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In Vitro Fertility Goddess
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Tuesday 30 September 2008
Source: American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Certain anti-depressant drugs can harm male fertility by damaging the sperm's DNA makeup.
US scientists at the Cornell Medical Centre in New York looked at 35 men who were prescribed the anti-depressant drug Paroxetine, also known as Seroxat in Britain and Aropax in Australia, over a period of five weeks.
And only four weeks into the trial, they discovered the men's sperm had twice as much genetic damage as at the start of the study with the amount of genetic fragmentation in sperm rising from about 14% before the trial to over 30%.
Lead researcher Dr Peter Schlegel explains:
"If you look at normal sperm counts and motility, the standard measures of fertility, you saw no changes, but if you looked at sperm DNA, the genetic material in more detail you actually found dramatic changes in almost half of the men, normal men, who are on this drug".
The findings reinforce previous research which has already found a link between male infertility and the consumption of certain drugs. The same researchers reported two years ago that the antidepressants citalopram and sertraline reduced sperm counts in men and that their sperm counts returned to normal once they stopped taking the drugs. Other research has also found environmental factors such as exposure to certain chemicals and heat sources can impact on men's fertility.
But the new findings come with a word of caution from psychiatrists who believe male patients to not abruptly stop their medication and seek professional advice before doing so.
Sarah Williams
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Monday 15 September 2008
Source: Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Natural fertility treatment has been found to be far more effective than IVF.
A study by the University of Utah looked at over 1000 fertility-challenged couples who used natural procreative technology treatment or NPT.
What they found is that 25% of them achieved a successful pregnancy, a success rate higher than average 18.4% for IVF.
The study also found that NPT also resulted in far fewer multiple births with only 4.6% of women becoming pregnant with more than one child compared with 34% rate among couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology including IVF.
The research is that much more significant because it is the first ever into the effectiveness of NPT to be published in a respected peer-reviewed medical journal.
Joseph Stanford from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who lead the study hopes his research would help overcome the "current information deficit" surrounding NPT.
He told the Sunday Times that "many GPs and obstetricians are not aware of NPT because of a lack of published studies," and that "now physicians can inform themselves of this treatment approach and hopefully recommend it to their patients."
Another fertility expert Phil Boyle who works at a natural fertility clinic in Galway also hopes this research will help doctors refer patients to natural fertility centers because "for some couples, IVF does not work and NPT does."
NPT is also a much cheaper alternative to IVF, costing about 4 times less.
So if you're interested in having a closer look at natural fertility treatments, a good start is The Fertility Plan » which is an excellent and instantly downloadable eBook on the topic. It's basically a guide to overcoming infertility naturally, containing very useful and up-to-the-minute information and tips even I never heard of about achieving a successful natural pregnancy. It also includes a free eBook called Preventing Miscarriage so you'll have all angles covered! For more on The Fertility Plan eBook click here » .jpg)
According to my naturopath who was intrumental in helping me achieve a successful pregnancy, you can take drugs (of the IVF variety) while on herbs, but according to my doctor you can not take herbs while on the drugs. Who is right and who is wrong? Both and neither.
What it comes down to is that when you've put an exorbitant amount of money (equivalent to the down payment on a BMW) in the pocket of a doctor and their clinic but only paid fifty dollars for a bottle of herbs, the strong inclination is to go with what the doctor said. It's a form of looking after your investment, making sure it gets a return. You can gamble with fifty dollars but not five thousand.
There's also the emotional investment. To undertake the rigorous and demanding IVF drug routine and procedures takes a lot of inner strength from you, unlike putting a tablespoon of herbs in a glass of water. So when subjected to the former the inclination is to do it as the booklet requires.
However, in terms of success rates for either approach on its own, there is overwhelming research to support either. It is what you feel comfortable with. I couldn't have thrown myself into the rigors of IVF in the early stages of my struggle to conceive, I just wasn't psychologically prepared for it and, whatever approach you choose, it is extremely important for you to feel right with it, to believe in it.
I have no doubts whatsoever that the herbal regime that I was on until succumbing to IVF played a major role in the success of IVF. The herbs cleaned out and toned out my reproductive system and in that way were immeasurably helpful.
So, IVF herbs vs IVF drugs - both have their usefulness and to my mind both played a role in the conception of my daughter.
