The AFA Blog

Leading experts bring infertility prevention awareness to University of Colorado

DENVER, Feb. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Fertility Association (The AFA), a national family-building non-profit organization, is heading to college campuses around the country to educate young men and women about infertility - a disease affecting one out of 6 couples in the U.S. The 2011 College Tour Series kicks off on March 4th at the University of Colorado in Boulder with a presentation entitled "Why Mother Nature Wants You To Get Laid Right Now". Students will learn about preventing infertility by avoiding certain environmental toxins, STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) prevention, and about the realities of the biological clock. Brenda Strong, The AFA's national spokesperson, board member, and Desperate Housewives actress, will be on hand to talk about the benefits of yoga to help alleviate stress, which can affect fertility. She will also lead a yoga demonstration for the students. Though The AFA's goal is to prevent infertility whenever possible, sometimes infertility can't be avoided. Dr. Mark Bush, a reproductive endocrinologist with Conceptions Reproductive Associates in Denver, will speak at the event so students are aware of savvy treatment options.  Executive Director Ken Mosesian and Program Director Corey Whelan will discuss infertility prevention for men and women, environmental toxin avoidance, and STI (sexually transmitted infection) avoidance.

Later that night, The AFA will honor Dr. Mark Bush with the Joyce M. Vargyas, MD, Visionary Award at the Illuminations Denver cocktail party. Dr. Bush has extensive experience in all aspects of reproductive endocrinology, infertility, and assisted reproductive technologies. He has published numerous scientific and clinical papers in the field of women's health. Recently, Dr. Bush has taken a serious interest in elective single embryo transfer in order to avoid multiple births. The AFA strongly supports the use of single embryo transfer when possible for the safety of the patient and the child.

This year's Illuminations Denver will focus on The AFA's work, empowering young men and women to take control of their fertility. Illuminations Denver will be held at Palazzo Verdi at Fiddler's Green, and special guests will include Brenda Strong, Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald from Comedy Central and Animal Planet and pianist Joseph Eisele with the prestigious Young Musicians Foundation of Colorado. The event is designed to raise much-needed funds to support the educational outreach work of The American Fertility Association.

The media is welcome, and encouraged, to attend both events. The AFA would like to thank all of our sponsors who are helping to make both of these events a huge success, including our Platinum Event Sponsors, Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Conceptions Reproductive Associates, and our Gold Event Sponsor EMD Serono. Special thanks to Disney / ABC Television Group for their support as the Charter Sponsor of our 2011 College Tour. If you're interested in sponsoring Illuminations Denver or purchasing tickets, please contact Corey Whelan at 718-853-1411.

Press Contact: Merry Armentrout Director of Communications, The AFA 205-470-9406 [email protected]

The American Fertility Association, a 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization, is a resource for infertility prevention, reproductive health and family-building. AFA services and materials are provided free of charge and without reservation. These services include an extensive online library, resource directory, hosted message boards, daily fertility news and a toll-free support line. http://www.theafa.org or 888.917.3777

This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE American Fertility Association

Read more: Preventing Infertility and the Future of Fertility Treatments - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/coloradocorporatestatements/ci_17442679#ixzz1EdBw9Rec
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

January is thyroid awareness month. If you can't get pregnant, should you care?

by Corey Whelan

Your thyroid, that little gland at the base of your neck, is the master glad of your metabolism, and plays a significant role in many areas of a woman's reproductive life, from conception through to delivery.  59 million Americans, mostly women, currently have thyroid abnormalities in the U.S.  A significant percentage of these women are currently trying to conceive a baby.  Could you be one of them?

Thyroid problems fall along two specific lines, 1) hyperthyroidism, where the thyroid gland is overactive and producing an overabundance of thyroid hormone and 2) hypothyroidism, where the thyroid gland is underactive and not producing enough. 

Ironically, both extremes can present problems for women who are trying to get and stay pregnant.  Women with hypothyroidism may produce too much prolactin, which is the hormone that helps to create and maintain breast milk.  Too much prolactin can adversely affect fertility by inhibiting ovulation and therefore, conception. 

Women with undiagnosed hyperthyroidism may be at greater risk of miscarriage or premature birth, making it hard or impossible to maintain a healthy pregnancy.

It should be a no brainer that your thyroid is tested when you are first experiencing difficulties conceiving but unfortunately that is not often the case.  The reason is simple. The symptoms of both underactive and overactive thyroid are often vague and attributable to a wide variety of other disorders.  Symptoms  include sleeplessness, weight loss or gain, constipation, memory loss, or hair loss.  

