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Growing evidence suggests that antioxidants may have significant value in addressing infertility issues in both women and men, including erectile dysfunction, and researchers say that large, specific clinical studies are merited to determine how much they could help.

Antioxidants are dietary substances including some nutrients such as beta carotene, vitamins C and E and selenium, that can prevent damage to your body cells or repair damage that has been done.

A new analysis, published online in the journal Pharmacological Research, noted that previous studies on the potential for antioxidants to help address this serious and growing problem have been inconclusive, but that other data indicates nutritional therapies may have significant potential.

The researchers also observed that infertility problems are often an early indicator of other degenerative disease issues such as atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. The same approaches that may help treat infertility could also be of value to head off those problems, they said.

The findings were made by Tory Hagen, in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, and Francesco Visioli, lead author of the study at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Spain.

"If oxidative stress is an underlying factor causing infertility, which we think the evidence points to, we should be able to do something about it," said Hagen, the Jamieson Chair of Healthspan Research in the Linus Pauling Institute. "This might help prevent other critical health problems as well, at an early stage when nutritional therapies often work best."

The results from early research have been equivocal, Hagen said, but that may be because they were too small or did not focus on antioxidants. Laboratory and in-vitro studies have been very promising, especially with some newer antioxidants such as lipoic acid that have received much less attention.

"The jury is still out on this," Hagen said. "But the problem is huge, and the data from laboratory studies is very robust, it all fits. There is evidence this might work, and the potential benefits could be enormous."

The researchers from Oregon and Spain point, in particular, to inadequate production of nitric oxide, an agent that relaxes and dilates blood vessels. This is often caused, in turn, by free radicals that destroy nitric oxide and reduce its function. Antioxidants can help control free radicals. Some existing medical treatments for erectile dysfunction work, in part, by increasing production of nitric oxide.

Aging, which is often associated with erectile dysfunction problems, is also a time when nitric oxide synthesis begins to falter. And infertility problems in general are increasing, scientists say, as more people delay having children until older ages.

"Infertility is multifactorial and we still don't know the precise nature of this phenomenon," Visioli said.

Article: 29th July 2011 www.news-medical.net

Read more about how nutrition and vitamins may help fertility at www.prideangel.com

Simon has two sons, aged 15 and 13, from a failed marriage, who live with him, and a six-year-old daughter from a later broken relationship, who lives with her mother. The 37-year-old divorced former business manager thinks he has a further five children, aged between two months and six years, living in Britain and another eight in countries including Australia, South Africa, Poland and Spain. He admits it could be more, but he plays no part in their upbringing — emotionally or financially — and has absolutely no desire to.

‘If, when they turn 18, they turn up at my door wanting to know who I am, then they would be more than welcome,’ he says blithely. ‘But I am not their father in the true sense of the word and never will be.’ Simon is a freelance sperm donor who offers what he jokingly calls his ‘magic potion’ over the internet to women desperate for children.

They make contact on various internet forums, where women post adverts seeking sperm donors or respond to his posts offering his services. He says the majority of his clients — more than 50 per cent — are lesbian couples, around 40 per cent are single women hoping to beat the biological clock and the rest are heterosexual couples where the man is infertile.

Simon is doing nothing illegal. By offering fresh instead of frozen sperm, his activities fall outside the regulations laid down by the Human Fertilisation And Embryology Authority, which governs licensed sperm banks.

'I'm not doing it for the money. I want to help people who can't afford to use a fertility clinic' Countless appointments have been suddenly postponed because one of Simon’s ladies is ovulating and he is urgently required elsewhere. One day he’s in Bognor Regis on the South Coast; the next in Sheffield, the day after he’s needed in Colchester, Essex. On his travels, he carries his ‘kit’ — a sterile plastic pot in which to deposit his sperm and some sterile syringes for the women to inseminate themselves with, without needing a turkey baster.

But if you were desperate for a child, would Simon’s DNA appeal? A tall, lean, friendly man opens the door to a small, messy detached house littered with his sons’ musical instruments and other teenage detritus. Blond and blue-eyed, the initial impression is of a slightly flaky hippy; an unconventional laid-back character who prefers life in the slow lane.

But appearances can be deceptive. ‘I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs, I hardly drink and we don’t have junk food in the house. I won’t even eat sausages,’ he says sipping on fresh mint tea. A health and fitness fanatic, he swims, runs and is converting his garage into a gym. His body is clearly a temple. Single since his last relationship broke down last year, he’s lacked the time and energy to commit to another. With two broken relationships behind him, he’s not sure if he’s cut out for marriage.

