Category Archives: Embryology

The science of families: Aberdeen IVF centre is at the forefront of fertility treatment – Press and Journal

January 12, 2020 medical

If you turn right at the entrance of Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, youll inevitably come across excited visitors and proud parents cradling their new additions.

Balloons gently bob down the corridor along with bunches of flowers, and families make their way home together for the very first time.

Although a baby symbolises hope, however, the path to parenthood is not always straightforward.

Some parents give a quick glance as they pass through the doors, and look left to where their journey may have started.

For, alongside the neonatal unit where babies can receive lifesaving care, there is a department doing remarkable work.

It can be difficult for those who have yet to fall pregnant to see and hear the joy of others in such close proximity.

The lucky few, however, have experienced both sides of the building having originally turned left into Aberdeen Fertility Centre.

The unit has been at the forefront of fertility treatment for more than 30 years, with the first IVF baby born in Aberdeen in 1989.

The university department offers a clinical service to Grampian, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland.

It is one of only four fertility centres in Scotland funded by the NHS, although patients must meet certain criteria before undergoing treatment.

Alongside investigations, the centre can offer treatment such as IVF, ICSI, egg/sperm/embryo freezing and recipient, IUI, surgical sperm retrieval and surrogacy.

The science behind these processes is mind-boggling and the clinic is also in the process of setting up a national donor bank.

For laboratory manager and embryologist Dr Liz Ferguson, helping people to fall pregnant is all in a days work.

She manages a team of 11, and can usually be found overseeing work in the lab.

According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, IVF in particular is more popular and successful than ever before.

The reasons for fertility treatment have also gradually changed across the decades, with more same-sex couples, single women and surrogates undergoing treatment.

Liz believes that women are also putting off motherhood in a bid to climb the career ladder, and can find themselves in need of fertility treatment in their late 30s.

Increasingly these days, women want to have their career before a baby, said Liz.

Unexplained infertility is actually very common, and you have to factor in all the delays. So by the time someone has started trying to get pregnant, then, say, they wait another two years before coming to us for tests, age plays a big factor.

Fertility in women can decline quite rapidly after the age of 35.

So we always say the younger, the better because we want patients to have the best possible chance.

Liz and her team can watch life begin underneath the microscope, and work with exceptionally high-tech equipment.

We have an EmbryoScope in the lab it was funded by the Scottish Government, explained Liz. It is a special incubator where we can place the eggs once they have been fertilised.

The incubator provides a stable environment where we can watch the eggs develop, hopefully into embryos.

My job is very rewarding, but it can also be intense.

Say we have retrieved eggs from a patients, but there are only two eggs we can use.

That can be quite an anxious time, when youre injecting the sperm into the egg.

People can assume that if 10 eggs are retrieved, that means all 10 embryos will fertilise. That isnt actually the case though, as each embryo is given a score as to how viable it is.

We can also freeze embryos theyre kept in liquid nitrogen in storage tanks.

We only implant one embryo at a time, to minimise the risk of multiple pregnancies.

The team will be told two weeks after an embryo transfer as to whether a patient has fallen pregnant, but there are still many hurdles to overcome.

People are referred to us for a variety of reasons, said Liz.

We have male infertility, such as testicular damage where the patient might need surgery to retrieve the sperm.

Then theres endometriosis, which can make it difficult for the embryo to implant.

Its amazing that were able to help patients in the first place.

So when a patient comes back and sees us with their baby, theres no feeling quite like it.

I think some patients can find it quite hard to come to the fertility centre via the maternity entrance. Especially if you dont get the news you wanted, and then you see someone with a newborn baby.

We do have a side entrance, but well be completely separate from the maternity ward in the new hospital.

I feel very lucky to have this job, especially when you come across people who may have been trying to conceive for years, adds Liz.

IVF isnt a quick process, but when you finally have a baby at the end of it, thats what were all hoping for.

Thats what we work towards.

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The science of families: Aberdeen IVF centre is at the forefront of fertility treatment - Press and Journal

Embryology

How likely are you to conceive a baby after freezing your eggs? – cosmopolitan.com

January 10, 2020 medical

We live in a modern world, where (thankfully) women are no longer expected to reproduce by the age of 17 and manage a home while their husbands are out hunting. The crux of it is, women are having children later, choosing to establish careers and financial stability before starting a family.