A good rule of thumb is simply this.  If you are having trouble getting or staying pregnant, ask for a full battery of thyroid tests.  These tests include the TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) Test, the T4 test, the Free T3 test, and the Autoimmune Antibodies Test.  In addition, make sure that your physician is a reproductive endocrinologist or other specialist who can accurately  analyze the results of these blood tests and integrate them into your care, by evaluating your symptoms, taking your medical history and performing a clinical exam.  Proper diagnosis, and follow up treatment is key, particularly if you are placed in medication as your dosage will need to be carefully evaluated over time.

 That little butterfly shaped gland called the thyroid affects virtually every system in your body.  If you are trying to get pregnant, particularly if you are over the age of 35, make sure that a full battery of thyroid tests are part of your initial infertility workup.

For more information on this story, check out these important links:

http://www.thyroidawarenessmonth.com/ebook.htm

http://www.thyroid-info.com/pregnancyguide.htm

http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/fertilitythy.htm

http://thyroid.about.com/cs/basics_starthere/a/couldyou_2.htm

http://www.examiner.com/x-14154-Raleigh-Infertility--Miscarriage-Examiner~y2009m11d23-Hypothyroidism-and-infertility?cid=examiner-email

http://thyroidawarenessmonth.com/

http://thyroidawarenessmonth.com/allyson-averell-facepainting.htm

Reprinted with permission from www.examiner.com

Photo: Allyson Averell

The New WHO

by Craig Niederberger, M.D., F.A.C.S.

A first test of male fertility is the semen analysis.  You do your thing, and a technician counts the sperm, sees how they’re moving, what they look like and whether they’re alive.  For decades, the World Health Organization has published criteria for these numbers to alert a man that he might have a problem when it comes to impregnating a woman.  Until recently, the numbers were a consensus of expert opinion, but in the latest edition, the WHO criteria changed substantially.

What the WHO is currently doing is to dispense with expert opinion, and just lay the numbers out for all to see.  Table II from the paper shows the numbers for men from couples who conceived within a year.  Take sperm concentration, for example.  For centile 5, the sperm concentration is 15 million per ml.  That means that only 5% of couples where the man had 15 million/ml sperm or less conceived within a year.  For centile 50, the concentration was 73 million/ml, meaning that 50% of couples conceived within a year when the sperm concentration was up to that number.  You get the idea.

The problem is that people like cutoffs, and in the latest edition, the WHO chose centile 5 as the line in the sand.  It’s a good number for thinking that below it, couple infertility likely involves the male.  But keep in mind that at centile 10, only 10% of couples conceived within a year.  In other words, having sperm numbers above the centile 5 cutoff doesn’t guarantee that the sperm are trouble free.

Frankly, I think the WHO numbers are most useful to get a ballpark idea of how fertility may be related to what’s inside the semen.  I prefer the approach David Guzick and colleagues took, where they applied a statistical method called Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis to sperm, which gives two cutoffs in a “green light, yellow light, red light” fashion.  For example, CART analysis came up with 13.5 million/ml and 48 million/ml for sperm concentration.  At 13.5 million/ml sperm or less, the “red light,” couple infertility likely involves the male.  At 48 million/ml or more, your sperm probably are “green light” good to go.  Between 13.5 million/ml and 48 million/ml, the “yellow light,” sperm may or may not be the problem.  You can find the Guzick CART cutoffs here.

A lot of people, including doctors and fertility specialists, are confused about the new WHO cutoffs.  Expect a little consternation about them for a bit.

WHO Table II Distribution of values, lower reference limits and their 95% CI for semen parameters from fertile men whose partners had a time-to-pregnancy of 12 months or less

N Centiles 2.5 (95% CI) 5 (95% CI) 10 25 50 75 90 95 97.5 Semen volume (ml) 1941 1.2 (1.0–1.3) 1.5 (1.4–1.7) 2 2.7 3.7 4.8 6 6.8 7.6 Sperm concentration (106/ml) 1859 9 (8–11) 15 (12–16) 22 41 73 116 169 213 259 Total number (106/Ejaculate) 1859 23 (18–29) 39 (33–46) 69 142 255 422 647 802 928 Total motility (PR + NP, %)* 1781 34 (33–37) 40 (38–42) 45 53 61 69 75 78 81 Progressive motility (PR, %)* 1780 28 (25–29) 32 (31–34) 39 47 55 62 69 72 75 Normal forms (%) 1851 3 (2.0–3.0) 4 (3.0–4.0) 5.5 9 15 24.5 36 44 48 Vitality (%) 428 53 (48–56) 58 (55–63) 64 72 79 84 88 91 92

*PR, progressive motility (WHO, 1999 grades a + b); NP, non-progressive motility (WHO, 1999 grade c).

