You want your baby, and that as soon as possible?
Nothing you has tried has worked?
You gave a lot of money on chemical products?
Has received each month the same result, "negative"?
You want a product using natural ingredients to realize your dream?
You finally want something that REALLY HELPS?
Welcome and congratulations ... here is your solution.
La Botella
If you are tired of "negative"
and finally you want to tell your family and friends
"I am positive"
... Everything you need to know about La Botella, please visit:
Nothing you has tried has worked?
You gave a lot of money on chemical products?
Has received each month the same result, "negative"?
You want a product using natural ingredients to realize your dream?
You finally want something that REALLY HELPS?
Welcome and congratulations ... here is your solution.
La Botella
If you are tired of "negative"
and finally you want to tell your family and friends
"I am positive"
... Everything you need to know about La Botella, please visit:
Facts about infertility
Infertility affects 80 million people in the world.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has defined
infertility as "failing to get pregnant after two years of regular
unprotected sex".
Difficulties in conceiving a child can cause
much distress for many couples.
Approximately 500,000 couples consult doctors each year for
fertility problems.
Infertility is the one of the most common
reasons for women aged 20-45 years to consult their doctor, second only
pregnancy.
·
Primary infertility is when a woman has
not managed to become pregnant before at all
The increase in infertility figures observed
recently is mainly caused by women planning or becoming pregnant for
the first time at a later age.
The average age of a first pregnancy for a woman in the UK is now 30 years old.
Average times to
conception
·
At the age of 25, a couple has approximately a 25%
chance to conceive at each cycle.
Maternal age
Female fertility reduces with age.
95% of women aged 35 will conceive after 3 years
of regular unprotected sex (2 to 3 times a week). This falls to 77% for women
aged 38.
Therefore, the earlier a woman tries to
conceive, the more successful she will be...
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has defined infertility as "failing to get pregnant after two years of regular unprotected sex".
Difficulties in conceiving a child can cause much distress for many couples.
Approximately 500,000 couples consult doctors each year for fertility problems.
Infertility is the one of the most common reasons for women aged 20-45 years to consult their doctor, second only pregnancy.
The increase in infertility figures observed recently is mainly caused by women planning or becoming pregnant for the first time at a later age.
The average age of a first pregnancy for a woman in the UK is now 30 years old.
Average times to conception
Maternal age
95% of women aged 35 will conceive after 3 years of regular unprotected sex (2 to 3 times a week). This falls to 77% for women aged 38.
Therefore, the earlier a woman tries to conceive, the more successful she will be...
The female fertility clock
'starts ticking at 27'
Female fertility declines much earlier than thought, scientists
said yesterday.
Breaking the Stigma Around Infertility
In the United States, about 6.7 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 are dealing with infertility, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With infertility, a couple has not become pregnant after a year of unprotected intercourse (primary infertility) or they have become pregnant at least once, but not again (secondary infertility).
Infertility can have a large emotional impact on the couple, and they may feel they are alone in their struggle. EmpowHER talked to Rosie Pope, star of Bravo’s series Pregnant in Heels and author of the new book Mommy IQabout her experience with infertility, why the topic is taboo, and what she is doing to change that.
EmpowHER:
You have been open about your infertility issues on your show Pregnant in Heels. Why did you decide to be an advocate for fertility issues?
Rosie Pope:
Dealing with infertility is so hard because it feels like such a personal thing, but most people don’t know how common it is – one in eight couples experiences fertility issues. I think that by de-stigmatizing infertility, the treatments and the steps you may have to take to get pregnant (e.g. IVF), it can help make things seem less scary and overwhelming.
That’s why I felt that it was important for me to share my story. Talking about the issue also gets to the root of the emotional elements, which were the most difficult part of infertility for me. When I learned about the process with my reproductive endocrinologist and started following the actual day to day steps, I felt like I was able to manage the process and understand what was going on.
EmpowHER:
Why is infertility such a taboo topic?
Rosie Pope:
I think that it’s two-fold.
(1)Infertility is “taboo” because the general public may not necessarily understand infertility and the treatments. I really encourage anyone who is worried that there may be something preventing you from getting pregnant or you just want more information, to go a reproductive endocrinologist – it’s really empowering to go to the experts....
Homepage: http://www.empowher.com/infertility-fertility/content/breaking-stigma-around-infertility
March is Endometriosis Awareness Month
Local Oregon Reproductive Medicine Expert Dr. John Hesla Provides Insight on the Common Fertility Disease that affects 5.5 million women
March 11, 2013 – Oregon Reproductive Medicine (ORM), the leading fertility clinic that is globally recognized and one of the most successful providers of IVF and other advanced fertility treatments in the United States, announced today their support for March being Endometriosis Awareness Month. Endometriosis, often diagnosed in women with painful menstruation, is a common cause of infertility, with up to 40% of affected patients having trouble trying to conceive. Often endometriosis sufferers have little or no symptoms of pain, but instead are diagnosed because they cannot become pregnant or have a pelvic mass that is discovered on exam or ultrasound. ORM provides many treatment options for those with endometriosis looking to start a family.
“Endometriosis is a common diagnosis for women who struggle with infertility and the more we can get the word out there and diagnose woman the better the chances we have of helping them start a family when they are ready,” explains Dr. John Hesla, MD, at Oregon Reproductive Medicine.
Endometriosis is one of the top three causes of female infertility and is one of the most common gynecological diseases, affecting 5.5 million women in America. It is usually a painful disorder where tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside of the uterus. The displaced tissue continues to respond to ovarian hormones and will thicken, break down and bleed during a normal menstrual cycle. This causes an inflammatory response in the pelvis which may lead localized scarring. Patients often develop moderate to severe pain with their periods, pain with intercourse, or pain at any time of the cycle. The pain may worsen over time.
Endometriosis is often undetected until a woman has difficulty getting pregnant. There is no cure, but early detection can reduce symptoms and help women from developing some of the more debilitating complications associated with it. Endometriosis appears to be somewhat more common in daughters of women who had endometriosis, suggesting a genetic link. Its symptoms include pain during menstruation, intercourse, bowel movements, or urination. ORM specializes in helping patients with fertility disorders such as endometriosis and it assists women and couples who need simple or advanced treatments to achieve a healthy pregnancy.
Homepage: http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/march_is_endometriosis_awareness_month
Infertile couples turn to disputed therapy
Jacquelyn Smit, with 9-month-old Jamie (left) and Charlie, said she was barely aware some of the clinic's therapies were disputed. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle
As their van rumbled away from the McDonald's, onto the Arizona road and toward Mexico a mile away, the Kowalskis wondered if the family they'd long envisioned having would finally become real.
Jennifer Benito-Kowalski and Steve Kowalski had traveled 950 miles from their San Carlos home. A clinic just over the border would be the latest stop in a journey three years in the making: the quest to get pregnant.
Natural conception hadn't happened, fertility treatments had failed and the doctors were out of ideas. At 38, Benito-Kowalski worried she'd never be a mother.
Ultimately, the Kowalskis would pay a surrogate in India to carry their child, who is due in May. But that decision was months away.
In 2011, the couple turned to the Alan E. Beer Center for Reproductive Immunology and Genetics, a Los Gatos clinic with an international reputation for curing frustrated, vulnerable women of infertility.