Data from the Office of National Statistics indicates the average age women in England and Wales are becoming first-time mums these days is now 28.9 - a figure that's been steadily increasing over the years. Simultaneously, instances of egg freezing have been on the rise.

Women are born with all their eggs, meaning female fertility declines with age. By age 37, 90% of a woman's eggs are gone, which is why the likelihood of getting pregnant naturally at around the age of 40 is just 5% each month. Women are encouraged to freeze their eggs in a bid to preserve them, opening up the option of an IVF-assisted conception if they struggle to get pregnant at an older age. But how likely is it that IVF using frozen eggs will work later down the line? Not particularly, says new research.

Scientists from Newcastle Fertility Centre presented data today at the Fertility 2020 conference in Edinburgh which suggest the live birth rate using a patient's own frozen eggs is just 18%. The figures were concluded after the researchers analysed data from the UKs fertility regulator, the HFEA (the Human Fertilisation and Embryology authority), from the past 15 years.

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To put it another way, if you freeze your eggs and embark upon IVF later down the line, you'll have a less-than-one-in-five chance that it'll lead to a baby. As the British Fertility Society warns, "people should know that freezing eggs is far from a guarantee that you will have a baby later."

Dr Mariano Mascarenhas from Leeds Fertility, who presented the research at the conference, noted that people may see an improved chance of success if they have their eggs frozen younger.

"The chances of having a baby can improve if eggs are stored early in life," he said. "Unfortunately we couldnt account for the age at which eggs are stored or when and how they were stored because that information isnt available."

Interestingly, the fertility experts discovered a far higher success rate - 31% - when frozen donor eggs are used, as opposed to the woman's own. "Hence for young fit women with no fertility issue the success of egg freezing may ultimately be much greater," he added.

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While this information shouldn't necessarily be used as a deterrent for egg freezing, it should be used as a reminder that there's no certainty biological motherhood will come from freezing your eggs. With the pressure to conform to societal demands of motherhood can come added pressure to undertake processes like egg freezing, 'just in case'. But egg freezing is expensive, and these statistics prove it's far from a guarantee.

In the UK, egg freezing costs an average of 3,350, according to the HFEA - but that's without any additional medication (which can range between 500-1,500) and then egg storage costs (which can be anywhere between 125 and 350 per year). Yup, it's a pricey business.

So if motherhood is your one true destiny - or if you simply want the peace of mind that you needn't rush to find a suitable sperm donor - then, sure. Go ahead and freeze your eggs. But just be mindful that it may not turn out as you hope.

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How likely are you to conceive a baby after freezing your eggs? - cosmopolitan.com

Embryology

UVA and the History of Race: Eugenics, the Racial Integrity Act, Health Disparities – UVA Today

January 10, 2020 medical

According to Barringer, rigid hereditary determinism predetermined the absolute limit of African Americans biological and social advancement. He argued that with emancipation came reversion of African Americans to savage status, creating a new, degenerate black generation that could not possibly survive in contact with civilized white society.

Barringer believed that under the conditions of slavery, blacks had advanced beyond their natural selection through selective breeding by slave owners. With emancipation came reversion of African Americans to their original savage nature, which put them on a path toward extinction, accelerated by an irrational procreation which further exacerbated their genetic inferiority and susceptibility to disease and criminality.4

The drastically high incidence of tuberculosis, syphilis and typhoid fever among African Americans (locally and in cities around the country) indicated nothing to Barringer about overcrowded housing or lack of clean water, sanitation or safe meats and pasteurized milk. Instead the high morbidity and mortality rates of African Americans proved the genetic unfitness of a markedly criminal race. Without white intervention, Barringer condemned blacks to a life of barbarism and death. To Barringer, the Negro Problem was more than a political problem; it was a huge public health threat to whites.

Barringers tripartite solution to the Negro Problem was political disfranchisement, transferring responsibility for African American education from black to white teachers, and training blacks to be law-abiding laborers and artisans. As he wrote, Every Negro doctor, lawyer, teacher or other leader in excess of the immediate needs of his own people is an antisocial produce, a social menace.5

Eugenics flourished under the leadership of President Edwin Alderman (1903-27) as he set out to build the research base of the University with recruitment of leading men of eugenic science into schools across Grounds: These included Harvey Jordan, Robert Bean and Lawrence Royster in the medical school; George Ferguson in education; Orlando White as director of UVAs biological station; and Ivey Lewis as chair of biology.