He used to be the manager of an award-winning aromatherapy firm, which was founded by his Greek-born mother, Franzesca. Simon, who was privately educated and studied aeroplane mechanics in Canada after school, held the position for eight years until he decided he didn’t want to work 65-hour weeks.

Now, he does not work and lives frugally, eking out the savings he amassed during his business career. Simon’s house is owned by his parents, who have retired abroad, so there is no mortgage to pay. He claims to charge around £50 for each sperm donation, plus his expenses — little more than he’d receive if he donated through a clinic. So why bother?

‘I’m not doing it for the money,’ he says. ‘I want to help people who can’t afford to use a fertility clinic. My family, including my parents, know about the sperm donation. My father, who paid a fair amount for my education, keeps saying: “I want my money back.” ’ Given that Simon is not prone to self-analysis, it is hard to unravel what his motives are for becoming a freelance sperm donor. What’s in it for him?

‘I’d read there was a shortage of sperm donors and, though I had two boys, I’d always wanted three kids, so it seemed a good idea.’ Simon applied to an NHS fertility clinic attached to a teaching hospital in London and after undergoing a barrage of medical tests to ensure he carried no sexual or hereditary diseases, he was accepted as a donor. His GP records were also checked for a history of psychiatric illness.

He was paid £20 plus expenses each time, but has no idea if any of this sperm — screened and then frozen for storage — produced any children. When, in 2002, Simon met his last partner, a Korean languages student, he put the sperm donation on hold, but resumed it shortly after the birth of their daughter. He says this was with his partner’s blessing, but not long after, she moved out with their little girl. ‘She didn’t get on with my sons and it was easier for everyone if we lived apart, but we were still together,’ explains Simon. ‘Then she met someone else.’

Simon denies it was a mid-life crisis that drew him back to sperm donation. He says he does not quiz his clients as to why they want children and would only rule someone out if they were obviously mentally unstable. 'It's better than getting pregnant by a stranger in a nightclub. You can’t ask about sexual health or hereditary diseases in those circumstances, can you?'

‘If people have gone to the trouble of finding a sperm donor, then they’ve usually thought hard about it and I know the child will be wanted,’ says Simon, adding that months of communications often take place before he donates sperm. ‘Most of the people I deal with seem pretty normal.’ This sounds slightly cavalier and he admits that sometimes couples break up before he gets round to donating sperm. But Simon insists he is not reckless.

Every three months, he pays £200 for a full sexual health check at his local genito-urinary clinic and another £35 for a letter for his clients stating he has tested negative for HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. ‘Well, it’s better than getting pregnant by a stranger in a nightclub, isn’t it?’ he says. ‘You can’t ask about sexual health or hereditary diseases in those circumstances, can you?’

Simon will travel anywhere in the country to meet the women who contact him. Some reject him, some change their minds and some choose him after they are satisfied he is suitable and will not pop up later on demanding parental rights. Some he rejects. Some women never conceive. ‘I had one heterosexual couple where the man had undergone a vasectomy, which could not be reversed,’ says Simon. ‘This was a second marriage; he already had children from his first and he wanted her to be able to have children. I also had a single woman who contacted me, but I had to turn her down as she was looking for a co-parent.

‘I am still in contact with one lesbian couple who had a child by me. They send me photos of the boy, who’s five, and I speak to him on the phone. He calls me Dad. ‘I have no yearning to see the child. I’m happy to send Christmas and birthday cards or letters, if that is what the family wants, but nothing more than that.’

Simon has also helped a single woman who already had one child conceived with sperm from another donor, who declined to help her a second time. She was desperate for a sibling. Another young woman asked Simon to be her donor because her family had a history of early hysterectomies due to cancer and — because she had yet to meet a suitable partner — she wanted to have a child sooner rather than risk delaying.

Of the lesbian couples he has helped, he says one partner has sometimes had children from a previous heterosexual relationship, but wanted her new female partner to be able to have a child too. 'I never wanted to be involved in the lives of these children but I have a responsibility to them' Since a change in the law, sperm donors no longer have the right to anonymity, but Simon is happy for any offspring to know his identity. ‘I never wanted to be involved in the lives of these children,’ says Simon. ‘But I have a responsibility to them, if they want to know who their biological father is. But I’m not expecting them to throw their arms around me crying “Dad”.’

Furthermore, what’s to prevent his offspring meeting one day, unaware they are related and forming a relationship? The Human Fertilisation And Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulations state that donor sperm should result in no more than ten births to reduce this risk. But Simon helps on average one person or couple a week — sometimes donating sperm more than once to these clients, typically two or three times.