Improving Endometrial Thickness

by Fred Licciardi, M.D.

Today’s case: I have a patient who is doing a frozen embryo cycle, so we are preparing her uterus by giving her estrogen pills. She completed 2 weeks of estrogen therapy and her uterine lining was 6 mm, a ring pattern (also called a triple pattern). We decided the 6 mm was a little thin, so we kept her on the estrogen for 1 more week. I scanned her this morning and her lining was 8 mm. As this was a more acceptable thickness, we didn't need to wait any longer and we have now scheduled her transfer.

Is this a typical response? Did waiting help her cause? Let’s go over a few things.

Can your doctor do anything to improve the thickness of the lining? First let’s start with things I try. And here I am talking about a “medicated cycle”, one in which a woman is asked to take estrogen to prepare the lining for a frozen cycle or maybe in preparation for a donor egg cycle. These are cases where the ovaries are not stimulated by fertility drugs, there is no egg production and therefore the ovaries do not make estrogen. All the estrogen comes from medications.

One way to try to improve a lining is to just take more estrogen. There are different ways to get estrogen into your body: pills, patches, vaginal pills or suppositories and injections. All work well and none have been shown to be superior. When you are talking purely about estrogen levels, usually the shots and the vaginal pills lead to the highest blood levels. Levels with the oral pills and patches give levels that are a lower, but usually these methods supply more than enough.

What is the minimal acceptable level? I shoot for at least 200 pg/ml, but probably a little lower is just fine. No one has ever shown that 400 is better than 200, or 1000 is better than 400. Therefore, most of us are not overly concerned with the levels as long as the minimum is reached.

So in the case above, we didn’t even add any more, we just gave the uterus more time, and it seemed to work.

I start with estrogen pills, because I think it’s easier for the patients. Some women get bad rashes from the patches, and we all try to avoid injections. The other thing I don’t like about the injections is that the estrogen stays in your system a long time. So if you are not pregnant you need to wait longer to start again. But if you doctor has another preference, fine with me, they all work.

Some women do not absorb the pill well, and other women get low levels with all of the estrogen methods. We don’t know why. Maybe they metabolize the estrogen quickly (their lever breaks it down quickly).

If the pills are not working well, we can add a patch, so the patient is taking both. Or we can add the vaginal pills, injections or all of the above.

Case 2. I had a patient years ago who did one IVF cycle with a lining of 8 mm. She got pregnant and had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. Nothing unusual happened at all. Then she came back for her frozen embryos and her lining would not go above 4 mm. We added everything, still 4 mm, despite very high blood levels. We cancelled the cycle, and tried another fresh IVF cycle, thinking maybe her uterus would respond better to the ovaries making estrogen, and still 4 mm. We do not know what led to the change.

The point here is that only some women respond to extra estrogen and or time. Most of the time, if you have been on some form of estrogen for 10-14 days, that’s it. What you have you have, there is no improvement later. Or maybe there is a minimal increase the lining thickness.

In many many cases, the “feel sorry” factor comes into play. This is when the doctor does the scan, finds a thin lining, and then looks and looks and looks trying to find you an area that is a little thicker, and usually finds a better spot, even if it’s 1-2 mm extra. When the lining is obviously thick, it should take the doctor about 2 seconds to measure the lining. If it’s thin, but it’s a little early, and we know you will be coming back, same thing. But if you now have had extra time or been on extra estrogen, there is nothing else to offer, and we look and look.

The point here is I don’t know if the lining actually improved. It may just be that the doctor took much more time and found a little area that looks a little thicker and everyone leaves the scan feeling a little bit better.

Why You Should Like Infertility

by Merry Armentrout

I have a confession. I don't want anyone to know what I'm about to share, but feel the need to do so to prove a very important point. Let me start from the beginning...