Together these faculty created eugenics research and education programs at UVA and throughout the state, and in doing so, trained UVA students as well as high school and college teachers in eugenic racism. They also collaborated with nationally renowned eugenics investigators, and presented their work at international eugenics meetings. Fully immersed in race science, these men contributed directly and indirectly to ethically contemptuous laws and policies designed to maintain a culture of white supremacy, and exclusionary white privilege.

Jordan, a professor of embryology, genetics and histology, was one of Aldermans early recruits. Joining the faculty in 1907, he served as dean of the medical school from 1939 to 1949. Believing that blacks inherited a susceptibility to contracting diseases such as syphilis and tuberculosis, Jordan called for compulsory registration of all who were ill. He argued that proposed eugenic marriage, segregation and sterilization laws, were public and racial health measures that should form part of the health code, to be administered under the State Police powers.6 The promise of eugenics as a solution to societys ills, and the power of physicians in solving such problems was best summed up when Jordan declared at the 1st International Congress of Eugenics in 1912 that the future physician must also take a more active part in helping to shape legislation in the interest of race welfare.7

Chair of Anatomy Dr. Robert Bean argued that the physical features of African Americans confirmed their inferiority when compared to whites. Furthermore, he advanced human types that represent different degrees of susceptibility of disease may be segregated and given differential treatment.8 Through medical school core courses, Jordan and Bean, combined, taught about 20% of the medical school curriculum.

Along similar lines, George Oscar Ferguson, a professor in the education school, in his use of intelligence testing among blacks, mixed-race and white children concluded, It does not seem possible to raise the scholastic attainment of the Negro to an equality with that of the white. [N]o expenditure of time or money would accomplish this end, since education cannot create mental power, but can only develop that which is innate.9

Eugenics began to shape public policy nationally as early as 1907, when Indiana passed a sterilization law. Two Virginia eugenics laws, both passed in 1924, had a profound impact in the commonwealth and throughout the country. The Virginia Sterilization Act and the Racial Integrity Act not only legalized sterilization of the mentally ill and persons of low literacy, but also cemented discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable populations, including African Americans. These laws codified Jim Crow into every aspect of community life, and in doing so, denied African Americans access to medical care, jobs and fair wages, as well as higher education and professional training. Simply put, eugenic laws created the one drop rule, where one drop of African American blood restricted a person of color to life behind the veil.10

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UVA and the History of Race: Eugenics, the Racial Integrity Act, Health Disparities - UVA Today

Embryology

Cheryl Tweedy is considering sperm donation to have more children but how does it work? – Yahoo Style

January 10, 2020 medical

Cheryl Tweedy has revealedplans to have more children by sperm donor.

The pop singer, 36, explained that she wants to provide more than one sibling for two-year-old son Bear, who she shares with ex-boyfriend Liam Payne, 26.

Speaking to The Times Magazine, the star, who is currently single, said that the thought of potential solo fertility treatment makes me very happy.

She continued: If time was on my side and I was in my twenties, yeah, I would wait and consider more options, or wait for somebody I felt was right, but

You could meet somebody and for that year it feels incredible, but there is never a guarantee because there are so many variables that can happen.

Life is a funny old game.

Cheryl, went on to confirm that she is considering having a second and possibly third child with the help of a sperm donor from out of town.

She explained: You can get it from abroad.

Do you imagine some guy from Newcastle saying, Thats my child!?

Theres a lot to choose from and a lot to think about, she added.

READ MORE: What is spurgling and why do experts have concerns about the sperm stealing practice?

More women are choosing sperm donation as a method of having a family [Photo: Getty]

Cheryl Tweedy certainly isnt alone in considering fertility treatment without a father.

Latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) showthe number of women attempting to start a family without a father increased by more than a third (35%) in two years; 1,272 women registered to have fertility treatment without a partner in 2016 up from 942 in 2014.

Likewise, there has been a rise in the use of sperm donation to start or grow a family. In 2016, 4,306 treatment cycles involved a patient using their own eggs and donor sperm, up 15% from 3,749 in 2015.

