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Teenage fathers may experience more problems when having their babies, suggested a study by canadian experts in fertility published yesterday. Their babies have a larger chance of being born before time, have low birth weight and even die in their first year. Older fathers, 40 and above, however, do not face the same risks.

Dr Mark Walker, leader of the study, said this is a novel finding, and that it contradicts the common thought that older parents would be associated with these problems rather than younger ones. He said that this study can help recognize high risk pregnancies, and take actions to avoid any of the issues involved.

The research -the largest involving these questions up to now- studied more than 2.6 million US women in their 20s that became mothers between 1995 and 2000. Those newborns that had teenage fathers had a larger chance -15 %- of being born earlier than expected, were 13 percent more likely to have low birth weight, 17 per cent more likely to be small for gestational age, 13 per cent
more likely to have a low Apgar score (a measure of newborns’ health),
22 per cent more likely to die within the first four weeks, and 41 per
cent more likely to die within the first year.

Dr Shi Wu Wen, one of the specialists collaborating with the study, said that the mechanism that causes this is still not known, but that “regardless of the mechanism, you need to act because this group is in high risk, that´s for sure”.

Other studies performed previously actually show some results in that direction, stating that younger men have lower sperm counts and immature sperm which may contribute to birth problems. Other factors might be sociological: Dr Walker explained that “young fathers may not provide the same social support as older fathers, both financially and in terms of companionship. That may be why these pregnancies are more complicated”.

Since anti-cancer medication can destroy the ovary´s follicles, hence women that go through chemotherapy often have trouble getting pregnant. A study developed by scientists in the UK have found a way of storing and growing a woman´s immature eggs in the laboratory, with the utilization of a specialized technique.

Some fertility centers in Great Britain are already offering a way of storing ovary tissue from women that have to go through chemotherapy with the speculation that the eggs will mature with further development and be used for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)

Evelyn Telfer, from the University of Edinburgh, has led the study that made a big step towards growing stored human eggs. By adding artificial hormones in the laboratory, the eggs have grown and developed in the follicles.

With further research, Tefler stated, the eggs can get to be fully mature using this same technique, and use them for assisted reproduction procedures. This can also mean a faster development in egg growth, since with this method, it only took 10 days for an egg to mature.

Moreover, the technique that Tefler developed makes it possible for the procedures to be held without women having to take hormone injections, with the danger of over-production of eggs it carries.

Via | Hindu

A student at Yale University that had told the university´s newspaper that she had inseminated herself several times and took drugs to get an abortion for an art project told school officials that the project was faked. According to the Washington Post, the initial information created an “outcry” on the Internet and protests and debates on the Yale campus.

The student, Aliza Shvarts,had said that she had inseminated herself “as often as possible” and then took herbal substances to induce an abortion. She had said that she would videotape her miscarriages and include a spoken section to explain what she had done.

Helaine Klasky, Yale´s spokeperson, stated that Shvarts admitted that she hadn´t impregnated herself and did not induce any miscarriages. Klasky added that the “entire project is an art piece, a creative ficion designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman´s body”.

Via | Ap/Google

Fertility professionals at Yale School of Medicine that studied human eggs for in vitro fertilization have found genetic markers which indicate the egg´s maturity. Pasquale Patrizio, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Yale Fertility Center and Dagan Wells, from the University of Oxford, UK, have found significant differences in genes at different stages of the eggs´ development.

Via | Yale School of Medicine