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Profound Words from Movie Star Elizabeth Banks

Submitted by claire on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 07:04

May 17, 2012

Elizabeth Banks, the 37-year-old star of "The Hunger Games" and "What to Expect when You're Expecting" has been talking to the media recently about her infertility and having her son via gestational carrier. The actress, who also has a recurring role in 30 Rock, has a son, Felix, who was born in March 2011.

In recounting friends' advice while she was battling infertility, Banks said something very profound:

Natural Treatment for PCOS Now Available

Pregnitude improves insulin resistance and ovarian function

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, May 14, 2012

There is good news for women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) — a new, natural treatment called Pregnitude is now available in the United States. That natural supplement, which was previously only available in Europe, improves insulin resistance in the same manner as the prescription drug metformin, without any of the side effects.

PCOS and Insulin Resistance

Approximately 10 percent of women between the ages of 14 and 40 have PCOS, an endocrine disorder in which the sex hormones get out of balance. Women with PCOS have ovaries that contain many small follicles, which are often called "cysts." These follicles don't grow normally and can contribute to the overproduction of the hormone testosterone.

According to studies, around 30 percent to 40 percent of women with PCOS have insulin resistance, a condition in which the hormone insulin doesn’t work as effectively or as efficiently as it normally should, says Scott Roseff, MD, a fertility expert with the South Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine (SFIRM) in Jupiter and Boca Raton, FL.

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The Mother's Day Blues

Submitted by Suzanne Rico on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 05:42

a blog by Suzanne Rico, May 14, 2012

I remember when Mother’s Day went from being special to dreaded. I remember seeing homemade cards stuck to my friend’s refrigerators and hearing about breakfast in bed served in bed by small, earnest waiters. I remember celebrating with my mother during those dark years when becoming a mom myself seemed about as likely as winning American Idol—and thinking, “This is not how it’s supposed to be.”

Infertile? You Might Still Get Pregant Naturally

Submitted by claire on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 06:45

May 4, 2012

You just never know — a new study finds that being labeled "infertile" does not necessarily mean you will never have a baby naturally. French researchers published in the Fertility and Sterility that helps clarify those anecdotes about people having a successful or failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) and then going on to have a baby naturally.

Frozen Egg Banks Offer Another Choice for Egg Donation

Submitted by Dr. Laurence Jacobs on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 08:37

a blog by Laurence A. Jacobs, M.D., Fertility Centers of Illinois, May 2, 2012

Because of advances in egg freezing technology, donor egg banks, similar to sperm banks, have been developed over the last few years.

In the past, the survival of eggs following the older, slow-freezing technique was very low, as were pregnancy rates, often due to damage to the egg cells caused by ice crystal formation during the freezing process. Today, vitrification of eggs involves a new flash-freezing technique where the delicate egg, once unfreezable without damage, can now be safely preserved for future use. In the process of vitrification, an oocyte is placed in a small volume of the vitrification medium and is then cooled at an extremely rapid rate. This fast freezing eliminates the formation of ice crystals in the eggs. Following this freeze, the egg is stored in liquid nitrogen until such time as it is to be thawed and fertilized by a sperm.

Bravelle, Follistim, Gonal-f

Gonadotropins are ovulation inducing fertility drugs, sold under the brand names Bravelle, Follistim and Gonal-f. These injectable drugs contain genetically engineered FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and are used to stimulate ovulation and help the ovaries produce multiple eggs.

How it Works

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Laugh Until You Cry (and Then Laugh Again)

Submitted by Suzanne Rico on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 15:51

a blog by Suzanne Rico, May 1, 2012

At the beginning of our third IVF try, feeling beaten by repeated miscarriages and the financial suck of infertility, my husband and I went to Palm Springs for the weekend. We thought perhaps that starting the parade of baby-making shots in a warm, stress-free environment would help us succeed. But that night, just imagine my surprise (and stress!) when we discovered that instead of grabbing the Gonal-F vial from the fridge on our way out the door, my sweet hubby had grabbed the dog’s ear medicine instead. Back he drove to LA, faster than a drug runner at the U.S. border, returning at 2 a.m. to first jab a needle into my butt cheek and then pass out cold. For the rest of the cycle, we laughed about it — and that felt good.