To find out how herbs can help prepare for a successful IVF cycle, do have a look at Stacey Roberts' aka "The Baby Maker's" eBook ‘Herbs and IVF' here »
I'm convinced it was her ground-breaking formulas that got me across the line at my first attempt at IVF.
Jodi Panayotov
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What's wrong with this sentence? ‘Fertility Treatments may not produce more babies'.
Well for starters, as the reproductive equivalent of ‘Osama Bin Laden may not have caused September 11', it instantly upends everything those of us struggling to reproduce have believed until now.
In news fresh (9 August 2008) out of Scotland Aberdeen to be specific, researchers studied 580 couples and came to that conclusion. But how did they go about it?
They divided the group into three.
First a placebo group who received no treatment, except, and I can hardly stand this, they were counselled on "the need to have regular sex".
‘And what, doctor, do you mean by regular sex?'
‘You know, sir, the, ah, penis in the, how shall I put it? Er, vagina..yes, vagina. That method.'
Stunned silence as couple look at each other, thinking, who would have thought?
So there was a second group who took Clomid and the other who had IUI (artificial insemination where the sperm is sent kicking and screaming into the womb via syringe).
At this point it must be pointed out that all of the couples had been diagnosed with ‘unexplained infertility', otherwise known as ‘the too-hard-basket'.
It was the results that surprised, well, everyone. Especially the doctors. There were twenty-six babies produced with the help of Clomid, forty-three by IUI and an encouraging thirty-two produced by the people who'd apparently forgotten to have sex until they were reminded.
According to Allan Pacey, from the University of Sheffield, secretary of the British Fertility Society and king of the understatement, "It's not in the realm that you would expect it to be if these treatments were really performing."
Still, he conceded that IUI was useful in certain situations, especially with donor sperm.
Could this mean the end of Clomid as a fertility treatment? No, as it has long been linked to the successful pregnancies of women who have problems ovulating. Yet for others it may be more useful to spend the money on lingerie instead of filling a Clomid script.
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Sick to death of drinking green tea, taking herbs, hanging bat-like from our bedroom ceilings, and forking out barrels of money for IVF?
Then maybe it's time to take a fertility tip from the former Spice Girl and self-promoting fertility goddess Victoria Beckham. But, I hear you say, wouldn't taking reproductive advice from Posh Spice be the equivalent of getting parenting tips from Michael Jackson or relationship counselling from Jerry Springer?
Not quite. Remember that the scowling skeleton with a bob has managed to produce three children. Her secret, apparently, is to get a fertility tattoo on her inner thigh. Reportedly she is flying a celebrity tattooist to LA for that very purpose.
So convinced of success is Posh that she's even getting the symbol for a girl done, so she can take it shopping.
Now the gossip magazines can wait with baited breath to see if it works. And if it does we can be sure inner thigh fertility symbols will be the next big thing.
Jodi Panayotov author of In Vitro Fertility Goddess »
I've trawled the fertility books for miracle pregnancy secrets and there's a million of them, supporting the premise that it's incredibly hard to keep a secret.
Most of them going on and on about essentially the same things - fish oil, green tea, raspberry leaf tea, no alcohol, six items of leafy greens a day, folate supplements, Vitamin B1-100 etc. And smoking is out of the question.
No doubt smoking is linked with infertility, miscarriage, low birth weight, premature birth - everything you wish to avoid. There's even mention of kitchen spices that help to conceive early.
Why, then, does all the visible evidence point to the contrary? Why is it that if you sight a grossly overweight unhealthy looking woman with a cigarette in one hand and a trolley full of soft drinks, frozen pizza and potato chips, coming out of the supermarket, ninety percent of the time there will be a bunch of assorted offspring (at least two buried under the jumbo potato chip bags) accompanying her?
Why, if you enter any fast food franchise, do you discover the Treasurer's vision for the country - families with three or more young children tucking into burgers and fries and giant cokes with their clearly fertile parents who, by the way, usually have a cigarette packet protruding from a pocket or T-shirt sleeve?
If the books about conception diet are to be believed these people should be relegated to the bottom of the fertility pile. But they're not, and the statistics support it. The latest birth rate figures released show that the baby boom areas are precisely the areas inhabited by these people, the suburbs where fast food franchises rule and where fruit and vegetables are seen as a rarely affordable luxury.