There are other potential problems, too. Men who donate through a sperm bank are legally protected from any financial claims on. Simon has no such protection so any of his sperm-donated children could make a claim on him or his estate following his death. But he seems blind to the potential hazards. Instead, he naively prefers to think of his offspring as a big global happy family. He imagines all these half-siblings meeting one day and forging friendships.

Not unlike his mother’s Greek family in Andros where, he says, you can’t walk down the street without someone pointing out a first or second cousin twice removed. It doesn’t cross Simon’s mind that his offspring might grow up angry, confused or unhappy over the circumstances of their birth. He says that can and does happen in more conventional families, anyway.

‘There’s no point in worrying about things in the future, which may never happen,’ says Simon cheerily. ‘I’d rather sit in my garden playing my guitar.’

Article extracts from: www.dailymail.co.uk 28th July 2011

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As my GP fiddled with some papers, I guessed he had bad news. Nervously he blurted out: ‘I’m afraid that you will never have children naturally.’ I felt as if I’d been punched. Walking out of the surgery, all I could focus on were chubby-cheeked babies in the arms of beaming mums. I realised I might never hold my own child, and my tears started.

My doctor’s gloomy prognosis was not down to me having blocked fallopian tubes, leaving it too late (I was 32) or low-quality eggs. The problem was I had been too thin. From the age of 24 until I hit 30, I was anorexic. During this time, my weight hovered at 6st and at times dropped lower still, nowhere near enough for my 5ft 3in frame.

Some of the effects of my condition were obvious. I had problems sleeping, often felt faint and had thinning hair. But what I did not consider was the harm being done to my chances of becoming a mother. Last week, Chantelle Houghton, who found fame on Celebrity Big Brother, revealed she has been left infertile at the age of 27 as a result of extreme dieting.

‘Because of my obsession with food and crash dieting when I had bulimia, I’ve ruined my chance of having a baby naturally,’ she told a magazine. ‘All the time I was making myself sick I was thinking: “Yes, I’m getting skinnier” — but it’s cost me the chance of having a family.’ There are 1.6 million people in Britain with an eating disorder, the most common being bulimia, when the person binge eats and purges food through vomiting or laxatives. Bulimics, however, will not necessarily be underweight. Those with anorexia will have a body mass index (BMI) of 17.5 or less, restrict their food and drink intake and tend to over-exercise.

Yet it’s not just anorexics who are putting their fertility at risk. Any extreme dieting can limit the chances of having a family — and so, as we should see, can overeating. The normal warning sign that a woman’s fertility is being affected is when her periods stop. Mine stopped when I was 26, when I weighed over 6st. ‘The hypothalamus in the brain controls the release of hormones from the pituitary gland that drives the menstrual cycle, stimulating the ovaries to produce eggs,’ says Dr Marie Wren, deputy medical director of the Lister Fertility clinic in London. ‘But if a woman loses a lot of weight, this process shuts down. It’s the body’s way of preserving what resources it has. If a woman menstruates, she loses iron — and if she has little nutritional input, she can’t afford to lose that.’ Bulimia and faddy yo-yo dieting can also trigger this process.

‘If your body weight is yo-yoing, then it is possible your body would perceive this as a stress and so switch off the ovulation mechanism,’ says Amanda Tozer, consultant in reproductive medicine at Barts and the London Hospital. ‘If you are just losing a few pounds either way you’ll probably be fine, but if your weight is really going from one extreme to another than this may happen.’ Following low-calorie restrictive diets may also compromise a woman’s chance of getting pregnant. ‘If you aren’t getting enough nutrients, then your body will not function as normal and this will reduce fertility,’ says Dr Wren. Sadly, the effects can be lifelong. About 20 per cent of those who become seriously underweight find their menstrual cycle never returns, even when they are a healthy weight.

‘I have a number of anorexic patients who are now at a normal body weight, but the firing system from the hypothalamus in the brain is not yet working again properly,’ says Dr Wren. ‘Often, the only way they can conceive is if we try to kick-start the ovulation process with drugs.’ Gauging fertility is not an exact science. There is no set BMI at which fertility is guaranteed. ‘The threshold varies from person to person,’ says Miss Tozer. ‘The NHS does not give fertility treatment to anyone who has a BMI under 18 as this is felt to be the minimum weight at which a woman would have a healthy baby. But I have known naturally slight women who conceive naturally, even with a BMI under 18.’