But the clinic's methods involve experimental therapies that outside studies have concluded do not work and that insurers often do not cover. One therapy, in which a woman is repeatedly injected with her partner's blood cells, has been prohibited in the United States for more than a decade. That hasn't stopped Beer's doctors from directing hundreds of patients to clinics outside the country to have it done - and pay thousands of out-of-pocket dollars.
While the treatments that the clinic's doctors prescribe are not known to be fatal or significantly harmful, critics say their scientifically dubious nature is cause for alarm, especially since the institution is subject to little state or federal regulation.
"It makes no sense whatsoever and it's potentially dangerous," said Dr. Joseph Hill III, a physician at the Fertility Centers of New England and a critic of Beer.
Dr. Alan Beer, who died in 2006, theorized that a woman's immune system can become overly active, mistake her partner's sperm and tissues as foreign and act in ways that don't allow a fetus to grow.
"Effectively, women become serial killers of their own babies," he wrote in his 2006 book, "Is Your Body Baby-Friendly?"
The protocol that he claimed to pioneer, one of immune treatments, corticosteroids, blood thinners, aspirin and other medications, is intended to balance the system and make way for reproduction by targeting seemingly problematic cells, antibodies and other aspects of the body.
Couples seeking help
The Los Gatos clinic is a tiny operation, run by a staff of eight and tucked away in a complex on a tree-lined street. Opened a decade ago, it's become a destination for thousands of aspiring parents who have exhausted all the usual options.
"They're couples who are very, very frustrated," said Dr. Edward Winger, the clinic's director. "They've been through the system. They've been told, 'Oh, if you just do this, it'll work. Oh, if you just do IVF (in vitro fertilization), it'll work.' "
In contrast, he said, "I'm very convinced that this approach of going after the immune system, and making adjustments there, is an approach which is based rationally and does work."
Without Beer's program, many clients believe they would not have had children. But it is tough to know how much credit the clinic deserves, when infertility - which affects an estimated 15 percent of couples - has any number of possible causes. Some experts agree that at times the mother's immune system may be involved, but Beer's specific theory is not universally accepted by fertility doctors.
The Kowalskis were not fully aware of these details on their visit to Arizona in May 2011. They just obeyed the instructions given to them: bring $600 to this McDonald's by 8 a.m.
"It seems so movie-like," Benito-Kowalski recalled later. "I didn't know what to expect." ...
Homepage: http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Infertile-couples-turn-to-disputed-therapy-4303518.php
Male infertility and related problems
Dr Raju Abraham
By Dr Raju Abraham
Andrology is the sub-speciality of urology which deals with male infertility and sexual dysfunction. Generally the public doesn’t know whom to approach for these problems and usually they will land up in the hands of quacks who offers dramatic cure for the symptoms like erectile dysfunction which the general population do not divulge openly.
Male infertility
Males form one-third of the etiological cause for the infertility in general. So it is advised that they should come forward for the evaluation in cases of infertility. Generally the tendency is to blame the female partner in childless marriages without the male partner undergoing evaluation. So it is important that the couple should undergo medical evaluation together when investigated for the infertility.
Common causes in male infertility
» Decreased sperm count and motility — common reason for this problem is under developed testis due to childhood diseases like mumps.
» Due to varicocele seen in childhood
Varicocele: it is condition seen in the testis (ie) varicosity of the testicular vein which impedes the testicular function ultimately causing decreased sperm count and motility.
It can be diagnosed by clinical examination and investigation like Doppler study of the testis. Once it is diagnosed and if the seminal parameter is abnormal, then the patient is advised to undergo surgery for the varicocele.
Impotence: it is defined as the inability to achieve erection and maintain it for proper sexual contact with the female partner. One in 10 male populations suffers from impotence. It is one of the major causes for the infertility cases seen in the general population.
Most of the patients mainly concentrate in investigating the female partner without divulging their sexual problems to the doctor which ultimately misleads him.
Once it is diagnosed they have to be investigated for the causative factor on the sexual dysfunction.
What happens under normal conditions?
Achieving a normal erection is a complex process involving psychological impulses from the brain, adequate levels of the male sexual hormone — testosterone, a functioning nervous system and adequate and healthy vascular tissue in the male organ.
Main causes for erectile dysfunction
The main cause for the ED in the newly married couple is anxiety which can be treated by psychologic counselling and mild anxiolytic drugs.
Persons with hormonal insufficiency may require hormone replacement therapy.
Other causes include high serum cholesterol, uncontrolled diabetes which causes reduced blood flow to the penis. They require proper treatment for diabetes along with good exercise to improve the general health.
Young people who indulge in excessive smoking and alcohol intake have to be counselled to stop both.
Management of erectile dysfunction
» Depends on the causative factors.
» Medical management with drugs like sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil are useful in most of the cases. They have to be used with proper medical guidance.
» Use of vacuum therapy to increase the blood flow to the male organ is beneficial in some cases.
» Intracavernosal injections of vasoactive drugs like papaverine to induce erection by improving the blood circulation to the penis. In some chronic cases patients are taught how to take self-injection of these drugs when needed.
» In refractory case, penile prosthesis implantation is advised.
Enlargement of prostate
» Are you getting up in the night 2-3 times for urination?
» Are you wetting your undergarments after completion of urination — dribbling of urine?
» Noticing a decreased force of urinary flow?
» Noticing a delay in starting the act of
urination?
» Not able to postpone the urge of urination for sometimes?
» Seeing blood in the urine?
If you have any of these symptoms you must suspect there is enlargement of the prostate gland.
The prostate gland is a gland situated just beneath the urinary bladder surrounding the beginning of the urethra in males. It functions as a sexual gland, secretion of which forms the major component as the seminal fluid.
It starts enlarging after the age of 40 and the enlargement may be inwards or outwards.
If it enlarges inwards it blocks the urethra, causing urinary disability as mentioned before — ultimately blocking the urinary stream causing retention of urine.
Usually the enlargement is benign in nature — not harmful.
Rarely the enlargement may take the course of malignancy (become cancerous). That can be detected only by clinical examination and biopsy.
It is advised that, males above 45 should routinely undergo general check-up for prostate enlargement and blood examination — SPSA (serum prostate specific Antigen) to exclude malignancy changes every year.
Management of these cases depends on the severity of the symptoms.
Early cases can be treated medically with medicines to alleviate the symptoms and it should be taken for long time, sometimes lifelong.
Retention of urine has to be treated with catheterisation and sometime they have to undergo surgical treatment like transurethral resection of the prostate.
If you suspect malignancy changes, that is, increased serum PSA level, you are advised to undergo needle biopsy of the prostate.
Homepage: http://www.gulf-times.com/health/234/details/344395/male-infertility-and-related-problemsAndrology is the sub-speciality of urology which deals with male infertility and sexual dysfunction. Generally the public doesn’t know whom to approach for these problems and usually they will land up in the hands of quacks who offers dramatic cure for the symptoms like erectile dysfunction which the general population do not divulge openly.
Male infertility
Males form one-third of the etiological cause for the infertility in general. So it is advised that they should come forward for the evaluation in cases of infertility. Generally the tendency is to blame the female partner in childless marriages without the male partner undergoing evaluation. So it is important that the couple should undergo medical evaluation together when investigated for the infertility.
