Infertility Podcast & Blog

I think this article from the Los Angeles Times very well describes all the struggles couples face when they don’t know what to do with leftover frozen embryos. It also goes into details about the proposed Colorado amendment to amend the state’s constitution to assert that an embryo is a person.

It seems like Resolve is strongly opposing this amendment. I could imagine if the amendment does get passed, there will be a lot of sticky situations to deal with for both the doctors and their patients.

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A process that governs embryo implantation in the womb in humans has been identified for the first time. The Oxford University research, could shed light on what goes wrong when embryos fail to implant in the lining of the womb, a leading cause of infertility.

As part of the research, embryos were added to a layer of cells from the womb lining in a culture dish. The research team were then able to video embryos implant themselves in the cell layer. Cool stuff.

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This week, I did something I haven’t done in awhile. I baked Challah. Aaron and Rivky love my homemade Challah but I’m not a big fan of baking it during the summer since it heats the whole apartment up and we don’t have central air to call it off properly. So with the cooler weather and the Jewish holidays coming up, I thought this would be an excellent time to bake some. They came out really great - the round ones are for Rosh Hashanah. The reason we make round Challah’s for this holiday is explained nicely here. Rivky braided the small ones. I have a extra freezer, so we are set for a while now. We had the first taste of them this week and they were yum.

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I came across this article written by a journalist in South Africa. He describes how twisted their way of thinking is regarding infertility. That it must only be a woman’s issue and how men are discouraged from having a simple semen analysis. It’s quite eerie the way he describes it. I have to say we’ve come a bit further than that in the USA. I hope there will be change in South Africa as well soon.

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I always thought that PETA was a bunch of boobs, now here is proof.

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We hit the big 50 with lots of listener feedback, some news, some follow up and the winner of our contest! It’s an episode that you don’t want to miss.

Right click here to download the episode

Links from the show:

• Accupuncture helps women have babies
• Steroid Therapy can help prevent miscarrige
• Coffee, Beer and Nuts
• Podfeed.net - Where you can find all our shows including the early ones.
• Kelly D
• Sara S-P

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You may remember that I jumped the gun a bit on being nominated for a podcast award and I was a bit embarassed by that. However, now is your chance to get us on the ballot again by nominating us to be a part of the award voting. I think that the health/fitness category would work just fine. How the process works is simple, as an individual, you are allowed to fill out the nomination form ONE TIME. Go down to the Health/Fitness section and write in “The Infertiity Podcast” and our website. It’s real easy and fun. Oh, don’t forget to nominate other podcasts that you enjoy as well; as long as they aren’t in the heath/fitness category of course.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that you have until September 30th to do this.

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Now we shouldn’t drink coffee, beer or wine. Nor should we eat nuts. This is just getting silly.

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Since we just did a news article an old favorite, here is an update on another old favorite. Mobile phones and infertility. Here is a new study that is out and will be published (or is already published) in Fertility and Sterility.

To arrive at their findings, researchers collected semen samples from 32 men and divided each man’s sample into two parts. They placed half of the semen samples 2.5 centimeters away from a 850 MHz frequency cell phone in talk mode for one hour. Most cell phones used in the U.S. are 850-900 MHz. They chose this distance because it is the typical distance between the testes and the trouser pockets.

At least they are admitting that there is more study needed:

Further study is needed to validate the findings. “We will also test the effect [of radiofrequency electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones] at other distances,” he says. “We know the radiation impairs sperm quality at 2.5 centimeters, but we don’t know if the effect will continue at 3, 4, or 5 centimeters,” he says.

Maybe we should all go back to the 1800’s.

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We haven’t done an acupuncture article in a while, here is one.

The research found that women suffering with fertility problems who underwent the ancient Chinese treatment increased their chance of having a baby from one in five to one in three. Acupuncture involves inserting extremely fine needles into specific points on the body, along qi energy channels, to stimulate the body’s own healing system.

and

Researchers led by Ying Cheong, from the reproductive medicine unit at the University of Southampton and the city’s Princess Anne hospital, concluded that ‘acupuncture around the time of embryo transfer achieves a higher live birth rate of 35 per cent compared with 22 per cent without active acupuncture’. Embryo transfer is when an embryo that has been fertilised in the laboratory is implanted into a woman’s womb. The research found that the chance of the embryo implanting successfully, resulting in pregnancy, increased significantly if a woman underwent acupuncture around the same time as the transfer.

There are some caviets:

However, there is no benefit if the treatment takes place in the days after the embryo transfer, according to Cheong and his colleagues, who include Professor Bill Ledger, a leading fertility expert and a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. They looked at 13 studies carried out worldwide, involving more than 2,000 patients who underwent acupuncture during a course of IVF.

So maybe it can actually help in tandem with IVF. I’m still a skeptic though.

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