Author: Lorie A. Parch

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Would you use a home sperm-banking kit?

Lorie A. Parch
Last week MSNBC.com reported that the prestigious clinic has launched a sperm banking kit — except that you won’t actually be doing any  “banking” (no need to make room in the freezer). The kit really only handles the “collection” part of the process. According to the MSNBC report, customers get the kit, “collect the sample ‘in the comfort of their own home,'” and send it back to the Cleveland Clinic Andrology Laboratory and Reproductive Tissue Bank for storage and safe-keeping.

The thinking is that the new kit — called the NextGen Home Sperm Banking Service — will allow any guy who may be worried about his ability to conceive a child later to store his sperm in case he needs it at a future date — for example, if he is undergoing cancer treatment. The NextGen site notes that you need a referral from a physician to use the service, which costs $689 for the first bank, plus $140 annually to store the sperm, after the first year. Withdrawal and shipping fees also apply.

MSNBC writer Brian Alexander notes that the University of Illinois at Chicago offers much the same DIY sperm-banking kit, which they call “Overnite Male.”

There’s some debate about how well the sperm will fare when collected outside of a medical facility, then being flown hundreds or thousands of miles via overnight express to get to the bank for storage. The article notes that men in rural areas may find the service the most useful, since major cities already have sperm banks.

Author:
Lorie A. Parch
Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Send a love letter — and support fertility awareness

Lorie A. Parch

 

In support of National Infertility Awareness Week, coming up April 22-28, 2012, the American Fertility Association (AFA) has introduced a 45-cent stamp designed to raise awareness about the issue and support those who are trying to conceive. You can purchase a sheet of 20 first-class 45-cent stamps (at cost) at the AFA site.

The AFA is also leading a “Love Letter Campaign,” in which you send a letter of support to someone else who is TTC. As the AFA’s site describes it, “The Love Letter Campaign gives you a chance to support, and be supported by, someone who understands. To simply say, ‘I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I understand. I’m going through it too’ in a gentle, non-obtrusive way… This year’s NIAW theme is ‘Don’t Ignore Infertility’. By reaching out to one another, and by using the Infertility Stamp, together we can support that goal.”

The nonprofit American Fertility Association provides the public and others with information about infertility treatments, reproductive and sexual health, and family-building options, including adoption and third-party solutions. They are based in New York City and reachable at 888.917.3777.

How will you acknowledge National Infertility Awareness Week?

Author:
Lorie A. Parch
Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Save the Date: National Infertility Awareness Week is April 22-28

Lorie A. Parch

 

RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, is organizing events nationwide in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week, to be held April 22 to 28 this year. This year’s message is: “Don’t Ignore Infertility.”

Here are some ways you can get involved:

On Wednesday, April 25, RESOLVE is holding Advocacy Day, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The goal will be to “tell your elected officials why they must defend our family-building options.”

For more information about these and other RESOLVE events, go to Resolve.org

 

 

 

Author:
Lorie A. Parch
Fertility Clock Headlines

What young people don’t know about fertility…

Lorie A. Parch

embryo

 

We’ve reported before at ConceiveOnline.com about the need for more awareness about fertility issues, and the perception that because some older celebrities can conceive well into their 40s, and even their 50s, that these late-in-life pregnancies are relatively easy to achieve — which is simply not the case for the great majority of women.

Unfortunately, another piece of research is out showing that many of us could use a real-world lesson in fertility. A new study of 246 college students shows that too many young adults may be vastly overestimating how long a woman is likely to be able to conceive, among other misconceptions. The students took a survey that asked them whether they planned to have kids, how much they believed they knew about fertility issues, and where they’d learned this information.

The researchers found that 32 percent of women and 36 percent of men overestimated the age at which women were most fertile. Even more worrisome, “women and men vastly overestimated the age at which women experience a slight decline in their fertility” – 83 percent of women and 91% of men got that wrong. And they also got it wrong when it comes to the age a woman typically experiences a more dramatic decrease in her ability to conceive, and they overestimated the chances that a couple undergoing IVF would become parents after one cycle of treatment.

Because fertility is not taught in schools or elsewhere in any real way, it’s not surprising that so many of these students would get this information wrong (it’s hard to imagine many other adults would know all this information, either). In fact, even as someone TTC, you may not get all the answers right! Here are some of the survey questions, with the correct answers below – are you ready to test yourself?

 

1. At what age are women most fertile?
2. At what age is there a slight decrease in women’s ability to become pregnant?
3. At what age is there a marked decrease in women’s ability to become pregnant?
4. How many couples in the USA are involuntarily childless?
5. Couples that undergo treatment with IVF—what is their chance, on average, of getting a child?

 

How well did you do?

 

ANSWERS:

1. [20-24]

2. [25-29]

3. [35-39]

4. [10-19%]

5. [30-39%]

 

Author:
Lorie A. Parch
Fertility Clock Headlines

The link between exercise and fertility: How much is too much?

Lorie A. Parch

exercise

This is what a recent study set out to discover: the link between physical activity and how long it took for women to get pregnant. The research, which just appeared in the journal Fertility and Sterility, studied 3,600 Danish women between 18 and 40 who were planning to get pregnant and weren’t getting any kind of fertility treatment. They were surveyed over a year about how many hours per week they exercised,  whether their workouts were moderate or vigorous, and whether they got pregnant and if so how long it took them to conceive.

For many women, frequent, vigorous physical activity was associated with taking a longer time to get pregnant. In women under 30 who exercised vigorously less than once a week, the researchers noted 353 pregnancies over the span of the study. For women in the same age group who did vigorous exercise five or more times a week, there were just 85 pregnancies. The fertility rate “was lowest for the women who engaged in 5 or more hours [weekly] of both moderate and vigorous exercise.”

The exception was women who were overweight or obese; for these women, any type of physical activity slightly helped, or at least did not hurt, fertility.

The study also found a modest increase in fertility regardless of a woman’s weight if she did moderate exercise, and concluded that slim women who switch from vigorous exercise to a more moderate intensity while they’re TTC may have more luck getting pregnant sooner.

 

Author:
Lorie A. Parch
Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Do you have rheumatoid arthritis or lupus?

Lorie A. Parch


Conceive Online

If so, you may be among the many women with these autoimmune disorders who have fewer children than you wanted. A new study on younger women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or system lupus erythematosus (SLE) found that more than half of the women surveyed with these conditions have fewer kids than they desired, according to research published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

The researchers talked to over nearly 600 women with RA and 114 with lupus and asked them if, at the time of the onset of their symptoms, they had fewer children than they’d planned, the same amount they planned, or if they weren’t interested in having kids. While more than 60% were no longer interested in have children at the time of their diagnosis, 55% of those with RA and 64% of those with SLE wanted more children than they ended up having.

Women with both conditions are at greater risk for infertility and miscarriage. The women with RA who had fewer children than they wanted had a 1.5-fold increased risk for infertility compared to women with the condition who had the number of kids they planned for.

The link between RA and fertility is far from clear, however. Megan Clowse, the lead author of the study, told WebMD.com that “this study highlights the need to understand why women with rheumatoid arthritis appear to have more problems with infertility. “This has not been studied at all.”

The link between lupus and miscarriage is better known, however. The Lupus Foundation of America notes that antiphospholipid antibodies, which occur with lupus, interfere with the function of blood vessels and can leave to miscarriage, among other serious complications. Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys, says the Foundation.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that leads to joint and tissue inflammation.

Author: 
Lorie A. Parch