Common causes in male infertility
» Decreased sperm count and motility — common reason for this problem is under developed testis due to childhood diseases like mumps.
» Due to varicocele seen in childhood
Varicocele: it is condition seen in the testis (ie) varicosity of the testicular vein which impedes the testicular function ultimately causing decreased sperm count and motility.
It can be diagnosed by clinical examination and investigation like Doppler study of the testis. Once it is diagnosed and if the seminal parameter is abnormal, then the patient is advised to undergo surgery for the varicocele.
Impotence: it is defined as the inability to achieve erection and maintain it for proper sexual contact with the female partner. One in 10 male populations suffers from impotence. It is one of the major causes for the infertility cases seen in the general population.
Most of the patients mainly concentrate in investigating the female partner without divulging their sexual problems to the doctor which ultimately misleads him.
Once it is diagnosed they have to be investigated for the causative factor on the sexual dysfunction.
What happens under normal conditions?
Achieving a normal erection is a complex process involving psychological impulses from the brain, adequate levels of the male sexual hormone — testosterone, a functioning nervous system and adequate and healthy vascular tissue in the male organ.
Main causes for erectile dysfunction
The main cause for the ED in the newly married couple is anxiety which can be treated by psychologic counselling and mild anxiolytic drugs.
Persons with hormonal insufficiency may require hormone replacement therapy.
Other causes include high serum cholesterol, uncontrolled diabetes which causes reduced blood flow to the penis. They require proper treatment for diabetes along with good exercise to improve the general health.
Young people who indulge in excessive smoking and alcohol intake have to be counselled to stop both.
Management of erectile dysfunction
» Depends on the causative factors.
» Medical management with drugs like sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil are useful in most of the cases. They have to be used with proper medical guidance.
» Use of vacuum therapy to increase the blood flow to the male organ is beneficial in some cases.
» Intracavernosal injections of vasoactive drugs like papaverine to induce erection by improving the blood circulation to the penis. In some chronic cases patients are taught how to take self-injection of these drugs when needed.
» In refractory case, penile prosthesis implantation is advised.
Enlargement of prostate
» Are you getting up in the night 2-3 times for urination?
» Are you wetting your undergarments after completion of urination — dribbling of urine?
» Noticing a decreased force of urinary flow?
» Noticing a delay in starting the act of
urination?
» Not able to postpone the urge of urination for sometimes?
» Seeing blood in the urine?
If you have any of these symptoms you must suspect there is enlargement of the prostate gland.
The prostate gland is a gland situated just beneath the urinary bladder surrounding the beginning of the urethra in males. It functions as a sexual gland, secretion of which forms the major component as the seminal fluid.
It starts enlarging after the age of 40 and the enlargement may be inwards or outwards.
If it enlarges inwards it blocks the urethra, causing urinary disability as mentioned before — ultimately blocking the urinary stream causing retention of urine.
Usually the enlargement is benign in nature — not harmful.
Rarely the enlargement may take the course of malignancy (become cancerous). That can be detected only by clinical examination and biopsy.
It is advised that, males above 45 should routinely undergo general check-up for prostate enlargement and blood examination — SPSA (serum prostate specific Antigen) to exclude malignancy changes every year.
Management of these cases depends on the severity of the symptoms.
Early cases can be treated medically with medicines to alleviate the symptoms and it should be taken for long time, sometimes lifelong.
Retention of urine has to be treated with catheterisation and sometime they have to undergo surgical treatment like transurethral resection of the prostate.
If you suspect malignancy changes, that is, increased serum PSA level, you are advised to undergo needle biopsy of the prostate.
Men’s sperm healthier in winter
Sperm quality and quantity is much better in winter than in the rest of the year. A team of scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has presented a new study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology affirming this. After collecting and observing 6,455 consecutive semen samples, researchers have found that sperm concentration and the percentage of fast motility had trended to decrease from spring toward summer and fall. Then, they have also noticed a recovery as well as a higher percentage of normal sperm morphology during the winter months. Temperature, length of daylight exposure, and hormone variation would be the main reasons linked to these seasonal changes of sperm production. This might also be related to sedentary lifestyles or environmental contamination. This discovery may explain the customary peak number of deliveries during the fall and help manage infertility problems.
Homepage: http://www.west-info.eu/mens-sperm-healthier-in-winter-infertility-semen-fall-seasonal-spring/
Why it's important not to stress over infertility
Many families want to add a baby to the family, but conceiving isn't always the easiest thing to do. The CDC estimates almost seven million women have difficulty, and it's an emotional and heartbreaking problem.
For eight years, Karen Kelly tried having a baby with her husband, but was unsuccessful. Karen visited doctors, explored in vitro, and considered adoption. She says the experience was stressful.
"You start out that marriage saying, 'We'll do it when we are ready' and you think it's going to naturally happen, then conception came, for us, an ordeal," explained Karen. "It's a huge issue that required medical intervention, and medical analysis to figure out what was wrong."
Karen's journey pointed her to a familiar face. Retired WTVT anchor Kathy Fountain now counsels women like Karen, and helps couples overcome infertility.
"The ability to conceive is such a primal instinct," Fountain explained. "Not having a baby when you want to can cause stress and anxiety. Studies have shown infertility can cause depression, just as a woman with heart disease, AIDS, or cancer, which are the most stressful things you can go through."
But stress is not just a result of infertility. Some believe it's powerful enough to cause it.
"Stress can impact a woman's ovulation cycle, immune system, and sperm count," Fountain stated.
The amount of stress we experience appears to be growing. A 2012 Carnegie-Mellon University study finds stress levels increased over the past 26 years. They also found women experience more of it, and some fertility specialists say it can sabotage plans to create a family.
"If you're stressed out to the point where you are anxious, you are not having sexual relations with your partner, it's going to make it very difficult to get pregnant. That's going to be a very direct cause," explained USF Health infertility specialist Dr. Shayne Plosker. "We don't eat as well as we should, it might lead to more alcohol consumption, you're not exercising enough."
Still, a solid link between stress and infertility has yet to be established. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine finds there is no proof stress causes infertility. However, University of California - Berkeley researchers found stress changes reproductive hormones in females.
Exercise, meditation and yoga can reduce stress and improve health. Kelly added a mind-body class, which helped connect her with other families, trying to overcome the same infertility obstacle.
"Sometimes they are better able to open their minds up to other alternatives -- plan B, plan C -- on their way to becoming a parent. At some point they would have thought, 'I would never do this. I would never do that,'" continued Fountain.
The classes worked for Karen. She says it helped bring little Dagny, her 3-month-old daughter, into her life.
"We are not defined by the fertility monitor, we are not defined by our fertility or ability to conceive," Karen said. "We have other identities and roles that are just as important, and need to nurture those as much as you pay attention to that stick that you're peeing on every month. It's just as important, if not more."
Homepage: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/21525825/2013/03/05/dont-stress-over-infertility
Doc Talk: Safe, effective treatments exist for female infertility
If you and your partner are having trouble getting pregnant, you are not in a unique situation. Some 15 to 20 percent of couples in the United States are infertile.
Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant after one year of regular, unprotected sex without the use of birth control.
Infertility may be because of a single cause in either you or your partner or a combination of factors that may prevent a pregnancy from occurring or continuing. They typically include problems with ovulation, reproductive organs, hormones or sperm.
