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ASRM Applauds International Court of Human Rights Overturn of Costa Rica’s IVF Ban

Statement attributable to Linda Giudice, MD, PhD, President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

“We are pleased that the International Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has cleared the way for Costa Ricans suffering from the disease of infertility to access assisted reproductive technology treatments without having to travel from their home country.

In finding that Costa Rica violated human rights laws in its 12-year ban of in vitro fertilization, the court recognized the importance of the right to have children and a family and that conception dates from implantation.  Like all diseases, infertility strikes unfairly.  And for Costa Rican patients prevented access to one of the most effective infertility treatments, the injustice was exacerbated. All patients need to have access to the most effective treatments appropriate for them. We applaud the court for restoring hope for those suffering from infertility in Costa Rica.”

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, founded in 1944, is an organization of 8,000 physicians, researchers, nurses, technicians and other professionals dedicated to advancing knowledge and expertise in reproductive biology.  Affiliated societies include the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, and the Society of Reproductive Biologists and Technologists. Read full article.

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ASRM Applauds Senate Action on Veterans Infertility Legislation

Washington, DC – “Today the U.S. Senate approved legislation to provide access to infertility services for our nation’s veterans. The “Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act of 2012’’ would direct the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to furnish fertility counseling and treatment, including the use of assisted reproductive technology, to severely wounded, ill or injured veterans whose infertility was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.  Female veterans, the spouses of veterans and surrogates would be eligible.

The bill also allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide veterans with reimbursement for costs associated with up to three adoptions as long as the expenses do not exceed the expense of one cycle of in vitro fertilization.

The first fertility treatments would likely not be covered before late 2014 because the Department of Veterans Affairs would have up to 18 months to establish program rules.

It is nothing but unjust to send our military personnel into harm’s way and to not provide health care services to address health care needs that arise due to their service and dedication to our country. We encourage the U.S. House of Representatives to pass this bill so that it can be sent to the President without delay.”  Read full article.

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Justice won’t block Obamacare’s required emergency contraception coverage

(CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday turned down a request that she block part of Obamacare that would require companies’ health plans to provide for coverage of certain contraceptives, such as the morning-after pill.

Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Mardel, Inc. and five family members involved in ownership and control of the corporations had protested the requirement, which is to kick in January 1.

The applicants said they would face irreparable harm if forced to choose between paying fines and complying with the requirement. Read full article.

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Drug Stocks Prey for Insiders as Industry Resists Change

At a time when more than one in five U.S. insider-trading cases involve health-care stocks, the industry’s companies say their policies designed to prevent abuse are sufficient — or they refuse to publicly discuss the issue at all.

Since 2007, 97 people charged or sued by U.S. regulators for insider trading gained their edge as a result of secret information about drugs, devices and the companies that make them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yet most drugmakers among 30 surveyed wouldn’t discuss their policies, and those that did saw no reason for change.

Francois Nader, the chief executive officer at NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NPSP), a biotechnology company, said insider trading is largely confined to “rogue cases from time to time,” a view shared by other executives in interviews. Critics, though, say it is a systemic problem that will undercut investor support if companies fail to step up.

It is “garbage” that drugmakers are doing all they need to do, said Bill Singer, a former regulatory attorney with the American Stock Exchange who is now in private practice at Herskovits Plc in New York. “The industry isn’t capable or willing to regulate itself.” Read full article.

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5 Reasons Teens Need Free Access to Contraception (Just Ask the French)

Girls between the ages of 15 and 18 in France will be able to get birth control free of charge, and without parental notification, starting in January 2013.

The free consultation and contraception, which can take place at the family doctor’s office, will be covered by the state and not a girl’s insurance, meaning that she will be protected by a further layer of privacy. By doing this, the government hopes to increase contraception use and reduce the teen pregnancy rate, which they believe is due to ignorance, taboo and a lack of access to contraception.

Under current rules, most teenagers can get absolute anonymity with a doctor, but have to pay for the visit in cash without submitting a claim to get the money back. Read full article.

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Court Says Kids Aren’t Heirs In Frozen Sperm Case

PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) The Michigan Supreme Court says children conceived with frozen sperm from a deceased man can’t be considered his heirs.

The decision Friday means two Kalamazoo-area siblings won’t be collecting Social Security benefits that typically go to minor children of the deceased.

Pam Mattison of Portage is suing the Social Security Administration for benefits for her twins, who are 11. The children were conceived through artificial insemination in 2001 after her husband, Jeff Mattison, died.