Fertility treatment is also not available on the NHS to those with a BMI over 30 — because being overweight affects your chances of having a baby almost as much as being underweight, as secondary school teacher Charlotte Ball, 30, discovered. Having gained weight steadily throughout her life, by 2009 at the age of 28 she weighed more than 18st with a BMI well over 30. ‘At that time, my husband Greg and I were starting to think the time was right to start a family,’ says Charlotte, from Sunderland. ‘I asked my doctor what I could do to help ensure I had a healthy pregnancy. He said I would have significant difficulty at that weight because if affects the hormonal balance of my body. ‘It was a real wake-up call. I was having regular periods and thought I would just get pregnant.’

Charlotte started the LighterLife diet in September 2009, and by May 2010 weighed 10 st with a BMI of 24.5. She lost seven more pounds and her daughter Matilda was born in May this year weighing a healthy 8lb 2oz. ‘Women who are overweight are more likely to have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (where the ovaries develop cysts) which reduces their chance of conception,’ says Miss Tozer. ‘They also have an increased risk of developing diabetes, of having a premature birth, of having a stillbirth and of having an overly large baby, which can lead to a complicated delivery.’ Dr Wren adds: ‘It is not just a woman’s fertility that is affected by weight. An underweight man will have poorer quality sperm as he is undernourished. Likewise, if he is overweight. One study found that men with a high BMI ejaculate less sperm and more of them are abnormally shaped than normal.’

Fat cells are thought to release oestrogen, which affects sperm count and quality. Sadly, few of those counting calories — or comfort-eating — consider how their actions may harm their chances of having a family. When anorexia took hold of me at age 24, children were the last thing on my mind. Each day I’d have a mouthful of cereal, go to work, walk home and do a fitness video after a meal of boiled veg. Before this I was a bit tubby (weighing more than 9 st) but had always thought myself well-balanced and happy. But I didn’t have much self-esteem and some bad relationships sent me over the edge.

I was initially in denial about my condition, putting it down to the stress of my demanding job in TV. But, in 1998, when my weight dropped to 5½ st and I became too weak to walk, I admitted I could not battle the condition alone, and sought the help of a counsellor. By 2002, aged 32, I had been at a stable weight of more than 7 st for more than two years but my periods still had not returned. By now in a happy relationship with my husband-to-be, my desire for a family was increasing all the time. It was not until June 2003, aged 33 and 7½st that my periods returned. By then I was married and my husband and I continued trying for a family for six months.

Then came that depressing day my GP told me I would not conceive without help. He referred us for IVF. However, I pulled out, fearing nature was preventing me from conceiving as I would pass on my anorexic tendencies to a child. I can’t pretend I was easy with our decision. After cuddling my friends’ kids, I would go home for a weep. Then, in February 2004, against all the odds, I became pregnant. It was the most wonderful shock. Any thoughts of dieting disappeared that day. I ate what I wanted and have done pretty much ever since. In October 2004, our son Louis was born. My husband and I started trying for another child almost instantly after Louis, but even though I then weighed (and still do) 8½ st — it hasn’t happened. When people say to me: ‘So you just have the one child then,’ I feel myself bristle. Yes I do — but what a miracle it is I even have him.

Article: 26th July 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk Read more about IVF and fertility at www.prideangel.com

A mother and son were devastated to find out the man who donated sperm for his conception had a genetic illness - and they were never warned. Rebecca Blackwell and her 18-year-old son Tyler of Maryland tracked down sperm donor ‘John’ three years ago.

While he didn't respond to their letter for contact, John's sister found them online via Ancestry.com and, unaware her brother had donated sperm, asked why they wanted to get in touch. When she found out he had a son, she told them of the fatal genetic disorder that had ruptured John's aorta at the age of 43.

She said John, two brothers and their mother all had an 'unnamed, never before seen genetic mutation' disorder, the 59-year-old special education teacher told MailOnline. John's father, who didn't die from the aortic dissection suffered a stroke due to a lack of oxygen to the brain, Ms Blackwell said. John also has a family condition of the connective tissue disorder Marfan's Syndrome.

‘Tyler had a time bomb ticking in his chest,’ she said. ‘It didn't occur to anyone to tell us.’ Though Tyler has since had surgery on the defect in June, questions are raised as to the Blackwells weren't informed.

The fertility industry in the United States is one of the most unregulated in the developed world, said Wendy Kramer of the Donor Sibling Registry, a group that has matched some 8,400 donor offspring with their half siblings and/or donors. ‘There are no rules or regulations about donor identification, testing donors, monitoring numbers of children or medical records,’ she said.

