creating this treatment by postcode which is totally unacceptable. Infertility Network UK always encourages those who contact us to try and adopt a healthy lifestyle when trying to conceive, however, we believe lifestyle issues should be a matter for discussion between the patient and clinician. Lifestyle criteria should not be used as an out and out barrier to treatment. more…

From: »Medical News Today«

(cz) NHS penny-pinching is behind the dangerously high number of test-tube twins. For safety’s sake we must change the rule.
When Louise Brown was born 30 years ago today, the arrival of the first test-tube baby stirred immense controversy. Wonder at a medical technology that could remove the distress of infertility was matched by disquiet at a subversion of the natural order. The doctors responsible, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, were both hailed as pioneers and decried for playing God.
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is today so-commonplace - accounting for one in 66 births - that the concerns of the 1970s seem quaint. But if few people still question its ethics, reproductive medicine has not lost its capacity to start arguments.
What is now up for debate is not whether IVF is acceptable, but how much of it should be paid for by the State, and how to reduce the multiple births that are by far its biggest hazard. These issues are inextricably linked. The British Government’s failure to realise this, however, has steered infertility policy in the wrong direction. In the country where IVF was developed, penny-pinching is making its provision less fair and less safe than it could be, for the sake of trifling budget savings.
Only one in 80 natural conceptions results in twins, but the rate after IVF is one in four. This is a direct result of present medical practice - in nine out of ten treatment cycles, two embryos are transferred to the womb to maximise the chances of conception. more…

From: »The Times«

(sz) The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has blocked what would have been the nation’s first attempt to use in vitro fertilization in the cases of two couples who are both infected with HIV, despite approval by Ogikubo Hospital in Tokyo in January last year, sources close to the issue said Saturday.
Though hospital ethics committee approved the reproduction treatment plan, the ministry has asked the hospital to postpone implementation, saying more deliberation and ethical examination was necessary. In other countries, views are divided over whether reproductive assistance should be offered to couples in similar circumstances.
In a rare move, a ministry study panel contemplating the issue will hold a public hearing July 28 to examine whether to approve the treatment and to devise guidelines for similar, future cases.
Hideji Hanabusa, vice president of Ogikubo Hospital, and his team of doctors have developed a method to remove the virus that causes AIDS from sperm.
Using the procedure, in vitro fertilization has been implemented in the cases of couples in which only the husbands were infected with HIV, at institutions such as Keio University and Niigata University.
So far, 65 babies have been born through this method, and all the mothers and children have remained HIV-free. Given the successful track record, Ogikubo Hospital considered applying the method in the cases of two couples in which both the mother and father are infected with HIV.
The husbands of both couples became infected with HIV through tainted blood products, and their viruses are highly reproductive or resistant to AIDS-treatment drugs.
It is possible if the couples conceive their babies via normal sexual intercourse, the wives, with less quantities of the AIDS virus and whose immune systems have been stabilized, would be reinfected by their husbands’ more virulent virus, resulting in worsened health conditions.
But if the couples’ medical conditions deteriorate enough, both parents potentially could die before their children reach adulthood. more…

From: »The Daily Yomiuri«

(sz) At the just-concluded European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual conference in Barcelona, BioXCell ( http://www.bioxcell.com) reports enthusiastic reception of its INVOcell infertility treatment.
According to Rusty Warren, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of BioXcell, “Reaching the more than 100 million worldwide couples suffering from infertility is the goal of over two dozen international marketing organizations already expressing interest in representing BioXcell and INVOcell. We recently received a CE Mark, the European equivalent to approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S.”
Sean Paradis, BioXcell Vice President, and Director of Sales and Marketing, said, “We are encouraged that leading distributors in the healthcare industry across Europe and Asia are making INVOcell available. BioXcell has a clear and focused sales and marketing strategy moving forward that will ensure the long term success of the INVOcell. Infertility patients are long overdue for a procedure and product that makes sense.
“INVOcell allows conception and embryo development to take place inside the woman’s body, making having a baby simpler and less expensive, while promoting involvement by the woman,” Mr. Paradis added.
Claude Ranoux, MD, President and Chief Scientist of BioXcell, explained, “The INVO procedure uses a lower stimulation approach to produce eggs for fertilization. Eggs are combined with sperm in the INVOcell device and placed in the woman’s vaginal cavity where it remains for 3 days. This step eliminates the need for a complex IVF laboratory and allows the woman’s body to provide the nurturing environment in which conception and early embryo development take place.” more…