A federal judge asked the state Supreme Court for its opinion of Michigan estate law. The court says the children can’t be considered heirs because they weren’t alive when Jeff Mattison died nor was their mother pregnant at that time.

Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh say the Legislature should change the law. Read full article.

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Aging Sperm? Not the End of the World

Judith Shulevitz’s recent New Republic essay on how later parenthood is “upending American society” claims that delaying kids could lead us down a rabbit hole of genetic decline. The piece gathers much of its energy from new studies suggesting that male sperm quality decays with age.

While female infertility is old news (literally), issues with male fertility create a new cultural frisson. Apparently, genetic errors may be introduced into sperm every time they divide—which is often. So the children of some older men may have issues, cognitive and physical, that the kids of younger men don’t generally face (at least not due to their dad’s contribution to their DNA).

There’s a lot of emphasis on the word “may” in the New Republic piece—since most of the evidence it’s based on is inconclusive. And there’s a strong element of anecdote as well. Fertility catastrophizing is an ongoing sport. For instance, here are some other fertility scaremongering pieces of the past few years which turned out to be not the big problems the headlines suggested: the ovarian reserve scare; the later-parenthood autism scare; the childlessness scare; earlier this month we had the low-birth-rate scare (which turns out to really be about young women delaying kids in order to establish themselves—atime-lag effect). Read full article.

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Chance To Pause Biological Clock With Ovarian Transplant Stirs Debate

When Sarah Gardner was 34, she started getting really worried about whether she’d ever have kids.

“I bought this kit online that said that they could tell you your ovarian reserve,” Gardner, now 40, says. These kits claim they can tell women how long their ovaries will continue producing eggs and how much time they have left to get pregnant.

“Well, mine said, ‘we advise really you have a baby now.’ Well, sadly that letter arrived three weeks after I just split up with my long-term partner. So, yeah, it opened a massive can of worms really,” she says.

That can of worms eventually led Gardner to Sherman Silber, a surgeon at the Infertility Center of St. Louis. Silber offers women a procedure that he claims will basically put their biological clocks on ice.

“It stops the clock, which is an incredible power to have,” Gardner says. “You know, the biological clock is every woman’s demon, really.”

What Silber offers is a surgical procedure that removes part or all of an ovary so it can be frozen and then transplanted back when a woman is ready to try to have children. Read full article.

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IVF method linked to size of babies

The way in which embryos are prepared during in vitro fertilization may  influence the size of the baby that’s born, a new study from Finland suggests.

Embryos that spend long periods growing in culture (around five to six days) before being transferred to the mother’s womb are more likely to be born heavier than normal for their gestational age, compared to embryos that spend a shorter period in culture (two to three days), the study found. (Gestational age refers to how far along a pregnancy is.)

On the flip side, embryos that spend long periods in culture are less likely to be born small for their gestational age, the researchers said.

Previous studies have shown babies born as a result of  IVF treatment are at an increased risk for preterm birth and low birth weight. Factors related to the pregnancy, or to the IVF technique itself, may be responsible for the association. Few studies have looked at the effect of culture time on the baby’s birth weight, however.

Still, additional, larger studies are needed to confirm the new findings, the researchers said. Read full article.

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For Menopausal Women, Obesity Can Increase Cancer Risk

Thanksgiving dinner has turkey and cranberry sauce along with pumpkin pie. Christmas rings in the end of the year with egg nog and ginger bread cookies. During the holiday season, it can be difficult to resist these delicious treats. However, a new study shows that it may be better to avoid these tempting dishes and strike out on a more nutritious diet, particularly if you happen to be a middle-aged woman.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center recently revealed that maintaining a healthy lifestyle during menopause could help reduce the risk of breast cancer later on.

To begin, females who are obese and postmenopausal have a greater risk of later developing breast cancer. They also found that the cancer that these women get can be more aggressive than for their healthier counterparts. The findings of the study were recently featured in the journal Cancer Research.

The team of investigators was interested in exploring ways of limiting the risk for breast cancer.

“By using nutrient tracers for fat and sugar, we tracked where the body stored excess calories. In lean models, excess fat and glucose were taken up by the liver, mammary and skeletal tissues. In obese models, excess fat and glucose were taken up by tumors, fueling their growth,” explained the study’s lead author Erin Giles, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cancer Center, in a prepared statement. Read full article.