Fortunately, there are safe and effective therapies for overcoming many infertility issues. These treatments significantly improve your chances of becoming pregnant. Since I see only female patients, I will focus in this article on topics that impact female infertility.
One of the first things physicians do when seeing a new patient with fertility questions is to look at the patient’s history, including general history, past pregnancies and menstrual history. A physician will perform a physical exam. Initially, he or she will want to determine if the problem is a sperm issue or a female issue.
Once a physician looks at a patient’s history and physical, the doctor also will look at other external factors, such as smoking, drug use or sexually transmitted diseases, all which can affect fertility.
Age also can impact fertility. If a woman is older than 35 years old, pregnancy naturally becomes more difficult. Fertility in a woman older than 40 declines significantly. Male fertility declines much slower, and men are capable of fathering children into their 60s and beyond.
Research shows that female issues account for about a third of fertility problems, male issues another third, and both male and female issues account for 15 percent of problems. In 20 percent of cases, no cause is found.
For women, there are some initial blood tests that can be ordered, and a doctor may order a sonogram or a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), which is an X-ray test that looks at the inside of the uterus and fallopian tubes and the area around them.
Treatment depends on the cause, as does, in some cases, how much money a patient is willing to spend to pursue expensive treatment options.
Infertility can be treated with medicine, surgery, artificial insemination or assisted reproductive technology. Many times, these treatments are combined. In most cases, infertility is treated with drugs or surgery.
If you suspect fertility issues, don’t hesitate to talk with your OB/GYN. A number of fertility medicines are used to treat women with ovulation problems. It is important to talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of these medicines and make the best decision for you.
Homepage: http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/12/2712115/doc-talk-safe-effective-treatments.html
Vail Daily health story: Understanding fertility
Homepage: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/70048/more-couples-face-infertility.html
A local OB/GYN answers some of the most common questions regarding pregnancy as women age
When a woman reaches her 30s, the awareness of her biological clock can go from a small ticking whisper to a full-blown alarm bell. With so much confusing and conflicting information about fertility, it can be easy for 30-something women to feel worried about getting pregnant. Dr. Keith P. Samuels, obstetrician and gynecologist at Colorado Mountain Medical, said that having concerns about one's fertility is a normal response to aging.
“It's a natural thought process to worry as you get older (about) your chances of infertility,” Samuels said.
But knowledge can also help assuage one's fears in regards to both fertility and infertility. We asked Samuels to answer some frequently-asked questions women and couples have about fertility, to help us to better understand how fertility works and the options available to women over the age of 30 who want to have children, but haven't yet.
When does fertility decline?
A woman's fertility rates do change in their 30s and 40s. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, a 30-year old woman has a 20 percent chance of getting pregnant per menstrual cycle, while a 40-year old woman has a 5 percent chance. Since starting his practice 20 years ago, Samuels said now more women are waiting longer to get pregnant. Statistically it's harder for women to get pregnant after the age of 35, and Samuels said your fertility rates drop each year.
“There is not a specific age that it becomes more difficult to conceive,” Samuels said. “Fertility declines as you get older and with each year a woman's ovarian function deteriorates. This is a very normal function of aging.”
Is there a way to test for infertility?
Measuring your fertility is not as simple as taking your temperature. There are a number of factors that can affect fertility, such as not having regular periods or ovulating regularly, tubal damage in the ovaries, smoking or alcohol issues, and other serious medical issues that can contribute to infertility, such as endometriosis. In addition to these, Samuels said sometimes the cause of infertility is unknown.
“A lot of things that decrease fertility can be identified or treated,” Samuels said. “Once a patient undergoes a (fertility) workup and nothing is identified, it's unexplained.”
Typically women are considered infertile after trying to get pregnant without using birth control for one year. Men can also be a factor in infertility. There are many medical conditions, as well as unexplained issues, that can contribute to a couple's inability to conceive.
Dr. Samuels said if a woman is under the age of 35, it is not usually recommended for her to undergo fertility testing before that one-year mark if there are no obvious factors that suggest infertility. If a woman has concerns or specific circumstances, fertility testing could be pursued earlier.
“Initially, the most important test is attempting to get pregnant,” Samuels said. “We wouldn't necessarily want a woman to go through costly and time consuming tests prior to trying to conceive. Of course, at any time, a woman can discuss (fertility testing) with her physician (if she wishes to do so).”
How common is In Vitro Fertilization?
There are a number of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) available to aid in conception. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman's body or donating them to another woman. There are three types of ART: in vitro fertilization (IVF), intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).
According to the CDC, 147,260 ART cycles were performed in 2010, resulting in 47,090 live birth deliveries and 61,564 infants (some deliveries produced multiple babies). The use of ART has doubled over the last decade, and now one percent of all infants born in the U.S. every year were conceived via ART.
Dr. Samuels said in vitro-fertilization is a procedure couples usually consider only after more conservative methods have failed. Not all couples who are given the option of IVF decide to go through with the procedure, and money can definitely be a concern, as most insurance plans do not cover these types of fertility treatments.
Should women freeze their eggs before it's too late?
Freezing a woman's eggs refers to two different types of procedures. The first is embryo cryopreservation, in which a woman undergoes IVF to stimulate egg growth. Then the eggs are removed, joined with sperm in a laboratory to produce an embryo, and then frozen. Embryo cryopreservation is sometimes done for young women with cancer, as chemotherapy and radiation treatments can increase one's chances of infertility. The second type is oocyte cryopreservation, in which the eggs are not fertilized before frozen. Women must take medication to produce more eggs for freezing and the average cost of each cycle can range from 6,500 to 15,000 dollars.
This past October the American Society for Reproductive Medicine deemed egg freezing no longer “experimental,” causing speculation as to whether the procedure would now become commonplace for women. Samuels said the procedure has become more common in the past 10 years, but it's only one of many options women have in regards to aiding in fertility.
“Unless there are extenuating circumstances with the potential loss of fertility, such as certain surgical procedures or chemotherapy, which may render a woman infertile, harvesting and freezing embryos do have some risk,” Samuels said. “Some women, though, do feel more compelled to consider this option as they approach a certain age for many reasons.”
When they reach their 30s, should women worry about their fertility?
Once identifiable factors affecting fertility are treated or ruled out, there is no guarantee that a woman, regardless of age, can get pregnant.
Samuels said it's often hard for women to talk about infertility issues.
“A patient may have a friend who is able to have children, and for them it's not as easy,” Samuels said. “They put pressure on themselves, feeling like they failed in some way, even though they can't cause themselves to be infertile. This can be a very difficult subject for couples to discuss.”
However, Samuels thinks it's important for couples to be informed about their options for conceiving a child, and to not focus solely on negative-sounding reports or statistics.
“Through the many forms of ever-evolving assisted reproductive technologies available, there is still hope that we can help (a couple) achieve their goal of having a family,” Samuels said.
While worrying may be their first response, a better approach for women and couples might be to seek out answers before their fears about infertility overwhelm them. Getting pregnant can happen by accident, but learning about how fertility works can help us see that, yes, bringing a child into the world is indeed a miracle, but there's also a lot of science and research behind it too.
“It's a natural thought process to worry as you get older (about) your chances of infertility,” Samuels said.