Video: When and How Does Fertility Decline?

Dr. Eric Flisser, a New York fertility doctor with Reproductive Medicine Associates (RMA) of New York, explains how egg quality, egg quantity, and age affect a woman's fertility.

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0:00:00.000,0:00:05.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:00:05.000,0:00:07.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source 0:00:07.000,0:00:12.000 When and how does fertility decline? 0:00:12.000,0:00:18.000 Eric Flisser, M.D., Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York: So, it's a difficult reality that human reproduction is limited. 0:00:18.000,0:00:25.000 And, primarily, it's limited because the number of eggs that a woman has is a finite resource. 0:00:25.000,0:00:30.000 And even since before she was born, a woman is losing her eggs. 0:00:30.000,0:00:33.000 At the peak, a woman has about five to six million eggs. 0:00:33.000,0:00:37.000 By the time she's born, there are about two to three million left. 0:00:37.000,0:00:42.000 And then by the time she reaches puberty, even before she's ovulated even a single egg, there are only about 500,000 left. 0:00:42.000,0:00:48.000 So, about 90 percent of all of the eggs that a woman starts with are gone by the time she reaches puberty. 0:00:48.000,0:00:54.000 And with only one exception that I can think of, there's really no way to stop that loss of eggs. 0:00:54.000,0:01:00.000 Whether a woman is pregnant or she's on the birth control pill, that process is basically unstoppable. 0:01:00.000,0:01:05.000 And as the number of eggs dwindles, the quality of those eggs gets worse as well. 0:01:05.000,0:01:10.000 So, not only are there fewer remaining, but they don't work as well as they had when a woman was younger. 0:01:10.000,0:01:17.000 And that is, primarily, the major obstacle to fertility when there are no other medical problems. 0:01:17.000,0:01:22.000 Female fertility certainly reaches its peak somewhere in the, probably, late teens and twenties, 0:01:22.000,0:01:30.000 and then begins to take a significant decline in the mid-30s, and certainly by 37, 38 an even more significant decline. 0:01:30.000,0:01:36.000 And it's basically impossible for us to predict who will get pregnant or when they will get pregnant. 0:01:36.000,0:01:43.000 We can only observe the population at large and see that as women get older, fewer and fewer are getting pregnant at any given time. 0:01:43.000,0:01:51.000 If, after 12 months of trying, in a woman who's younger than 35, or after six months of trying in a woman who's over 35, 0:01:51.000,0:01:58.000 conception has not occurred, that would be an appropriate time to see a reproductive endocrinologist for a full fertility evaluation. 0:01:58.000,0:02:02.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:02:02.000,0:02:03.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
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Feeling Positive about What Lies Ahead

Submitted by Jamie Pursley on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 06:22

a blog by Jamie Pursley, May 1, 2012

Wrapping up our first National Infertility Awareness Week … baby steps on this path of ours.

This past week was the first week I have felt normal in about a month. I have so much to look forward to in the coming months, and it just occurred to me this week that I don’t always have to have my guard up in fear of being let down again.

Catholicism and IVF: No Easy Answers

Submitted by marnad1963 on Mon, 04/30/2012 - 07:29

a blog by Marna Gatlin, Parents Via Egg Donation, April 30, 2012

Emily Herx, former Indiana high school teacher of literature was fired from her position at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic High School in Fort Wayne, IN, undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Herx was told her contract would not be renewed because of “improprieties related to church teachings or law.” Herx says the school's priest called her a "grave, immoral sinner" and told her she should have kept mum about her fertility treatments because some things are "better left between the individual and God," the complaint said.

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