So, what are we to summize from this? If all else fails move to a high fertility area (it worked for me), take up smoking, eat lots of burgers and fries and get your partner to adopt the hobby of adding spoilers and large exhaust pipes to his car. You may get lucky…
One a more serious note, there's compelling new research to come of Harvard University this year which offers some very interesting insights into the right diet to boost female fertility.
Harvard University researchers Jorge E. Chavarro, M.D., Walter C. Willett, M.D., and Patrick J. Skerrett surveyed more than 18,000 women who were trying to have babies over an eight year period. All these would-be mothers were taking part in the Nurses' Health Study which focused on the effects of diet and other factors on various conditions such as heart disease, cancer and other diseases.
What they discovered is that while most of the women surveyed were successful in their quest to have children, one in six had some kind of trouble falling pregnant, including hundreds who experienced ovulatory infertility which is a problem related to the maturation or release of a mature egg each month and accounts for at least one quarter of all cases of infertility.
Then researchers used this data to compare the successful pregnancies against the unsuccessful ones by analyzing diets, exercise habits and lifestyle choices.
And they then came up with the following recommendations:
- Eat Slow Digesting Carbohydrates, Not No Carbohydrates at All
The Nurses' Health Study revealed that women who ate easily digested carbohydrates (also know as fast carbs) such as sugared sodas, potatoes and white bread increased their odds of contracting ovulatory infertility.
However, those subjects who consumed slowly digested carbohydrates (slow carbs) which are rich in fiber found their fertility improved. These slow carbs include vegetables, whole fruits, dark breads, brown rice and beans.
In essence, the reason carbohydrates impact on fertility is because they determine the blood-sugar and insulin levels. When these rise to higher levels, they disrupt the hormones needed for reproduction and therefore disrupt ovulation leading to ovulatory infertility.
- Replace Trans Fats By Unsaturated Fats
Another key finding came from a closer look as to whether dietary fats influence ovulation and reproduction. It has long been known that body fat and energy stores affect reproduction. Women who don't have enough stored energy to sustain a pregnancy often have trouble ovulating. They are also know to stop menstruating altogether. Women who have too much stored energy often have difficulty conceiving for other reasons, many of which affect ovulation.
What the Harvard researchers found is that women who consume trans fats had more chances of suffering from ovulatory infertility than those who took in more unsaturated fats in their diet.
- Get More of Your Proteins from Plants than from Animals
Replacing beef, chicken and pork with the humble bean, peas, tofu or soybeans, peanuts or other nuts as the main source of protein intake also proved to have amazing results in improving women's fertility. The authors found that ovulatory infertility was 39 percent more likely in women with the highest intake of animal protein than in those with the lowest. And the reverse also applied: women with the highest intake of plant protein ended up much less likely to have had ovulatory infertility than women with the lowest plant protein intake.
- The Right Dairy Products
This might sound amazing but yes, ice cream is good for women trying to get conceive. What the Harvard study found is that a daily serving or two of whole milk and foods made from whole milk such as cottage cheese, full-fat yogurt and ice cream appears to offer some kind of protection against ovulatory infertility.
One the other had, low-fat and skim milk do the opposite and should be avoided.
In other words, the more full-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the less likely she is to have problems getting pregnant.
- Having The Right Body Weight
There are many know research papers to date which stress that obesity or excess weight lowers the chances of a successful in vitro fertilization or other assisted reproductive procedure. The risk factors include a higher incidence of miscarriage, a higher chances of developing high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy and increases the odds of needing a Cesarean section. And some of those dangers also extend to women who are underweight and their babies.
A close analysis of the Nurses' Health Study report found that women with a higher or lower Body Mass Indexes or BMI were more likely to have had trouble with ovulatory infertility than women with BMIs of 20 to 24, with the ideal BMI sitting at 21.
- Exercise!
While the researchers here weren't able to find a magic formula to apply to all women irrespective of their BIMs, the Nurses' Health Study did reveal a strong link between exercise and increased fertility.
The lack of exercise deprives muscles of their ability to efficiently absorb blood sugar and respond to insulin. And with excess blood sugar and insulin in the bloodstream, it jeopardizes ovulation, conception and pregnancy.