Ms Kramer conceived her own son via sperm donation. ‘No one is watching. There are no laws. They don't keep track.’ But laws are changing. Come Friday, Washington is set to be the first state to give donor-conceived people the right to crucial health information about their biological parents when they turn eighteen. Previously, they were not entitled to any information and medical records were rarely updated.

Advocated say the new law is imperfect but it's a 'first step' in allowing these children to be nationally recognised. There are approximately 1 million children in the US born via a sperm donor. Law at present requires donors only be screened for sexually transmitted diseases and some communicable diseases.

Advocates say there should also be testing for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and Fragile X syndrome. Advocates say the anonymous donors, identifiable only by number, should end. When a donor develops a genetic disease after donation, families are very rarely told, according Ms Kramer. In a case in California, a donor passed on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to nine of his 22 known offspring -one died, she said. A 3-year-old developed Rasmussen's encephalitis, resulting in seizures and brain damage.

‘[John] should never have been a sperm donor,’ Ms Kramer told ABC. ‘How could such a thing happen in this era of medical advances and an explosion of genomic information about the causes and inheritance of disease, especially in the most medical advanced country in the world?’ 'When the clinic goes out of business and where are those records?’ Washington reproductive lawyer Mark Demaray asked. ‘There are many practical problems.’

It is far better fregulated in the case of adopted children - all social and medical records are kept by the courts - but not with sperm donation. ‘Tyler is fine now,’ said his mother. ‘He's got an ugly scar on his chest, but he's a girl magnet.’ The single mother has since found out another of his half-siblings who live's in Seattle has the same disorder . She worries about how many more of John's children may have the condition.

‘Sperm banks need to make an effort to collect updated medical information every couple of years,’ said Ms Blackwell. ‘They made no effort until I came up with a problem. And I don't think sperm donors should be anonymous.' 'We didn't get to the truth until his sister called me. It shouldn't be secret.’ ‘There is no one who knew about it,’ she said. ‘If I could foretell the future, I would have picked a different donor. I didn't know.’

Article: 21st July 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more about finding known sperm donors at www.prideangel.com

Up to a quarter of men around the world have a genetic defect that could reduce their chances of having children. Scientists have found some sperm lacks a protective protein that helps it to reach the egg.

The protein, DEFB126, coats the sperm and allows it to penetrate mucus in the female reproductive tract. It also protects the sperm from attack by the female immune system.

Without it, researchers believe it takes longer for a man with this defect to make his partner pregnant.

A study conducted in the U.S, the UK and China showed that up to a quarter of men worldwide carry defective copies of the protein gene. The discovery could help explain a significant proportion of male infertility worldwide. 'In 70 per cent of infertile men, you can't explain their infertility on the basis of sperm count and quality,' said lead researcher Professor Gary Cherr, from the University of California at Davis.

A test for defective DEFB126 could help fertility clinics decide whether couples should be given ICSI treatment (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), which involves injecting sperm directly into eggs. The research is published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Sperm from men with the defective protein look normal under a microscope and appear to have no problem swimming. But they are far less able to swim through an artificial gel that resembles human cervical mucus. When the functional protein is added to the sperm, they recover their normal abilities.

About half of all men worldwide carry one defective copy of the protein gene and a quarter have two. A study carried out on couples trying to conceive found a significant decrease in pregnancy rate when the man had two copies of the defective DEFB126 gene.

It is still unclear how a mutation that adversely affects fertility can be so common. Men with one normal and one defective gene, but normal fertility, may be advantaged in some way, the scientists believe. Compared with sperm from monkeys and other mammals, human sperm is often of poor quality, slow swimming, and with a high rate of defective cells. But because humans tend to breed in long-term monogamous relationships, unlike most mammals, sperm quality may not be so important, according to Prof Cherr.

Fertility expert Dr Allan Pacey, at the University of Sheffield, said: 'We actually understand very little about the subtle molecular events which occur in sperm as they make their journey through the woman's body to fertilise an egg. 'We know even less about how a man's genes may contribute to how his sperm work, in the absence of an obvious defect that we can see down the microscope.

'Therefore, this paper is an important step forward and makes a significant contribution to our sperm knowledge. 'Although I doubt that testing for this genetic defect on its own will change clinical practice, in combination with other test information it may one day help guide doctors to suggest a couple start assisted conception treatment earlier than they might otherwise have done.'

Article: 21st July 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

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A reality TV star has told how the pressure to stay slim has left her infertile at 27. Chantelle Houghton, winner of Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, said doctors have informed her she will never be able to conceive naturally because of her extreme eating patterns.