But knowledge can also help assuage one's fears in regards to both fertility and infertility. We asked Samuels to answer some frequently-asked questions women and couples have about fertility, to help us to better understand how fertility works and the options available to women over the age of 30 who want to have children, but haven't yet.
When does fertility decline?
A woman's fertility rates do change in their 30s and 40s. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, a 30-year old woman has a 20 percent chance of getting pregnant per menstrual cycle, while a 40-year old woman has a 5 percent chance. Since starting his practice 20 years ago, Samuels said now more women are waiting longer to get pregnant. Statistically it's harder for women to get pregnant after the age of 35, and Samuels said your fertility rates drop each year.
“There is not a specific age that it becomes more difficult to conceive,” Samuels said. “Fertility declines as you get older and with each year a woman's ovarian function deteriorates. This is a very normal function of aging.”
Is there a way to test for infertility?
Measuring your fertility is not as simple as taking your temperature. There are a number of factors that can affect fertility, such as not having regular periods or ovulating regularly, tubal damage in the ovaries, smoking or alcohol issues, and other serious medical issues that can contribute to infertility, such as endometriosis. In addition to these, Samuels said sometimes the cause of infertility is unknown.
“A lot of things that decrease fertility can be identified or treated,” Samuels said. “Once a patient undergoes a (fertility) workup and nothing is identified, it's unexplained.”
Typically women are considered infertile after trying to get pregnant without using birth control for one year. Men can also be a factor in infertility. There are many medical conditions, as well as unexplained issues, that can contribute to a couple's inability to conceive.
Dr. Samuels said if a woman is under the age of 35, it is not usually recommended for her to undergo fertility testing before that one-year mark if there are no obvious factors that suggest infertility. If a woman has concerns or specific circumstances, fertility testing could be pursued earlier.
“Initially, the most important test is attempting to get pregnant,” Samuels said. “We wouldn't necessarily want a woman to go through costly and time consuming tests prior to trying to conceive. Of course, at any time, a woman can discuss (fertility testing) with her physician (if she wishes to do so).”
How common is In Vitro Fertilization?
There are a number of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) available to aid in conception. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman's body or donating them to another woman. There are three types of ART: in vitro fertilization (IVF), intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).
According to the CDC, 147,260 ART cycles were performed in 2010, resulting in 47,090 live birth deliveries and 61,564 infants (some deliveries produced multiple babies). The use of ART has doubled over the last decade, and now one percent of all infants born in the U.S. every year were conceived via ART.
Dr. Samuels said in vitro-fertilization is a procedure couples usually consider only after more conservative methods have failed. Not all couples who are given the option of IVF decide to go through with the procedure, and money can definitely be a concern, as most insurance plans do not cover these types of fertility treatments.
Should women freeze their eggs before it's too late?
Freezing a woman's eggs refers to two different types of procedures. The first is embryo cryopreservation, in which a woman undergoes IVF to stimulate egg growth. Then the eggs are removed, joined with sperm in a laboratory to produce an embryo, and then frozen. Embryo cryopreservation is sometimes done for young women with cancer, as chemotherapy and radiation treatments can increase one's chances of infertility. The second type is oocyte cryopreservation, in which the eggs are not fertilized before frozen. Women must take medication to produce more eggs for freezing and the average cost of each cycle can range from 6,500 to 15,000 dollars.
This past October the American Society for Reproductive Medicine deemed egg freezing no longer “experimental,” causing speculation as to whether the procedure would now become commonplace for women. Samuels said the procedure has become more common in the past 10 years, but it's only one of many options women have in regards to aiding in fertility.
“Unless there are extenuating circumstances with the potential loss of fertility, such as certain surgical procedures or chemotherapy, which may render a woman infertile, harvesting and freezing embryos do have some risk,” Samuels said. “Some women, though, do feel more compelled to consider this option as they approach a certain age for many reasons.”
When they reach their 30s, should women worry about their fertility?
Once identifiable factors affecting fertility are treated or ruled out, there is no guarantee that a woman, regardless of age, can get pregnant.
Samuels said it's often hard for women to talk about infertility issues.
“A patient may have a friend who is able to have children, and for them it's not as easy,” Samuels said. “They put pressure on themselves, feeling like they failed in some way, even though they can't cause themselves to be infertile. This can be a very difficult subject for couples to discuss.”
However, Samuels thinks it's important for couples to be informed about their options for conceiving a child, and to not focus solely on negative-sounding reports or statistics.
“Through the many forms of ever-evolving assisted reproductive technologies available, there is still hope that we can help (a couple) achieve their goal of having a family,” Samuels said.
While worrying may be their first response, a better approach for women and couples might be to seek out answers before their fears about infertility overwhelm them. Getting pregnant can happen by accident, but learning about how fertility works can help us see that, yes, bringing a child into the world is indeed a miracle, but there's also a lot of science and research behind it too.
Homepage: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20130318/AE/130319866/1078&ParentProfile=1062
Are older parents putting our future at risk?
Thanks to medical advances, we’re now having children later and later in life. And it’s making many scientists fear for the future, discovers Jemima Lewis
These days, I dream that I am back in the early stages of my relationship with my now-husband, Henry. But instead of asking me to marry him, he is dumping me. I am back at square one: single, in my mid-thirties, and – this is the bit that makes me feel like I’m having a heart-attack – childless.
Biologically speaking, I was late to start a family: I had my first baby at 36, my second at 38 and my third at 40. It felt – still feels – like a piece of giddying good luck that I happened to meet a man I adored, with first-rate sperm, in the nick of time. Henry, the gallant knight, galloped me across the drawbridge of fertility before the portcullis clanged shut.
The realities of late-onset parenting, of course, are less of a fairy tale. Nor is there anything singular about our circumstances. In fact, we are part of a gathering demographic wave: one that some scientists and economists believe could have grave consequences for the world we live in.
The same thing is happening all over the globe. The age at which American women have their first babies has risen by four years since 1970, up to 25. In Japan – where adult incontinence pads now outsell nappies – it is 29.
Even in Africa, the birth rate among women under 20 has fallen by 20 per cent since the turn of the millennium.
But nowhere is the trend more pronounced than in Britain. The average age for a first-time mother in the UK has now hit 30 – meaning that we are delaying motherhood for longer than any other women in the world. Mothers in their early twenties are becoming increasingly rare, while those over 45 (just four years away from the average age of menopause) more than trebled between 2000 and 2011 – to 1,832, from a total of 723,913 live births.
This makes a lot of people very nervous. For one thing, women who start reproducing late tend to have smaller families, whether they like it or not. That means society is becoming increasingly top-heavy, with a dwindling supply of young people around to work, pay taxes and do the heavy lifting.
There are personal costs, too. Just because there seem to be lots of older mothers around, doesn’t mean it’s easily done. Those fossilised Hollywood actresses who pop out twins at an age when they should be collecting their free bus passes? They make it look easy – but they tend not to mention the donor eggs, or the surrogate wombs.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists regularly puts out press statements which, though gently worded, suggest that its members would like to grab the women of Britain by the scruff of the neck and give us a jolly good shake. Wearily, they go over and over the numbers. Female fertility drops off steeply after the age of 35, while the risk of miscarriage goes rocketing up. Even with the help of IVF, a woman over 42 has only a five per cent chance of having a baby.