As Director of Communications for The American Fertility Association my job is to spread the word about our organization. This involves working with the media, including the emergence of social media. I created a Facebook Fan Page for The AFA a few months ago, and I'm proud to say it rocks. The fan page includes 15 HD videos on a variety of topics, including Endometriosis, PCOS, Recurrent Miscarriage, In Vitro Fertilization and Reproductive Options for Gay Women, to name a few. The videos featured on our fan page come from The AFA's online library which includes Video Fact Sheets, informational fact sheets featuring a top expert in the fertility field on video. The best part, the videos are only a small fraction of our fan page. You can find pictures from our outreach events across the country, information on The AFA's board and staff members and daily posts and discussions on relevant topics on family building.

I've said it once, and I'm not afraid to say it again- our fan page rocks!

You would think I would be the first person to "Like" the own fan page I created, but I wasn't- I hesitated. That one small moment of hesitation shows there's a huge problem with the negative stigma associated with infertility. I didn't want to become a "fan" of The American Fertility Association because I didn't want my 550 "friends" on Facebook to think I was infertile. It doesn't matter the people who are closest to me, about 50 or so, know my husband and I haven't tried to have a baby yet, but it was the 500 other "friends" I was concerned with. The people I haven't seen since high school graduation, the people who I haven't talked with in years, it's those people I didn't want to think I was struggling with infertility.

If I saw a "Like" button for such organizations as Livestrong, a group that fights cancer, I would have no hesitation becoming a fan. In fact, thousands of people wear a yellow bracelet showing their support for fighting cancer. Cancer does affect more people, but infertility is one the rise. The latest statistic is one in 6- that's how many couples in the United States are facing infertility.

People who are coping with infertility have enough on their plate, so the least we can do is be supportive.  How can we do that? The AFA is working tirelessly to normalize the conversation about infertility in the mainstream. Our goal is to remove the shame and embarrassment many people feel when dealing with infertility. I'm hoping my confession might help us towards that goal.

I'm urging all of you who are reading this blog to "Like" The American Fertility Association on Facebook. Become a fan. Email the link to your friends and family.  Urge them to "Like" The AFA.  The more fans we have the better. Everyone facing infertility should know they're not alone. Cheesy, but true- one in 6 remember.

Don't do what I did. Don't hesitate. Our mission is too important. Help us spread the joy of family.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

by Merry Armentrout

"Kids, when Lily and Marshall started trying to have a baby, they went a little crazy."

That was the opening line for last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother. 

It's the truth, isn't it.  Infertility can make you go crazy. It's stressful, physically grueling and emotionally draining. Infertility isn't a laughing matter.There's nothing funny about it.  That being said, there are times when laughter can be the best medicine.

 Each month you try to conceive, there are a mix of emotions that accompany the process. Constant feelings of rising hopelessness and sinking despair can certainly take an emotional toll on you and your partner.  You might not feel like laughing, but letting out a good laugh can help lighten the mood surrounding infertility.

My colleague, Corey Whelan, recently published an Examiner article on different ways other women have dealt with infertility through laughter. It seems the idea is catching on judging by last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother.

The episode follows married couple Marshall and Lily as they make a trip to a fertility clinic after failing to get pregnant. The first scene shows the couple talking with their OBGYN about their fear of being infertile. The doctor asks how long they've been trying to get pregnant...the answer is 6 days.  It then flashed forward to a few months later, and Lily and Marshall think something must be wrong because they're "doing it" a lot.  And in various locations (including the doctor's waiting room), and different positions. Lily declines Marshall's plan to continue to have as much sex as possible, and insists on seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist.

They both undergo infertility testing.  You can imagine the fun the shows writers must have had when creating the sperm collection scene.  Marshall walks into the room as another man is walking out, and gets way too freaked out by the thought of another person collecting semen that he is unable to perform the task. I can imagine how intimidating and embarrassing  it would be to collect a sperm sample in a fertility clinic's office, but I would suggest watching this episode- it might lighten the mood.

Lily checks out ok, and instantly Marshall is scared he's too blame. Since male infertility is to blame 40% of the time, it's certainly a possibility, but he checks ok as well.  During this time, Marshall doesn't want to tell his father of the chance he might not be able to give him a grandchild.  He says he's used to telling his family happy news, and is embarrassed to tell them about their struggle to conceive.

It's a tough question- should I tell anyone, and if so, whom?  Ellen Speyer, a Member of The AFA's Mental Health Advisory Council wrote a wonderful article on this very subject- the pros and cons of telling people about infertility.  It's a personal decision, but loved ones are there for you during the good and the bad. 

If you're dealing with infertility I would suggest you watch this episode, and get a good laugh at infertility.  Laughter is the best medicine.