She was the first ‘non-celebrity’ to feature in the Channel 4 reality TV show and found her showbusiness lifestyle after her appearance difficult. Miss Houghton said: ‘I’ve punished my body, and now it’s punishing me. Ultimately it’s my fault. I hate myself and can never forgive myself. ‘Because of my obsession with food and my crash dieting when I had bulimia, I’ve ruined my chances of having a baby naturally. ‘All the time I was making myself sick, I was thinking: “Yes, I’m getting skinnier.” I thought I was winning, but I was losing. It’s cost me the chance of a family.’

Miss Houghton has told how she struggled with bulimia from the age of 14. At one point, she revealed that she drank up to eight 1.5 litre bottles of water a day to fill her stomach and that her periods once stopped for a year. In the wake of her split from musician husband Samuel Preston in 2007, the 5ft7in star’s weight plummeted to just eight stone.

Later, in 2009, she admitted: ‘It’s a constant battle with my weight, and I’ll always have an issue with it. ‘I have tried every diet there is, from body wraps and the Special K diet to just drinking water, but I know I have to eat healthily and go to the gym, because that’s the only thing that works.’

She added that, at her thinnest: ‘I was making myself sick a lot, so food was just coming straight back out of me. I was obsessed from the minute I woke up in the morning until the minute I went to bed. ‘I was constantly watching what I was eating.’ But Miss Houghton has only recently been told of the damage she was doing to her body after going to the doctor complaining of stomach pain. She told Heat magazine that she visited fertility expert Dr Amin Gorgy.

She said: ‘He told me that I’d never be able to conceive naturally. Dr Gorgy told me that I had low fertility and that if I wanted to have a baby, I’d have to have IVF. He said that if I’d waited another three years, I would never be able to have children at all. I wouldn’t have any eggs left.’

Miss Houghton hopes her experience will warn other women of the effect that eating disorders and extreme dieting can have on their fertility. She added: ‘I hope they’ll see what’s happened to me and realise what they’re doing – the long-term effects. I’m 27 and I can’t have children naturally. Being stick-thin – is it worth that?’

Article: 19th July 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more about fertility and IVF at www.prideangel.com

The UK's fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has made its first set of decisions following the outcome of its recent consultation on sperm and egg donation, known as the Donation Review. Having analysed responses to the Donation Review, HFEA staff asked HFEA members to approve a series of recommendations at a meeting on 13 July. All of these recommendations were ultimately approved, but in several instances the decision had to be put to a vote and there was a dissenting minority. Additionally, the wording of some of the recommendations was amended during the course of the discussion.

The most straightforward decision made by the HFEA was that the maximum number of families which a sperm or egg donor is permitted to create should not be changed, and that the current maximum limit of 10 should remain. The HFEA also resolved to take steps to encourage clinics to make optimum use of the donor sperm already available, because there is currently a disparity between the maximum number of families that that an individual donor is permitted to create and the number of families that are actually being created from the sperm of individual donors. (The precise size of and reasons for this disparity are disputed).

The HFEA also decided to issue guidance stating that sperm and eggs should not be mixed if they come from very close genetic relatives (for example, brother and sister or father and daughter). If such mixing took place in vitro then this would not technically fall afoul of the UK's legal prohibition on incest. Such mixing is never known to have occurred, but the HFEA decided it was appropriate to issue specific guidance on the matter at this time.

The mixing of sperm and eggs of close relatives is a very different matter from the replacement of someone's sperm or eggs with sperm or eggs donated by a close relative (for instance, a man's wife being fertilised with his brother's sperm, or a woman becoming pregnant with a child conceived using an egg donated by the woman's mother). It was decided that this sort of replacement of sperm or eggs within families should remain permitted, but that 'best practice' in this area should be formulated by the HFEA, in collaboration with professionals and interest groups. It was also decided that clinics should be required to submit data about this sort of donation to the HFEA, so that its prevalence can be established.

Finally, the HFEA considered whether donors should be permitted to place conditions on the use of their sperm and eggs, and if so, then what sorts of conditionality should be permitted. For example, should a sperm donor be permitted to specify that their sperm cannot be used (or alternatively, can only be used) to treat a lesbian, or a single woman, or a woman of a particular ethnicity, religion or age? This is an area where two different parts of UK law (fertility legislation and equalities legislation) are potentially in conflict with one another, and therefore it poses a difficult problem for the HFEA.

The HFEA eventually decided to permit the placing of conditions, but to issue guidance qualifying this permission according to different contexts. This decision was made despite vocal dissension from some members, who wanted the placing of conditions to be prohibited apart from in exceptional circumstances.