Birth defects are more common among the children of older women: everything from cleft palates to cerebral palsy. The risk that a pregnancy will yield a trisomy – a group of chromosomal abnormalities including Down’s syndrome – rises from two per cent when a women is in her twenties, to 30 per cent by the time she is in her forties.
And there’s something else. Though it is often portrayed as one, this isn’t just a female problem. Most men aren’t ready to settle down until somewhere around their mid-thirties. In an “information economy” like ours, people tend to stay in education longer to maximise their chances of getting a decent job. This is one of the major factors behind Britain’s declining birth rate: both men and women are more likely to go to university, which means they start work later, and take longer to feel established enough, financially and professionally, to start a family.
Nearly two-thirds of babies are now born to men over 30. And this, too, has consequences for the nation’s health. As evidenced by sixtysomething fathers like Rod Stewart and Michael Douglas, men keep producing new sperm all their lives. The older they get, the more likely they are to make a faulty batch. Neonatologists have long suspected that there may be a link between older fathers and a variety of birth defects, from dwarfism to dyslexia.
But recent research has made the connection much clearer. Last year, a study by geneticists in Iceland found that men pass on more genetic mutations to their children as they get older – and that these mutations might give rise to serious neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. They concluded that a 40-year-old man was twice as likely as a 20 year-old to father a schizophrenic child. (It should be stressed, however, that the risk is still tiny, at less than one per cent.)
Environmental factors, too, can affect the quality of sperm. Dr Avi Reichenberg, a psychiatrist at King’s College, London, is one of the scientists leading research into epigenetics: a relatively new field exploring how genes are affected by factors other than the underlying DNA sequence.
What we eat and drink, whether we smoke, how stressed we get: all of these can change the way sperm cells behave. Older parents are generally more conscientious about living healthily, but for some the damage is already done. Years of absorbing airborne pollution, pesticides and all manner of endocrine disrupters may create “epimutations” in sperm cells, with consequences for the resulting children.
“Many children born to old fathers or old mothers develop normally,” Dr Reichenberg told me soothingly. But, “what the research shows is that the proportion of children of older fathers or mothers who have psychiatric or neurological disorders is higher than in children of parents of average age.” It sounds alarming. Of course it does. But as Reichenberg points out, there is a more optimistic way to look at it: “The risk has always been there. It’s only now that we are starting to understand it.”
This is an important point to make. Couples have always had children in their thirties and forties. Before the invention of the pill, there wasn’t much they could do to prevent it. Government records show that, for the first half of the 20th century, the number of babies born to women over 40 was actually much the same as it now. In fact, there was a tremendous surge in later-life pregnancies after the Second World War, when couples who had been separated by the fighting were finally reunited under the sheets. In fact, there were more babies born to women over 40 in 1947 than there were in 2011. (A whopping 34,696, compared with 29,350.)
The resulting generation of children – the Baby Boomers – were not disastrously compromised by learning disabilities, autism and the like (although it is impossible to compare the figures for then and now because such things were seldom diagnosed). In any case, the sky did not fall in. British society survived this epidemic of late-born babies, and prospered.
The idea that it is unusual, even unnatural, for a woman over 35 to procreate is a thoroughly modern prejudice – a consequence, in fact, of our space-age ability to manipulate nature. From the mid-Sixties onwards – after the contraceptive pill became available on the NHS – the number of babies born to women over 40 plummeted. By 1977, it had fallen to a meagre 5,988. Older mothers virtually disappeared from sight.
From a purely medical point of view, that might have been a good thing. But the world changed again. Like it or not (and I do) feminism happened. Most women now expect – and need – to work. So we don’t have much choice but to take a gamble, and hope that our ovaries will hold out.
The stakes, I grant you, are painfully high. Almost every woman who has tried to have a baby in her late thirties or early forties will have some kind of sorrowful tale to tell. As well as my three healthy babies, I had two miscarriages – one of them, at 12 weeks, quite dramatic. My husband came home from work to find me passed out on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood, like a murder victim in a Victorian penny dreadful.
That was an unhappy experience. I had been so excited about having another baby (it would have been my second), and when it fell out I felt that my body had failed it, and me. It was my own fault for being too old: I had played Russian roulette with my fertility, and lost. But as any gambler knows, you quickly forget about the losses once you start to win. Now that I have two more children, and my family is complete, I feel almost embarrassed by my good fortune.
People I love have suffered stillbirths, late miscarriages, infant deaths. Some have undergone many gruelling rounds of IVF without ever managing to conceive. Two of my friends did manage to get pregnant in their forties, only to discover that the babies had Down’s syndrome. One decided to have a termination. The other went through with the pregnancy, only to have her daughter die during labour.
Nature is cruel, and modern medicine doesn’t necessarily make it less so.
All it does is give us more choices, for which we then hold ourselves responsible. Even the treatments that are supposed to offer hope to the childless may prove to be a mixed blessing. Recent research suggests that the drug Clomid, which is often used to stimulate women’s ovaries, may be partly responsible for the higher rate of birth defects among children conceived through fertility treatments. One scientist, talking toThe New Republic earlier this year, described the drug as a “time bomb”.
Likewise, there is concern over a commonly used form of IVF known as ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), in which an individual sperm is injected into an extracted egg. Several studies have shown that ICSI produces higher rates of birth defects than any other treatment – perhaps because it removes the need for the sperm to find the egg and burrow into it, which only healthy sperm can do.
And yet, I take it back. Of course science has made nature more merciful – in ways so comprehensive that it is easy to take them for granted. The chances of dying in childbirth – still the leading cause of death among women in many parts of the world – are now minuscule here. Infant mortality rates are so low (0.46 per cent of babies under a year old) that the death of a child seems an unimaginable disaster, rather than the commonplace tragedy it once was.
Thanks to modern contraception we have fewer babies, but treasure them more. In 1900 – when no better form of family planning was available – the infant murder rate was 15 times what it is today. Seen in this light, the panic over older parents starts to look like a high-class problem.
Personally, I only have one serious regret about having my children late. My parents are in their seventies now, and starting to show signs of wear and tear. My father has cancer and a heart murmur. The anxiety I feel on my own behalf, as his daughter, is exacerbated by panic at the thought that my children might grow up without really knowing him. If he dies soon, will they remember him?
I want my children to have decades in which to know and love their grandparents, the way I did mine. And I want the experience of being a grandmother myself: not just a totemic one, dozing in a nursing home, but an active, involved figure in their lives.
At present, the odds are against me. A woman who has a baby at 35 is more likely than not to have died by the time that child is 46.
If my children follow my reproductive example – as children are wont to do – I will be dead before my first grandchild reaches 10.
It is possible, of course, that by then we will all be made of bionic spare parts and live to 1,000. I do hope so. If science can keep us fit and useful, the rise of the older parent may come to seem less scary. After all, we never meant to frighten anyone. We were just trying to live the fairy tale.
Homepage: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9928198/Are-older-parents-putting-our-future-at-risk.html
Infertility: ‘Not just a female problem’
The emotional pain and treatment challenges of women’s infertility are well known to many, courtesy of books, movies and social media that share heartbreaking stories of women, primarily in their late 30s and 40s, who struggle to conceive.
