Strict Fertility Laws Cause Flight to Other Countries

According to a recent study, thousands of British women are traveling abroad to have fertility treatments that are not available in the UK. Over 40 European clinics were surveyed about their patient demographics, including country of origin and reason for traveling to receive the treatments. It is estimated that over 20,000 European patients travel outside their countries for fertility treatment. The largest populations came from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the UK; and traveled to Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

The number one reason provided was to avoid home country legal restrictions around fertility treatments. Many European countries have enacted widespread restrictions and regulations that have had predictable side effects. UK sperm and egg donors are no longer allowed to be completely anonymous or compensated, which quickly lead to a shortage of donors. There are currently long waiting lists for free National Health Service (NHS) treatment and seventy-five percent of IVF procedures are performed privately in the UK. Many UK women traveling for treatment were over forty, at which age women cannot access IVF through the NHS.

The studies authors hoped policy makers will consider these findings when introducing future fertility legislation.

New Test for Endometriosis

The results of a new test to detect endometriosis were recently published in the journal Human Reproduction. Endrometriosis is a painful condition that affects up to 10% of women. This medical condition is characterized by endometrial like cells which flourish outside the uterine cavity and are influenced by hormonal changes. The main symptom is pelvic pain and it can be associated with infertility. Doctors traditionally rely on an invasive laproscopic procedure to diagnose the condition, requiring anesthesia. The new test can be done in a doctors office with a simple swab being taken and sent out for analysis. The swab is taken from the lining of the uterus (endometrium) and is performed vaginally. The swabs are analyzed for presence of nerve fibers, which has a high correlation with having endometriosis. Although the sample size for this study was small, it does represent the possibility of a much better technique for diagnosing a condition that affects millions of women each year.

Sugary Snacks Lower Testosterone in Men

A recent study noted the dramatic effect that a dose of glucose has on testosterone in men. The findings show that there is a need for dietary guidelines when measuring blood levels of testosterone.

The incidence of hypogonadism (low testosterone levels) has been increasing and may be related to the well documented rise in obesity. Obtaining an accurate testosterone level is critical to diagnosing hypogonadism, so understanding the effects of diet on testosterone level should be well understood by medical professionals and patients.

In the study, 74 men were given a glucose tolerance test in which each drank a pre-measured dose of a glucose (sugar) solution. In addition to the surprise that 9 (12%) of the volunteers had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, the researchers also noted that when testosterone levels were checked several hours later, 73 of the 74 men showed significantly lower testosterone levels than before consuming the sugar solution. This observation indicated that eating before having a testosterone level tested may result in an artificially low test result.

The researchers stressed men who have been found to have low testosterone levels should have their levels rechecked after they fast overnight. Doing so may avoid the the lowering effect that eating may have on testosterone levels.

An Evolutionary Reason For Male Infertility

In the past several years, numerous articles that have reported how men's sperm producing ability is decreasing, thus leading to reduced fertility. Now there is a report that suggests that men are producing sperm that are too good and this may also be contributing to infertility. According to Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Oren Hasson, some men are producing 'super-sperm' that are too aggressive to produce a pregnancy. These sperm move too fast to be stopped by the myriad of defenses set up in the women's reproductive system. The result is more than one of these sperm reach the egg and fertilize it, which causes an unviable polyspermy egg. Eggs fertilized by more than one sperm usually do not go on to produce a baby.

Although it only takes one sperm to fertilize an egg, in order for fertilization to reliably occur, many more sperm are required. Usually this means that hundreds or perhaps thousands of sperm need to be in the vicinity of the egg, ready and able to fertilize. However, there is significant attrition in sperm numbers as they overcome the barriers in the female reproductive tract during their quest for the egg. For those hundreds or thousands of sperm to reach the egg, millions of sperm need to be delivered by the male so that sufficient number of sperm survive the trip. Dr. Hasson theorizes the situation results from an 'evolutionary arms race' in which subtle changes over time occur to improve fertility. Women have evolved extra defenses which in turn compel sperm to evolve countermeasures. Men who produce 'normal' or 'non super' sperm must overcome the female defenses that were honed to ward off their kryptonian cousins.
Dr. Hassan based his theory on fertility statistics and mathematical models. Because he believes that stressful lifestyles, infection and pollution alone cannot account for all human infertility, his 'super sperm' hypothesis may provide an additional explanation for infertility.

PGD In The News

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a reproductive technology used with an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle. PGD can be used for diagnosis of a genetic disease in early embryos prior to implantation and pregnancy. PGD was recently featured on a segment of the Early Show on CBS.