The HFEA will make a further set of decisions based on the outcome of the Donation Review later this year. This next set of decisions will concern how much and what sort of compensation (financial and otherwise) sperm and egg donors should be permitted to receive for their donation.

Article: 18th July 2011 Bionews 616

Read more about co-parenting, sperm and egg donation at www.prideangel.com

For many people, the lack of ‘creative material’ be it sperm or ovum, can stymie their plans for a family. As appealing as the thought of backless nightgowns, fluorescent lighting and leg stirrups may be, the solution doesn’t have to be found in a fertility clinic. High costs and reduced funding for lesbian couples has made home insemination an increasingly popular option, particularly for those in the LGBT community.

Home insemination using a known donor can be a more rewarding process than a traditional clinic route, possibly resulting in a co-parenting agreement or at least some knowledge of whose sperm or egg you will be using.

Success rates of IVF or IUI within a clinic range from 5-25%. Home insemination has the same success rate and can be more successful due to the relaxed home environment and the freshness of the sperm. Other benefits include cost, privacy, comfort and the final say over who is involved in the process.

Somewhat unfortunately referred to as the Turkey Baster method, home insemination doesn’t have to be an actual turkey baster, (eye watering thought) but rather, a needleless syringe or soft-cup to hold the sperm around the cervix.

Home insemination does carry some risks though, both to your health and your legal rights, so it’s really important to be sure that it suits you and your future family.

When home insemination could be considered;
• When you are planning to co-parent with another single or couple, whom you know well, and a legal co-parenting agreement is in place.
• When you are in a civil partnership and you are planning to use a known donor with a legal sperm donor agreement in place.
• When the donor has had all their health screening checks, has no history of genetic disease in their family and has practiced safe sex for the last 6 months.

As importantly, when it should not be considered;
• When you are a single woman not planning to co-parent as the donor will always be the legal father in the eyes of the law.
• When you are a lesbian couple, but not in a civil partnership and not wishing to co-parent. Again, the donor will be the legal father in the eyes of the law.
• When you do not know your donor or co-parent well enough.
• When your donor has not given evidence of full health screening tests
• When your donor may be at risk of infection, (not practising safe sex, donating to other women by natural insemination, has ever been an intravenous drug user)

If you do find the right donor or co-parent, you may wish to start trying for a child right away. Before this, your donor must visit their doctor or local GUM clinic to get a complete series of infection screening, to include HIV, Hepatitis B & C, Chlamydia, CMV, Syphilis, Gonorrhoea and Genital herpes. (It is important to be aware that many of these tests will not show as positive if they have caught an infection within the last 28 days)

The woman should also consider getting tested for infections and get a vaginal swab taken to rule out any possible vaginosis or thrush. Bacterial vaginosis is present in as many as 20% of lesbians. It is not a sexually acquired infection, rather an imbalance in the natural bacteria. Bacterial vaginosis has been linked with reduced conception and higher risk of early miscarriage. There is now a new product, Zestica Conception Kit which prepares your vaginal flora to reduce the chance of infection.

The next important thing is to get legal advice and a properly drawn up legal donor or co-parenting agreement. This may be an extra expense, but will help prevent any potential problems, further down the line.

The Ins and Outs
Basically, all you need is a container of your chosen sperm and a syringe. However, there are ways to maximise your chances of success.
1) Choose latex free syringes - latex can damage sperm
2) Use a speculum and extender tip with the syringe. This ensures that the sperm reach the cervix and helps them on their journey.
3) Use a sperm friendly lubricant – the wrong lubricant can damage sperm, whereas a sperm friendly lubricant can help their motility.
4) Have an orgasm following insertion of the sperm, this causes the cervix to dip down into the sperm and again helps them on their journey.
5) Tilt and raise your pelvis with cushions for 30 minutes after insemination.
6) Use a soft-cup following insertion of the sperm (this is placed around the cervix and can be worn for up to 12 hours to keep them in their place)

The most important thing to get right when performing home insemination is the timing. Insemination on the right day will greatly improve your chances of success. Many women presume that they ovulate on day 14 of their 28 day cycle but this may not be accurate, it can be between day 11 and day 19. Sperm and eggs only have a chance of meeting for around 48 hours, so how to make sure they do?

Ovulation tests show as positive when your hormone LH rises just before ovulation but performing a positive ovulation test and then racing down the motorway to pick up sperm is not always very practical. The better option is to track your ovulation with tests and charting basal body temperature. Determine the actual day your egg is released and make plans for the following month. Inseminations can then take place ideally 2-3 times just before ovulation and on the day of ovulation, so that the sperm have time to make their journey to the fallopian tube in time to meet the egg.