Although men’s infertility may seem to be more of an afterthought in the public consciousness, the problem is as prevalent as it is for women, experts say.
“We just don’t hear about it as much. It’s just as common as female infertility,” said Dr. Lawrence S. Hakim, chairman of the department of urology and head of the Section of Sexual Dysfunction at Cleveland Clinic Florida
“It’s certainly typically the same amount male and female and sometimes both, which is why when you’re evaluating couples, they both need to be evaluated at the same time,” Hakim said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the problem can be traced to the woman about one-third of the time, while another one-third of the time, the problem can be traced to the man. The remainder of the time, the problem is linked to both the man and the woman. Two-thirds of couples treated are ultimately able to conceive.
Part of the issue today is that many women are waiting much later in life to have children, Hakim said.
“As women get older they’re going to see more problems trying to conceive. Men can father children later in life, certainly into their 40s and 50s. They don’t have the same fertility issues that women have at that age.”
Common causes of men’s infertility can be hormonal problems, injuries, illness, medications, or a previous vasectomy. Lifestyle issues like smoking and alcohol use may affect sperm production, but are secondary factors, Hakim said.
A common cause of infertility in men is varicocele, an enlargement of the veins in the scrotum that heats the testicles, affecting the number and shape of sperm.
“Up to 30 percent of all men have a varicocele,” Hakim said.
Varicocele can develop in adolescence, and may be discovered by a pediatrician. Because of the long-term effects that can lead to infertility, a pediatric surgeon or urologist may recommend a procedure to correct the problem, depending on the severity. The purpose of the surgery is to seal off the affected vein and route blood flow into normal veins.
“You see a lot of men today who have had a vasectomy at an earlier age, and have married a younger partner and want to have children,” Hakim said.
Advancements in treatment and surgical procedures have improved over the past 50 years, he said.
More recently, the public has been bombarded with advertisements for medications aimed at correcting low testosterone or low T. These popular medications affect fertility, he said.
“We see a lot of men on hormone therapy like testosterone therapy for low T that have an impact on their fertility that can be detrimental,” he said, “and that’s something we see more now than we did in the past. It can make them azoospermic [infertile].”
Men should talk with their doctors about medications if they are trying to conceive, he said.
Infertility can be a painful issue for both partners, Hakim said: “With infertility, it’s not just a female problem.”
Homepage: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/27/3309608/infertility-not-just-a-female.html
HOW DOES INFERTILITY IMPACT FINANCES?
Carrie, 33, and her husband, 39, recently started in-vitro fertilization (IVF) after other reproductive treatments failed. They’ve been undergoing fertility treatment since March 2011.
The process has taken its toll on the couple.
“We don’t allow ourselves to spend money on hobbies, clothes, trips or any enjoyable activity,” says Carrie, who asked that her last name not be used. “We can’t save money for retirement or long-term goals. Right now, our only focus both financially and emotionally is fertility treatments.”
The average cost of each IVF cycle is between $10,000 and $12,000, according to IVF.ca. But the low success rate—just 29% for women between 35 and 39, and 12% for women 40 and older—means couples try multiple times.
Carrie and her husband have set their limit at three cycles. And if they’re unsuccessful, they will turn to adoption, which Carrie expects will cost between $30,000 and $40,000.
Read: Goodbye retirement?
One in six Canadian couples experience infertility, according to the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. And for many, it’s a surprise, so they don’t have much time to find the cash.
“If there are no funds from savings, the only alternative is to borrow,” says Kathryn Jankowski, a vice president at T.E. Wealth in Toronto.
If couples’ family members aren’t willing to lend money, steer clients toward shorter-term, less expensive loans such as mortgage renewals.
“The last thing you want to do is use your credit cards,” she warns.
If couples don’t need a large sum right away, a secured line of credit is usually more economical than a large loan, adds Toronto accountant Jonathan Ruben.
“We’ve seen $5,000 to $10,000 needed per stage. Then clients wait one-to-three months to see if it was successful,” he says. “A secured line of credit means you will not end up paying interest on funds you don’t require.”
OPTIMIZE MEDICAL EXPENSE TAX CREDITS
Ruben also tells prospective parents to claim fertility-related outlays as medical expenses at tax time. These include the cost of medication and services provided for intrauterine insemination and in-vitro fertilization. (There’s an additional credit if clients live in Manitoba.)
Clients may claim any non-reimbursed medical expenses, including prescribed medication costs not covered by an employer or private plan.
The tax credit is non-refundable, meaning it lowers the tax liability. So it’s typically better to claim medical expenses on the return of the spouse with lower net income. However, if the lower-income spouse doesn’t have enough tax payable to offset the medical expense tax credit, the higher income spouse should claim it.
The expenses can be claimed for any 12-month period ending in the tax year, so choose that timing wisely, says Ruben.
If a taxpayer incurs significant medical expenses in November 2011, but has already hit his limit, he can choose November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012 as his 12-month period and claim them on his 2012 income tax return.
Medical expenses incurred outside Canada may also be eligible.
This is good news for Carrie, as she and her husband will have their first IVF treatment in Cancun, Mexico. She says treatment at a clinic in Toronto will cost approximately $14,300, including $4,000 of medication. The same treatment in Cancun costs $6,500. Even with accommodations and airfare, the total is $8,100.
While expenses paid to a medical practitioner or licensed hospital outside of Canada will likely be eligible, accommodation and travel expense are usually ineligible, says Ruben.
ADOPTION TAX CREDIT
If Carrie and her husband decide to adopt, they can claim eligible adoption expenses for a child under 18. This includes adoption agency fees, court costs, legal fees and reasonable travel and living expenses.
With indexing, the maximum federal amount in 2012 is $11,440 at a rate of 15%, for a credit of $1,716. The credits can help boost tax refunds at a time when clients need the money, says Ruben.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK
If couples successfully conceive, there’s a whole new list of expenses and concerns they need to think about, starting with the revision of the will and plans for childcare, says Jankowski.
But the focus should be on paying off the highest-rate debt first.
Couples who decide to go the childless route will usually go through a mourning period. Revisiting the financial plan can help them visualize and adjust to their new lives.
As for people who continue with treatments at the risk of further compromising financial stability, they want advisors who can be honest and sensitive.
Read: Insuring children
“I would love someone who has compassion, especially when money becomes the number one factor that makes you not undergo another treatment,” says Carrie. “Advisors have to understand you’re going to be destroyed by the news that they’re not going to be able to find money for you.
“I would expect the same level of empathy and kindness that a doctor would have.”
Homepage: http://www.advisor.ca/my-practice/how-does-infertility-impact-finances-111026
Infertility Risks: Trouble Conceiving Might Lead To Neurological Problems In Kids
Children whose parents had trouble becoming pregnant may be at increased risk for mild neurological problems, a new study suggests.
The study involved 206 children born to couples who took a long time to conceive. Of these, 122 were conceived with the help of fertility treatment, and 87 were conceived naturally. At age 2, the children took tests designed to assess their neurological development, including tests of motor function, posture, reflexes and eye-hand coordination.
Taking a longer time to get pregnant was linked with a 30 percent increase in the risk of mild neurological problems in the children.
On average, parents of children with these problems took four years to get pregnant, while parents of children who didn't have these problems took about two years and eight months to get pregnant, the researchers said.
