NHS to offer safer test for Down’s syndrome
This week the UK NHS has announced that from 2018 it will pay for about 10,000 high risk women to have non invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). This will reduce the need for invasive procedures such as...
Valerie Hunter Gordon dies aged 94: inventor of the disposable nappy
Valerie Hunter Gordon died on 16th October 2016 at her home near Inverness, aged 94. She is survived by six children, 19 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, with another due in a few months....
Pain relief in labour: yes or no?
In December, the Royal Society of Medicine are holding a meeting titled: Work of the devil or heaven sent – pain relief in labour. The evening hopes to tackle the questions – have you...
Can artificial sweeteners affect fertility?
Diet drinks may reduce a woman’s chance of getting pregnant during IVF, a new study suggests. Would-be mothers who drunk many “diet” sodas with artificial sweeteners or put sugar substitutes...
Making eggs from stem cells achieved in mice
A women’s eggs are laid down when she is a fetus and she is born with all of the eggs she will produce. The number and quality decline as we age, which causes age-related infertility and...
Council of Europe rejects recommendation to write guidelines on surrogacy
This week the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted to reject the recommendation of drawing up “European guidelines to safeguard children’s rights in relation to surrogacy...
Scientific evidence suggests women’s ovaries can grow new eggs
A new study has found the first evidence that suggest the number of eggs a woman is born with, is not all they’ll ever have. The dogma is that the human ovary has a fixed population of eggs and that...
Young men conceived using an assisted reproductive technique may inherit sperm problems
Young men conceived by an assisted reproductive technique called ICSI, in which sperm is injected directly into the egg, seem to have lower sperm quantity and quality than those conceived...
A world without Down’s Syndrome?
The field of fetal medicine has spent the last thirty years developing technology to identify Down’s syndrome pregnancies. A new test, non invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), has just been...
Men are leaving it too late to have children
Are men waiting too long to have children? Hopefully we are all aware that a woman’s fertile years decline rapidly after 30 and significantly after 35, making it very difficult to become...
Mom hopes to give birth to her own grandchild in surrogate pregnancy
Kristie Coffey, 22 was born without a womb, but she produces eggs. When doctors told her at the age of 16 that she could never become a mother, her mum, Katrina offered to carry her grandchild as a...
Bioethicists eye designer babies and CRISPR cows
The implications of gene editing in human reproduction and livestock will be examined by UK bioethicists. In a preliminary report the Nuffield Council on Bioethics announced that two applications of...
The importance of sleep position during pregnancy
An increasing amount of data now shows that poor sleep – such as sleep disordered breathing and insomnia – has a negative impact on pregnancy outcomes. One study investigating placental...
Why do women need folic acid in pregnancy?
Did you know that a daily supplement of 400 micrograms of folic acid is recommended when women are trying to conceive? According to the British Department of Health the same dose should be taken for...
Moderate drinking may not affect female fertility
Drinking fewer than 14 servings of alcohol per week does not affect female fertility, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. Researchers looked at the drinking habits of...
Caesarean section babies at risk of obesity
A new study from Harvard gives more evidence for the link between C section deliveries and obesity in children. The study, published in the journal JAMA Paediatrics, looked a children in the...
Potential ‘Cuckoo Kids’ Law’ forces German women to reveal their child’s biological father
A new law has been proposed to the German government where women will be required to name the biological father of a child at the request of the partner who is paying child support, therefore forcing...
The creation of ‘artificial ovaries’ – new advances bring us closer than ever
Though fertility preservation is classified as a relatively recent field, the field of fertility restoration has made many advances since the first experiments carried out in 1994. Here, ovarian...
