Everyone knows that a woman’s eggs don’t improve with age. The arbiter of turn-of-the-millennium pop culture, “Sex and the City,” gave us the image of the single woman in her mid-30s (Miranda) and her maturing eggs. And while fertility may not quite fall off a cliff at 35, it’s hard for women to ignore the idea that things are getting worse as they get older. Obstetricians have a special category for pregnant women over 35: “advanced maternal age.”
Tag: fertility
The Best and Worst States for Infertility
Fertility report card scores states on insurance coverage for IVF, fertility specialists, and support groups.
Failing at Fertility: New ‘Report Card’ Grades States on How They Help–or Don’t
A new report card from the National Infertility Association grades each state on its “fertility friendliness.”
Multiple Births Don’t Have To Be An Inevitable Result of Fertility Treatments
While fertility treatments have helped many people become parents, they commonly result in multiple births, increasing the risk of prematurity, and leading to lifelong complications. But this doesn’t have to be the case, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues, who recommend sweeping changes to policy and clinical practice in a study published in the April issue of Fertility & Sterility.
Sperm Meets Egg: Protein Essential for Fertilization Discovered
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have discovered interacting proteins on the surface of the sperm and the egg essential to begin mammalian life. These proteins, which allow the sperm and egg to recognize one another, offer new paths towards improved fertility treatments and the development of new contraceptives.
Scientists Move a Step Closer to Preserving Fertility in Young Boys With Cancer
Scientists have moved a step closer to being able to preserve fertility in young boys who undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer. The new research, published in Fertility and Sterility, the journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, addresses the safety of an option scientists are developing for boys who aren’t sexually mature and cannot bank sperm.
A Threat to Male Fertility
To study the impact of everyday chemicals on fertility, federal researchers recently spent four years tracking 501 couples as they tried to have children. One of the findings stood out: while both men and women were exposed to known toxic chemicals, men seemed much more likely to suffer fertility problems as a result.
Baby M and the Question of Surrogate Motherhood
You could say that the surrogate mother of all surrogate mothers was Hagar, servant to Sarai in the Old Testament. Sarai, later known as Sarah, had fertility woes. So she pleaded with her husband — Abram, before he became Abraham — to lie with Hagar and do what needed to be done. “It may be that I may obtain children by her,” she said, as rendered in the King James Version of Genesis 16:2. Her plan worked splendidly. Hagar conceived a son. Call him Ishmael.
THE FERTILITY DOCTOR: A Patient’s Obesity Can Impact Fertility Treatments
Obesity affects over 35 percent of American public. It is associated with many health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and other conditions. Obesity is also associated with infertility and with infertility affecting one in seven couples, many obese women find themselves requiring fertility treatments.
Woman’s Low Birth Weight May Lead to Fertility Woes Later
Girls born with a low birth weight may be at increased risk for fertility problems as adults, a new study from Sweden suggests.