   

 

Cervical Stenosis from an Abnormal PAP Smear

by Fred Licciardi, M.D.

Today we are going to talk more about blockage of the cervical canal: Cervical Stenosis. We will concentrate on the most common causes of cervical stenosis; scaring that results from the treatment of an abnormal pap smear.

Treatment of an abnormal pap can cause scarring of the lower part of the cervix, the external os. This type of scar is a problem for two reasons. First, it reduces the number of mucus producing cells, sometimes lowering natural fertility. Second, it may make fertility procedures, such as insemination or embryo transfer, more difficult.

Most cases of cervical stenosis occur as a result of improper healing from a surgical procedure. It may not be that the procedure was done improperly; it’s just that the healing did not cooperate

It is cells in the area of the external os that are tested during a pap smear. When these cells look abnormal, we need to remove them before they progress to cervical cancer. We treat the abnormal cells by either by destroying them or removing them: both processes can cause scarring. Examples of destroying the tissue include cauterization (basically burning away with electricity or a laser) and cryo.

Cautery just basically fries the cells away, some abnormal and some normal tissue. Cryo literally freezes off some of the tissue of the external os, removing abnormally growing cells and some normal tissue. Cryo and cautery are not popular because they do not give you any tissue to send to the lab.

Rather than destroying cervical tissue, there are other procedures that remove a small piece. Examples of tissue removal include a cone biopsy or a LEEP (Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure). The cone procedure and LEEP are basically the same thing, however if necessary the LEEP can be a little more precise and remove a smaller amount of normal tissue. The LEEP and the cone biopsy cut away pieces of tissue that can be further evaluated under the microscope.

A cone involves and old fashioned scalpel, and takes away a larger piece in the shape of a cone (pictures to follow). The LEEP uses a thin wire loop that scoops out a little piece. However, sometimes using a LEEP the doctor needs to take a larger area as if a cone were being performed. Today, most procedures are LEEP procedures because the biopsy can be directed; in other words, only a small area can be removed if necessary. In addition, the LEEP can be performed in the office as opposed to the hospital. Finally, there is a lower chance of bleeding with a LEEP.

No matter which of these procedures is performed, a small percentage of people can have post-op scarring that leads to cervical stenosis. The more tissue removed or destroyed, the greater the chance of a scar.

Why do some people scar an others not? Some people are just more prone to it. Scaring is the normal way we heal. For some women, the scarring is more robust and progresses enough to cover over the cervical canal. Certainly, if any of these procedures are followed by infection, scarring will be more likely.

Let’s go through the pictures.

Here is our uterine drawing showing the uterus and cervix.












The next picture is a drawing of what your doctor sees when she puts in the speculum. It’s the cervix, actually the very bottom of the cervix.








Let’s say your pap comes back abnormal. This usually means that there are some cells around the external os that are abnormal. Depending on the severity of the pap, these cells may need to be removed. Using some special techniques, you doctor would look very carefully at your cervix under magnification to try to determine the extent and location of the abnormality.
This picture is an example of abnormal cells in a very small area.







Here, the doctor does not need to remove much tissue, and this is not likely to lead to scarring. The doctor will probably use the LEEP procedure, but only a small amount of cervix needs to be removed. This picture shows a cervix with a small abnormality and a small LEEP.












This picture shows a case where there is a larger amount abnormal cells and they take up a larger area on the cervix.









In this case, the abnormal cells are all around the external os. Here, the doctor needs to take away much more tissue.






You can see that the shape of the removed tissue is in the shape of a cone, thus the term cone biopsy. A larger LEEP will also make a cone shaped biopsy. While the odds of scaring remain low, if it does happen, it is more likely to come from taking more tissue. The next picture shows a post-LEEP scar.











The good news is that in most cases, scarring at the external os is the easiest to deal with. Unlike scar tissue that forms higher up in the cervix, scarring at the external os can be seen with a speculum and the scar is usually shallow. The scar is usually on the thin side and can be easily opened, usually in the office.

After opening, the scar may have a tendency to return, but re-opening is not that difficult. In the case of fertility treatments such as insemination and embryo transfer, the scar can be opened just prior to these procedures without much difficulty. Unfortunately some women can have more serious scarring after these procedures that is not so easy to deal with. Additionally, some women need to have multiple biopsies, and this will increase the scar risk.

Varicose Veins in the Scrotum: What's the Deal?

by Craig Niederberger, M.D., F.A.C.S.

