Britain asks: Should 3-parent IVF be allowed to avoid disease?

(Reuters) - Britain launched a public consultation on Monday to ask whether controversial "three-parent" fertility treatments
should be available to families hoping to avoid passing on incurable diseases. The potential treatments, currently only at
research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States, would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into
women for the first time. The techniques have become known as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring
would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor. They are designed to help families with mitochondrial
diseases - incurable inherited conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide.

"This is unchartered territory," said Lisa Jardine, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)
which is running the consultation until December. "If this is allowed...it has consequences in perpetuity."

Source: Reuters - visit website

Fear of Treatment Puts Stress On Women Undergoing Fertility Therapy

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2012) — Fertility treatment has a strong emotional impact on women who want to have children.
A study of European countries with the highest number of assisted reproduction cycles identifies which aspects of reproduction treatment contribute to psychological stress. Inability to conceive is extremely stressful for women who want to have a family. This notion is shown by a study published in the 'Human Reproduction' journal on patients in four countries with the highest number of cases of assisted reproduction cycles in Europe: France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

"Infertility causes a series of varied emotions that have a negative impact on important aspects of a woman's life," as explained by Juan García Velasco, one of the authors of the study, who is also director of the Infertility Institute of Valencia and lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid University. "It is linked to depression, anxiety, anger, cognitive imbalance and low self-esteem," he adds.

The study not only analyses the emotional impact of infertility on women but also identifies those aspects of ovary stimulation that contribute to the physical and psychological stress suffered by many patients. The 445 women between the ages of 18 and 44 years taking part in the study had experienced difficulties in conceiving.
While some had never undergone any fertility treatment, others were receiving it at the time or had already received it in the past two years. Almost a third of the participants said they began to worry from the moment in which they started trying to get pregnant and nearly half claimed to have felt ashamed or like a failure as a woman. It was found that anxiety toward injections and the deterioration of their relationship with their partner were the main causes of stress. In this respect, the women who actually received treatment said that they got closer to their partner (33% compared to 19%). The majority of participants felt that their partner supported them, especially those that received fertility therapy (63%).

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Source: ScienceDaily- visit website

New Location Singapore

In September 2012, Tanja Fässler-Moro has opened the first Fertility Coaching office as our partner in Singapore. We are very happy having Tanja, one of our top coaches, in our first location in Asia. Tanja Fässler-Moro has been working as a coach for many years; in the last 15 years she gained broad international experience in Zurich, New York and Singapore.

Feeling fertile? Must have been something you ate

It is estimated that one in six couples in the UAE have trouble conceiving - and while factors such as stress, late marriage and hormonal imbalance are thought to contribute to the problem, diet can also play a big part.
Indeed, researchers from Harvard University found that women who made dietary changes reduced their risk of infertility by as much as 80 per cent; while researchers at King Saud University College of Medicine in Saudi Arabia discovered that vitamin E dramatically improves mens fertility.
"The food choices you and your partner make can have a major effect on improving fertility," says Zita West, the author of Fertility & Conception.

Source: TheNational - visit website

Miscarriage

The secret heartache of 1 in 4 women

Twenty five percent of women will miscarry. Yet none of us ever talk about it. Stylist investigates the last taboo.
It is a situation of bleak sadness. Pregnant with a much-wanted baby, weeks spent hiding the constant nausea, growing cup size and overwhelming fatigue from colleagues. Then in one devastating moment, more often than not for no reason at all, the pregnancy suddenly goes away. “Sorry, we can not see a heartbeat”; a spot of blood in your underwear; a gnawing pain in the stomach. And for many women, through the heartbreak and the guilt and the endless internal questions, the only option is to put on a brave face. To pitch tomorrow is presentation like nothing has happened, to coo over a friends new baby with a smile.
Because while losing a friend or relative activates an immediate support network of sympathy and understanding, losing a baby can bring a lonely silence.

The figures related to miscarriage are shocking. Although there are no official government statistics held on women who miscarry (the figures that do exist are only collated for women admitted to hospital; for those who go to the GP after a miscarriage, nothing is recorded), pregnancy charity Tommy says one in every four women will miscarry a baby; a quarter of all your female friends. And the chance of losing a baby increases with each miscarriage. For example, if you miscarry your first pregnancy (a chance of 5%), your chances of miscarrying a second rises to 19%. And if you miscarry that second time, your chances of a third rises to 24%.
Despite these stark statistics, while Holland and Canada begin medical investigations after two miscarriages, we begin after three. On the research front too, miscarriage is fighting for prominence. A spokesperson from Tommys explains, “[It] tends to be the poor relation of research, compared to other areas such as heart disease or cancer.” The easy answer seems to be, keep trying, however should the funding increase, says Deborah Mason from Wellbeing Of Women, “We could be seriously looking at a future where fewer women miscarry.”

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Source: Stylist UK - visit website