Category: Fertility

More than 10 million people in the United State have cancer, and more than half of them are women. For those who could still give birth, cancer treatments might signal the end of their fertility. Now, a new $20 million, 5-year program from the National Institutes of Health is creating a national team of scientists to investigate every aspect of fertility preservation for women with cancer. Part of that effort is being led by University of Missouri-Columbia researchers.

The Oregon National Primate Research Center and the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine have been named to a national team of institutions hoping to preserve or restore fertility in women battling cancer. The Oncofertility Consortium, funded for five years by the National Institutes of Health, features participants from five universities and comprises researchers, physicians, engineers, educators, social workers and medical ethicists.

Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has been awarded a $21 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a landmark national research, clinical and education program that targets fertility threats posed to women by cancer treatment.When a woman is diagnosed with cancer, her treatment has a laser-like focus to save her life.

Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has been awarded a $21 million grant from NIH for an initiative that aims to protect the fertility of women who are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The California Senate recently voted 35-1 to approve a bill (SB 443) that would allow HIV-positive men to have their sperm washed and used for fertility treatments, the MediaNews/Oakland Tribune reports (Geissinger, MediaNews/Oakland Tribune, 8/29).

Victoria Lasita, 39, has given birth to her second set of triplets. The babies were born after 34 weeks of pregnancy. The chances of having triplets once are 1 in 8,000, but twice are 1 in 64 million. Victoria has never used fertility treatments, which boost the probability of having a multiple birth. The Lasitas had three boys this time round, Casey Alexander, 4lbs 2.5 oz, Caden Bradley, 4lbs 13.5 oz, and Carson Charles, 4lbs 9.5 oz.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider the case of three frozen embryos of a Texas couple who divorced before the woman underwent in vitro fertilization, the AP/New York Times reports (AP/New York Times, 8/26).

Frontiers in Optics 2007 (FiO), the 91st Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America, will be held from Sept. 16-20 in San Jose, Calif., alongside Laser Science XXIII, the annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Laser Science.

A researcher at the University of Adelaide, Australia, has discovered scientific evidence that obesity is a key factor in infertility because of how it affects women’s eggs.While obesity has long been thought to be a major factor in couples’ inability to conceive, this is the first time the effects of obesity on the egg have been discovered.

Scientists have discovered a new enzyme involved in the degradation of proteins inside cells, a process that helps eliminate or recycle proteins that are no longer needed. The unexpected discovery, made by Marcus Groettrup, chair of the immunology department at the University of Constance, Konstanz, Germany, and colleagues, overthrows the idea that protein degradation is initiated by only one enzyme.