Month: November 2012

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Vasectomies Halved in Ten Years as Abortions Rise – UK

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The number of men having vasectomies has halved in a decade and may be the reason behind a rise in abortions among women in their 30s and early 40s, experts have said.

Men may be more reluctant to have the procedure as a permanent contraceptive because of the increased likelihood of marriage breakdown and a second relationship.

Financial constraints on the NHS may also have contributed to the drop as the health service attempts to save money by rationing non-essential operations. Read full article.

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Cell Phone Exposure During Pregnancy Related to Fetal Brain Development Problems

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Avoiding cell phone exposure during pregnancy may be a necessity in protecting your unborn child, according to Yale School of Medicine.  According to a recent study, cell phone radiation may lead to brain development problems including hyperactivity in children amongst other things.

“This is the first experimental evidence that fetal exposure to radiofrequency radiation from cellular telephones does in fact affect adult behavior,” said senior author Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, professor and chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences.

A control group case study using pregnant mice exposed to an active but muted and silenced cell phone revealed more “hyperactive and had reduced memory capacity” in their offspring. The study measured brain electrical activity in adult mice exposed to the radiation as fetuses against those not exposed. Dr. Taylor’s study reveals that the development of neurons in the fetus prefrontal cortex region is adversely effected, when exposed to cell phone use during pregnancy. Read full article.

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Pregnancy Test Reveals Testicular Cancer

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You may have seen the headline, or maybe you’re one of the 1.7 million-and-counting people who clicked on the Reddit post that started it all.

Here’s the story: A guy found his ex-GF’s pregnancy test in his medicine cabinet, took the test for laughs, and found out he was pregnant.

At least that’s what the test said. It seemed funny, so a friend of his posted a cartoon of the story on Reddit. Comments to the post noted that pregnancy tests identify hCG, a hormone produced during pregnancy — and in testicular cancer.

Sure enough, the man found he had a small tumor in one of his testicles. A follow-up post says it was a very early, curable tumor.

Does all this make sense? I asked Bruni Nazario, MD, WebMD’s resident endocrinologist.

“Yes, this is possible. Testicular cancer makes hormones and one hormone produced is hCG, the same hormone produced by embryonic tissue during pregnancy. This cancer also produces AFP, a fetal protein measured during pregnancy.” Read full article.

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Fertility Reflects Mom’s Age at Menopause

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Women whose mothers experienced early menopause are themselves likely to have an accelerated decline in fertility, Danish researchers found.

Median serum levels of an important marker of ovarian reserve, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), declined by 8.6% (95% CI 6.4 to 10.8,P<0.001) yearly in women whose mothers entered menopause at or before age 45, according to Janne Gasseholm Bentzen, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen.

In contrast, women with maternal menopause at ages 46 to 54 had a decline in median AMH of 6.8% (95% CI 5 to 8.6, P<0.001) each year, while those with later maternal menopause had an annual decrease of only 4.2% (95% CI 2 to 6.4, P<0.001), the researchers reported in Human Reproduction.

During recent decades many women have delayed childbearing, with the possible result that they may then have difficulties in conceiving if their ovarian reserve has begun to be depleted and oocyte quality lost. Many population-based studies have demonstrated a strong component of heritability for age at menopause, but whether this influence extends to fertility and ovarian viability has been unclear. Read full article.

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Soy Based Foods Have Little Impact on Easing Menopause: Study

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Soy-based products were found to have little impact on menopausal symptoms in a new study, contrary to long-held beliefs.

 The results of a new study derail the widely held notion that eating soy-based products like tofu and soy milk can help reduce menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.

It was a hypothesis based on the fact that, overall, women of Asian ancestry report fewer menopausal symptoms than women of European background, scientists say.

With the onset of menopause, women’s hormone levels drop precipitously. Given that Asian women consume diets notably high in soy products —  which also happen to be rich in plant-based estrogen — scientists had long hypothesized that it was their dietary intake of estrogen that helped make up for the shortfall and ease menopausal symptoms. Read full article.

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Miscarriages Put Women at Risk for Heart Conditions

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A new study scheduled for presentation Tuesday November 6, at the American Heart Association annual meeting in Los Angeles finds that women who have had one or moremiscarriages are at an increased risk for hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to problems such as heart attack and stroke, reported US News Health Today.

Researchers looked at health data from more than 1 million Danish women to examine the association between miscarriage and heart attack, stroke or renovascular hypertension, which is high blood pressure caused by narrowing of the arteries that carry blood to the kidneys. Comparing to women who had no miscarriages, women who had one miscarriage were 11 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack. The risk more than doubled in women who had four or more miscarriages, according to a heart association news release. Read full article.

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FDA: Fertility Doctor Didn’t Test Donors For STDs

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Federal regulators have sent a warning letter to a Chicago fertility doctor, citing his clinic’s failure to meet standards for screening egg donors for sexually transmitted diseases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s letter to Dr. Martin Balin was posted on the agency’s website Tuesday night. FDA spokeswoman Lisa Misevicz said nobody got sick, but the FDA’s goal is to “prevent anyone from becoming sick in the future.”

The letter followed an FDA inspection of Balin’s north Chicago office from June 20 through Aug. 17 during which an investigator found “significant deviations” from required screenings for egg donors.

The FDA routinely inspects clinics that deal with human tissue, including donated eggs, which can be used to help infertile couples conceive. Women generally are paid to provide eggs, which are retrieved and fertilized. The resulting embryos are implanted in the recipient’s uterus. Read full article.

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Clinics to Begin Tests for Genetic Disorders in Embryos

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COUPLES who want to find out if they are going to have a baby with an inherited disorder can now avail of controversial tests in Irish clinics for the first time.

Embryos produced through IVF can now be tested to show if they are free of specific disorders, such as cystic fibrosis. It means the couple can choose not to have an embryo which proves positive for the disorder implanted in the mother’s womb.

Couples previously had to go abroad for the tests, but licences have been granted to the Beacon CARE Fertility Clinic in Dublin and the Cork Fertility Clinic. Read full article.

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Birth Control Pills May Improve Women’s Cognitive Abilities Later In Life

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Beginning in the 1960s, the introduction of hormonal birth control pills introduced modern family planning to the world, preventing unwanted pregnancies and generally making the world a better place for everyone concerned. It turns out the pill may do even more than that, though. A new study shows that taking hormonal birth control before menopause may improve women’s cognitive function later in life, leaving them sharper and more mentally “with it” than peers who weren’t on the pill.

Published in the Journal of Women’s Health, the study of 261 women showed that women who had been on hormonal birth control scored better on  tests involving spatial reasoning and fast, flexible thinking. More than that though, the data suggests that the longer a woman was taking hormonal birth control, the more pronounced her improvements on the the tests were likely to be. Thus, the longer a woman is on birth control before menopause, the more mentally sharp she’s likely to be after it. Read full article.