Previous studies have linked fertility treatment with an increased risk of complications, such as preterm birth, low birth weight and birth defects. The new study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that low fertility itself, rather than the treatment for it, is responsible for this risk, the researchers said.
However, the new study was small — just 10 children had mild neurological problems, and six had more severe problems. Further research into the link is needed to properly counsel infertile couples, said study researcher Mijna Hadders-Algra, of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Children in the study with mildneurological problems did not necessarily have noticeable impairments in everyday life, Hadders-Algra said. But these children may be vulnerable to learning and behavior problems later in life, she said.
In some countries, including the Netherlands and the United States, the age at which women have their first child is increasing, and older age can prolong the time to pregnancy, Hadders-Algra said.
A study published last year found that children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) were at increased risk for birth defects, but most of this risk was due to factors related to the parents who sought this technology, such as the mother's age and conditions in pregnancy.
The new study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Pass it on: Taking a longer time to conceive may increase the risk of mild neurological problems in children.
Homepage: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/infertility-risks-neurological-problems_n_2956358.html
More couples face infertility
VietNamNet Bridge – Out of each 100 couples, 8 are sterile. The rate of secondary infertility caused by inflammation and abortions is increasing rapidly. This is one of the reasons that makes Vietnam face a downward trend in childbirth in the near future, experts have warned.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tan, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Population and Family Planning, said the findings of the Central Obstetrics Hospital in conjunction with the Medical University of Hanoi in 2012 on more than 14,000 couples in eight ecological regions across the country, shows that fertility rate is 7.7 percent, including 3.9 percent of primary infertility and 3.8 percent of secondary infertility.
Another study of the Military Medical Academy in 2011 with over 9,300 couples releases other numbers: Nearly 3.2 percent of couples are infertile, in which 38 percent of the couples having troubles from women, men 40 percent, and both 10.
In fact, there is no comprehensive study on infertility in Vietnam. Experts have warned that infertility, particularly secondary infertility, is increasing and it is associated with inflammatory factors and abortion.
To demonstrate this, a doctor from the Central Obstetrics Hospital, said 10 years ago, only about 2-3 couples came to the hospital for infertility treatment. Today, the figure is up to 50-60 couples per week.
Tan said the General Department of Population and Family Planning would propose measures to assist infertile couples, helping them access to good health services.
Tan said that many countries succeeded in reducing fertility, including Vietnam, but no one is successful in increasing fertility.
In Vietnam, a downward trend is evident. The data shows that the average number of children born by each woman of child-bearing age has reduced from 6.3 in 1961 to 2 in 2010 and is expected to fall to 1.78 in 2020.
In addition to high rates of infertility and abortion, the birth decline is caused by economic, social factors, with fiercer competition in the living environment. In addition, the value of human life has changed: Many people want to enjoy life and marry late; the number of people living alone is higher. The most important reason is the effectiveness of policies to reduce the country's birth in recent time.
The head of the General Department of Population and Family Planning - Duong Quoc Trong - said, due to declining birth rates and rising life expectancy, the population structure of Vietnam has changed. Lessons from countries in the region in coping with declining birth will be very useful for Vietnam.
Another study of the Military Medical Academy in 2011 with over 9,300 couples releases other numbers: Nearly 3.2 percent of couples are infertile, in which 38 percent of the couples having troubles from women, men 40 percent, and both 10.
In fact, there is no comprehensive study on infertility in Vietnam. Experts have warned that infertility, particularly secondary infertility, is increasing and it is associated with inflammatory factors and abortion.
To demonstrate this, a doctor from the Central Obstetrics Hospital, said 10 years ago, only about 2-3 couples came to the hospital for infertility treatment. Today, the figure is up to 50-60 couples per week.
Tan said the General Department of Population and Family Planning would propose measures to assist infertile couples, helping them access to good health services.
Tan said that many countries succeeded in reducing fertility, including Vietnam, but no one is successful in increasing fertility.
In Vietnam, a downward trend is evident. The data shows that the average number of children born by each woman of child-bearing age has reduced from 6.3 in 1961 to 2 in 2010 and is expected to fall to 1.78 in 2020.
In addition to high rates of infertility and abortion, the birth decline is caused by economic, social factors, with fiercer competition in the living environment. In addition, the value of human life has changed: Many people want to enjoy life and marry late; the number of people living alone is higher. The most important reason is the effectiveness of policies to reduce the country's birth in recent time.
The head of the General Department of Population and Family Planning - Duong Quoc Trong - said, due to declining birth rates and rising life expectancy, the population structure of Vietnam has changed. Lessons from countries in the region in coping with declining birth will be very useful for Vietnam.
Homepage: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/70048/more-couples-face-infertility.html
South Brunswick Writer Explores Pain of Infertility
The inability to conceive a child can be an Earth shattering diagnosis for any woman.
Using her own personal experiences for inspiration, South Brunswick resident and Patch blogger Judy Walters explores the pain and depression that comes along with infertility in her new novel, Child of Mine.
"I've been through fertility treatments to have my two daughters 20 years ago and 18 years ago, and the difficult experiences stuck with me," Walters said. "You never forget the feeling of thinking you might not be able to have children. You experience depression, anxiety, and the loss of control. You can't function on any level because you don't know what will happen next. I decided to write a book seeing the same experiences I had that one in six couples still have with infertility."
Child of Mine tells the story of Katie Cohen-Langer, a midwife who delivers babies for a living, but can't have her own child despite years of infertility treatments. The character, who was herself adopted, deals with the pain of never having had a biological connection to anyone.
"This was a novel I was trying to write for a long time and had a lot of stops and starts," Walters said. "The idea came to me to have a novel centered around infertility, and at first the main character was a TV producer tyring to get pregnant with enormous stress in her life, but it didn't work. Then I thought what could be more powerful than a woman working with babies everyday not being able to have kids. Once I went with that, it came together and didn't take long to write."
Walters, who worked as an editor in non-fiction publishing for years before starting her own family, said that while leaning on her own struggles conceiving a child, the story is not auto-biographical.
"A lot of people ask if I'm (the character) Katie. I'm not, but the infertility part is a lot of what I experienced," she said. "I had different issues than the character so it's not my story. It's more about a universal feeling for the loss of control, wanting kids and not knowing if you will ever have them. She's a strong minded career woman who's very independent and I'm not so much like that."
Despite the differences between herself and the character she explores, Walters said the feelings of dealing with infertility is something that resonates with any woman.
"Many women have a biological urge to have children, and for women who have that urge, you think how am I going to deal with it when it becomes overwhelming if I don't have kids?" she said. "What will my life be like? How will it affect my larger family and how can we afford fertility treatments, which are extremely expensive. Then you think about what happens if you still don't get pregnant. It's a constant roller coaster where you feel out of control."
Beyond the issue of infertility, the book also touches on issues of adoption and the search for one's biological family. Walters said she hopes that sharing something so personal from her own life will touch readers and give them perspective on a problem so common among families.
"I hope readers take away that this is a serious issue," she said. "One in six couples suffers from this and it's a life event that can be very traumatic. It affects every aspect of your life. Most people know someone who has been through infertility and understand the struggle."
Homepage: http://southbrunswick.patch.com/articles/south-brunswick-writer-explores-pain-of-infertility