The testes must be kept cool for the proper production of sperm.  One way the human body achieves this is to house them outside the body.  Another is to have a network of veins surrounding the artery pumping blood into the testis: the veins take the heat away in a “counter-current” heat exchange similar to a radiator.  (The human body is an amazing piece of engineering.)

Arteries don’t need to worry about moving blood; there’s a huge amount of pressure coming from the heart to help with that.  But once the blood goes through the capillaries and into the veins, getting back to the heart isn’t easy.  Veins have little valves to help hold the blood while it pulses its way back.  If those little valves start to separate, the vein expands, causing the condition known as a “varicose vein.”  Varicose veins can happen in many places in the body, often visibly in the skin of the legs, but, believe it or not, also in the scrotum.  And if varicose veins develop in the scrotum, they can disturb the counter-current heat exchange.  The testes then get hot, posing a problem for developing sperm cells.

Varicose veins in the scrotum are called a “varicocele,” and there are three kinds.  A grade I varicocele can’t be felt or seen without equipment like ultrasound.  Almost all experts now consider grade I varicoceles to be unimportant.  Varicoceles that can be felt (grade II) or visible by the naked eye (grade III) are the ones that may cause problems with sperm production.

Some men have such high sperm production that their varicoceles don’t significantly alter their chance of making women pregnant.  But many men’s testes are affected by grade II or III varicoceles.

What can be done about a varicocele that may be throwing a wrench into the sperm factory?  A urologist can tie or clip the veins in a procedure called “varicocelectomy,” or an interventional radiologist can inject material into the veins to block the flow of blood.

Craig Niederberger, M.D., F.A.C.S. is a highly published author and editor, and head of the Department of Urology, University of Illinois at Chicago. His blog, Male Health, and other writings will be syndicated on this page for The American Fertility Association's readership 

New Study Sheds Light on Maternal Age and Infertility

by Corey Whelan

A new study led by reproductive biologist Dr.Mary Herbert at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health was recently released, offering groundbreaking new information on older women and their fertility potential.

While it has been known for many years that women above the age of 34 tend to produce an overabundance of abnormal eggs, the reason for this has not been made clear until now.  Herbert's study indicates that a decrease in a type of protein called cohesins is the culprit in declining egg quality.  The diminishment of this protein leads to not only an increase in infertility for older women, but also to a greater potential for miscarriage, as well as higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities in offspring born, including Down's Syndrome.

 Cohesins act like a type of glue, holding the chromosomes together inside of a ring.  This ensures that the chromosomes split evenly when the cells divide.  When levels of cohesins decline, chromosomes tend to not hold together as tightly as needed and the ring structure can be too soft, or floppy, for cell division to occur correctly.  This has been shown to result in eggs which are often not viable for conception.

Herbert was quoted in the journal Current Biology as stating, "Reproductive fitness in women declines dramatically from their mid-30's onward. Our findings point to cohesin being a major culprit in this.  More work is needed to understand why cohesin declines over a woman's reproductive years, and such knowledge could lead to ways being developed to stop that loss from occurring."

This knowledge could also prove to be pivotal in the occurrence of higher pregnancy rates, diminished miscarriage rates and less birth defects in children born to older potential moms as well.

Reprinted with permission from www.examiner.com

 

Combating Infertility

By: Stephanie Himel-Nelson

 You may read me on the Attainblog and on the Attain Fertility Facebook page.  If so, you  probably have this picture in your head of what I look like and how I sound, so I thought I’d share the real me with you in my first Video Blog for Attain Fertility.  In this video, I tell you a bit about the Attain Great Expectations Fertility Trivia Challenge!

I’m pretty excited about this because I love anything that might possibly be considered a contest and I know a boat load (that’s a technical term) about infertility. I’m not competitive at all. Just ignore my nose growing by leaps and bounds….

The Great Expectations Fertility Trivia Challenge is running through the end of January and you can enter every. single. day.  Every time you take the challenge, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for some really cool prizes.  Attain will be giving away $1000 that you can use for a shopping spree or a spa getaway and is also giving away 25 Kindles with Amazon gift certificates, to celebrate Attain Fertility’s 25th anniversary!

You can enter every day. I’m pretty sure you’ll learn something too.  Despite my insistence that I know everything, I’ve gotten quite a few questions wrong.  (Don’t tell!)  But, I’ve also learned the correct answers about quite a few fertility topics.

You can take the challenge every day at http://attainfertility.com/challenge.