Other ways of getting your timing right include using fertility monitors to predict your fertile window, such as DuoFertility. This new product is able to give advanced warning of your ovulation by several days and has been shown to be as successful as a cycle of IVF when used for 6 months.

Above all, home insemination works best when those involved in the baby making process are relaxed, happy and positive. It can be a real alternative to IVF for many couples and helps create modern gay families with pride. For further information about home insemination instructions, home insemination kits and other fertility products available to purchase visit www.prideangel.com

The High Court has made an unprecedented order awarding parenthood to a deceased father of a baby boy born through surrogacy in India. A couple, known only as Mr and Mrs A, entered into a surrogacy arrangement and their son was born in India on 12 April 2010. But Mr A tragically contracted liver cancer during the course of the proceedings and died, leaving the High Court to make a landmark decision to award parenthood to the mother and her deceased husband.

The case was complicated by the fact that only couples – and not single people – can apply for parental orders. When the UK’s surrogacy laws were debated in 2008, Parliament decided that only couples should be able to commission surrogacy arrangements. Parents who apply for parental orders following surrogacy must therefore either be married or living as partners in an enduring family relationship.

Leading fertility lawyer Natalie Gamble, who drafted an amendment to the law in 2008 (which was debated in Committee but rejected) which would have allowed applications from single parents, comments: “The case shows how dangerously outdated our surrogacy laws are. Although Mrs Justice Theis was able to find a way around the law in this case because the father had died after issuing the application, what would have happened if either of the parents had died earlier, perhaps during the pregnancy? This has always been an accident waiting to happen, and the restrictiveness of the current law is leaving children vulnerable and unprotected.

Natalie, whose firm has dealt with many of the leading international surrogacy cases heard by the High Court in recent years including the first to ratify a foreign arrangement, goes on to say: “The case demonstrates the continuing difficulties the courts are facing in dealing with surrogacy arrangements. The High Court is repeatedly having to stretch the legislation in order to secure the status of vulnerable children born through surrogacy, and the emotional and financial cost of this for the family involved is significant. We need a better system of law which caters for these kinds of eventualities, and gives clarity and certainty to ensure that children being born through surrogacy (and their parents and surrogates) are properly protected.”

The case is also the first published case to ratify an Indian surrogacy agreement in which more than expenses were paid to a surrogate mother, following a line of previous published cases ratifying commercial payments for surrogacy made to US and Ukrainian surrogate mothers.

Article: 12th July 2011 Natalie Gamble Associates

For further information email: hello@nataliegambleassociates.com

Read more about fertility and surrogacy law at www.prideangel.com

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A controversial lottery, offering £25,000 worth of IVF treatment as a prize, has been given the go ahead. The Gambling Commission has licensed To Hatch, a UK charity offering fertility advice, to sell tickets to win the fertility treatment in a monthly draw.

The creator of To Hatch, Camille Strachan said: 'We will offer struggling couples a completely tailor made service. We hope the To Hatch Lottery can ease the burden on the NHS and reduce the stress slightly on some of those who are struggling'.

Both the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and the British Fertility Society (BFS) have issued statements outlining their concerns over the proposed lottery.

'The British Fertility Society is very troubled by the announcement that the charity To Hatch is about to launch an IVF lottery. Although access to effective fertility treatment on the NHS remains patchy, and expensive for those who take the private route, we cannot condone this kind of activity', said Alison McTavish, secretary of the BFS. 'A competition like this, where only the lucky few will be given the chance to start a family, mirrors the 'postcode lottery' of IVF provision on the NHS and is equally unfair'.

The HFEA said in its statement: 'The HFEA is strongly of the view that using IVF as 'prize' in a lottery is wrong and entirely inappropriate. To do so runs counter to the ethos that underpins our regulatory system and clinical practice. It trivialises what is for many people a central part of their lives'.

The lottery will begin on 30 July, with tickets costing £20 a time and the prize open to anyone – not just couples. Single, gay and elderly players won't be excluded from taking part, and if IVF treatment is not a suitable option, it has been suggested that the winner will be offered alternative treatments such as sperm donors, egg donors or surrogacy.

Winners will receive IVF treatment in a choice of one of five top fertility clinics as well as accommodation and other expenses incurred as part of the treatment.

Article: 11th July 2011 Bionews 615 www.bionews.co.uk

Read more about IVF, home insemination, sperm and egg donation at www.prideangel.com