The researchers conclude that for most women seeking to become pregnant, at least 30 minutes of exercise each day is recommended. For those with a BMI in excess of 25, they may need to exercise for an hour or more daily. And for those who are lean with a BMI of 19 ort below, they should shoot for the middle of the exercise window over a period of a few months.
That said, out off all those fertility books I've "trawled" through (99% of which are absolute rubbish) there are a couple I'd like to recommend. First there's Stacey Roberts aka "The Baby Maker's" ground-breaking eBook ‘Herbs and IVF' available here » - I know deep in my heart that her fomulas helped me achieve my dream.
Another excellent and instantly downloadable eBook on the topic is The Fertility Plan »
I loved it at the time I was desparing about my own infertility and came to the same conclusion when I read an updated September 2008 version. It's basically a guide to overcoming infertility naturally, containing straight to the point, updated and well researched information on diet, sex life and really everything you need to know about achieving a natural pregnancy.
For more on this eBook click here »
Jodi Panayotov
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I was on the fertility wagon once, not for very long because I bought the wrong ticket. Still I was there and I remember it well. I even have a child to prove it. Admittedly I was given a leg-up, meaning I used assisted reproductive technology, but for nine glorious months I got to enjoy the world from a different perspective.
It was the perspective that fertility goddesses see the world from: the ‘I can reproduce, I can bear children, nah, nah, nah' one. And I enjoyed it, I really did. I started to settle in, feel right at home, even started to think about redecorating, when it happened.
I fell off the wagon. This time it took me by surprise as I'd really believed I'd conquered my infertility, that if I'd been there that long I could stay. Pregnant again through natural causes after my IVF child, I was on the cusp of becoming a fertility goddess. Until I miscarried at seven and a half weeks and from there everything went into decline.
I tried Frozen Embryo transfer to no avail and failed two IVF drug tests. The brief glory days of having a successful pregnancy had passed. I was shattered, beyond hope.
By now I was forty-one and a half and didn't have the energy to pursue getting back on the wagon again. And now that I've had a full hysterectomy I'll have to find another way to get around. I'm thinking the Menopausal Motorbike, part of the latest trend in HRT or Hormone Replacement Transport.
But I digress, easy to do when your body is the temperature of a charcoal brazier.
What is the point of this story? It is that fertility isn't an absolute or a given. You can't buy it, trade it or get rid of it. It can be yours and then you can lose it, or you can think you haven't got it and in the brief but painful jab of a trigger injection you find it.
It can be fleeting, or it can be permanent like cellulite or having a Bush in politics. And if you can't be a real fertility goddess, you can fake it. Just look at Hollywood, the world capital of Botox, plastic surgery and Assisted Reproduction. And of course, falling off the wagon.
Jodi Panayotov author of In Vitro Fertility Goddess »
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Tuesday 2 September, 2008
Source: Nature Medicine Journal
A new study has found a "master switch" in the brain of mice that helps them control both fertility and body weight, helping to explain why some women who are too fat or too thin may have problems conceiving.
The gene, TORC1, acts as a switch by turning off appetite and allowing pregnancy.
The team of US scientists from the Salk Institute in California believe the gene may act to give an evolutionary advantage by stopping women getting pregnant in times of famine.
But what they discovered is that mice without the gene were infertile and grossly obese.
The study's author Marc Montminy says "the gene is crucial to the daisy chain of signals that run between body fat and the brain. It likely plays a pivotal role in how much we, as humans, eat and whether we have offspring."
Professor Montminy says that the gene is just as crucial as the appetite-regulating hormone leptin, which turns on TORC1 decreasing appetite and enabling reproduction: "Leptin tells the brain that times are good, your body is full, and that it is not necessary to eat more at the moment."
The researchers also argued that even a small mutation in the TORC1 gene might also play a role in obesity by failing to pass on the "stop eating" signal even when food is in abundance.
But more importantly, the failure of the gene to work properly could also affect fertility by not allowing reproduction to proceed.
The findings would facilitate the creation of a new drug which could act directly in patients lacking or with a dysfunctional TORC1 gene. "TORC1 is regulated by phosphate handling enzymes called kinases, and kinases often make for very good drug targets," Professor Motminy concluded.
Sarah Williams, IVF Goddess reporter