So why is sperm donation becoming more popular?

Some experts believe women are feeling more empowered to make that choice, while Dr Geetha Venkat director ofHarley Street Fertility Clinic believes the fact that many women are waiting until they are older to have children, and the changing circumstances surrounding starting a family are both contributing to the process becoming a more popular option.

Of course sperm donation is also considered by some couples where the male partner has sperm abnormalities, poor sperm production or no sperm at all.

Some men carry inherited genetic diseases and are thus seeking donated sperm so as not to transmit the disease to their children, Dr Venkat continues.

Sperm donors can change lives and make families a reality.

READ MORE: Single mum, 39, who used sperm donor, explains choice to her baby boy in moving video

According to Dr Venkat there is a shortage of sperm donors in the UK and many people have to wait to benefit from donated sperm.

Some couples are fortunate enough to have friends and family willing to donate sperm as a known donor, she explains.

However, most are not so fortunate and thus they are likely to be in the queue waiting for around one year on average for sufficient donors to volunteer to donate their sperm.

Dr Venkat says that to meet the demand, over 500 sperm donors are needed every year from all nationalities, religions, ethnicities and cultures.

UK fertility clinics are able to import sperm from overseas, but only under certain conditions, she adds.

Dr Venkat says the person/people who receive a sperm donation will be the childs legal and social parent(s) the donor will not be named on the birth certificate.

The donor has no legal, financial or social obligations to any child created from the donation either now or in 18 years time, she explains.

Donors are asked to complete an HFEA form and this details personal details about them that could be handed to the donor-conceived person when they reach age 18 or older.

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This information enables the childs parents to talk to them about their origins as they grow up and helps them build a mental picture of the donor, but they cannot meet them, she adds.

Its worth nothing that if youre having treatment at a licensed fertility clinic in the UK, the donor will have no legal rights or responsibilities to any children born with their sperm.

This is a personal choice, says Dr Venkat. But the most important thing is that donor procedures are carried out and that only healthy, safe sperm is used for your health and that of any child you have.

If you use a donor through a fertility clinic can find out:

height, weight, eye and hair colour

the year and country of birth

their ethnicity

whether they had any children at the time of donation, how many and gender

their marital status and medical history

they may choose to write a message at the time of their donation but you wont be able to find out any information that might reveal who the donor is.

READ MORE:Woman considers divorcing husband who fathered 47 children through sperm donations

IUI with donor insemination is a relatively quick and painless process [Photo: Getty]

When fertility treatment involves directly inserting sperm into a woman's womb, it is called Intrauterineinsemination (IUI).

The donor sperm is prepared in the laboratory to separate fast moving sperm from more sluggish or non-moving sperm, advises Dr Venkat.

The sperm is washed in the laboratory before insemination in order to concentrate the best sperm into a small amount of fluid.

Dr Venkat explains that using a catheter, your doctor will place the concentrated sperm directly into your uterus through your cervix, under ultrasound guidance.

The insemination procedure is relatively painless and is performed in a few minutes, although some women may experience some temporary, menstrual-like, cramping, she says.

IUI treatment can be performed in a natural cycle without fertility medicines or in a stimulated cycle with fertility drugs.

Though the treatment is available on the NHS, the waiting list can be very long in some areas and there are strict rules.

Dr Venkat advises speaking to your GP about your personal situation.

To give you an idea of costings, prices for IUI start at 1,100 per cycle with the HSFC.

Though you can go abroad for sperm donor treatment, like Cheryl Tweedy seems to hint shes considering, Dr Venkat says suggests remaining in the UK for the safest option.

The success rate with IUI treatment depends on your partner fertility status and your age.

Most couples who opt to undergo IUI have a 5 to 20%chance of becoming pregnant with each attempt, Dr Venkat says.

The chances are higher for stimulated IUI cycles in younger women using good quality sperm. However, it is not uncommon for multiple IUI cycles to be attemptedduethe poor success rate with a single cycle.

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Cheryl Tweedy is considering sperm donation to have more children but how does it work? - Yahoo Style

Embryology

Cheryl Tweedy is considering sperm donation to have more children but how does it work? – Yahoo News

January 8, 2020 medical

Cheryl Tweedy has revealed she could look to sperm donation to grow her family [Photo: Getty]