From: »The Wall Street Journal«

(cz) Thirty years after the first test tube baby, firms are starting to acknowledge the need of would-be parents to take time off.
On Friday [July, 20th –ed.] Louise Brown will celebrate her 30th birthday. If you can’t quite place the name, she was the first child to be born through IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) - the trailblazer for one and a half million ‘test tube babies’ worldwide.
The science may now be well established - more than 32,500 women have IVF treatment in the UK every year, producing 9,000 full-term pregnancies and 11,000 babies, including the multiple births - but funding arrangements are still struggling to catch up, as many couples struggle to get the necessary time off work and to pay for the treatment.
However, 2008 could come to be seen as a breakthrough year. Employers are starting to develop formal policies to help couples, following a European Court of Justice case brought against her employer by Sabine Mayr, an Austrian waitress. In February the court ruled that sacking a woman because she was receiving IVF was sex discrimination.
The ruling will also apply to ‘less favourable treatment stopping short of dismissal’, according to solicitors Eversheds. An employer who, for example, failed to promote a woman because she was feeling unwell and taking time off during the IVF course could also be on difficult ground. Since damages for sex discrimination are unlimited - averaging £10,000 in employment tribunals in 2006-07 - well-organised employers are taking the issue seriously.
Banking group HSBC, which has 40,000 staff in the UK, gives up to 20 days’ paid leave for IVF treatment, but finds that women rarely need more than 12 of them. Asda is another leading light. Women among its 165,000-strong workforce can get up to five paid days off a year for fertility treatment - and men (either as partners or if having treatment themselves) can have up to one and a half days. Asda claims that when it introduced its scheme in 2003 it was the first UK employer to give paid leave. more…

From: »The Guardian«

(wz) Thousands of childless couples will be hit by attempt to cut twins and triplets born as result of fertility treatment
Thousands of couples undergoing IVF treatment will find that their chances of having a baby are vastly reduced under a controversial new technique being promoted by the fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
The authority is trying to cut the number of IVF twins and triplets by reducing the number of eggs implanted in mothers-to-be from two to one.
This process is known as Single Embryo Transfer (SET). But findings from the first research into the use of SET reveal that it slashes the chances of a successful live birth to just 17 per cent.
If the preliminary findings are correct, the average 30-year-old woman undergoing IVF will see her chances of having a baby reduce from 30 per cent to 21 per cent according to the study. And a 40-year-old woman would see her chances fall from 14 per cent to 9. The results are based on a two-year study of 110,000 patient records for the Department of Health, which will publish the study next year.
Dr Steve Roberts, a biostatistician from Manchester University and St Mary’s Hospital, presented the findings at a conference held in London yesterday. He warned that patients are already suffering because cash-strapped primary care trusts (PCTs) do not offer the three cycles of treatment recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).
“In terms of a live birth rate from a single embryo transfer, you’re losing something between a quarter and a third from the previous success rate. This is right across the board – everybody loses. There’s been spin around SET in terms of downplaying the fact that you’re going to reduce success rates,” he said. more…

From: »The Independent«

(sz) Report Allows Women to Know Chances of Taking Home a Baby, of Taking Home Twins
method that is up to 80 percent accurate in determining whether a woman undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) will take home a baby has been developed by Dr. Christopher Jones, CEO of FORMYODDS.COM. The report will be submitted for publication later this month.
Based on 20 predictive variables, the model was tested using one of the world’s largest IVF datasets comprising over 170,000 treatment cycles. “FORMYODDS.COM is such a breakthrough because it predicts the take-home baby rate using population-based data,” Dr. Jones said.
What started as research has led to a website. For women or couples using FORMYODDS.COM, predictions come in the form of a simple report which all parties can discuss with their doctor. “Stated simply, if one hundred women with similar clinical characteristics underwent an IVF cycle using 1, 2 or 3 embryos, a certain number will give birth. Of those who give birth, a certain percentage will give birth to twins. Knowing these percentages can help with many planning aspects such as the timing of treatment,” says Dr. Louis Keith. more…

From: »The Wall Street Journal (Market Watch)«