Pride Angel

For a half-century or so, women were presumed to be born with a supply of eggs that could not be replenished.

In fact, that was thought to be true of all mammals until 2004, when Massachusetts General Hospital researcher Jonathan L. Tilly, PhD, found that adult female mice could produce new eggs. And now, Tilly has extended his work to humans.

"We've isolated, essentially, the female equivalent of the stem cells that we know exist in men that actively make new sperm," said Tilly. "So having these cells now isolated, I think, opens up a lot of opportunities to consider that we simply couldn't fathom before."

Tilly and his colleagues took human ovaries and extracted the cells, by grabbing onto a particular protein on the surface, and doing laboratory tests to ensure they had the right cells.

"Once we had isolated these cells, we could place the cells in culture outside the body," he said. "And we could start with perhaps 100 cells, and over several months' time, take those 100 cells and make hundreds of thousands of cells. And interestingly, we noticed that these cells would spontaneously generate immature eggs, all on their own, in these cultures."

And to further confirm the ability of these stem cell-like cells to make eggs, the researchers placed some of the cells into human ovary tissue, which they then implanted under the skin of laboratory mice.

"And what we found when we did those types of studies, [is] these human cells, once reintroduced back into the environment we originally took them from, were more than happy to create brand new human egg cells," he explained.

Growing eggs in the lab could improve prospects for women undergoing in vitro fertilization, during which a woman's egg is fertilized in an external medium and then returned to her womb to develop.

But Tilly said his work could also lead to fertility treatments that might improve prospects for more traditional fertilization methods. "We can also think about, perhaps, targeting these cells in the ovaries with hormones that these cells like, and thereby increasing their activity and perhaps increasing the size of the egg cell reserve in the ovary, when it would be desirable to do so."

Tilly's work in the past with mice was greeted with skepticism, and independent experts are cautious about this study, too. As is often the case in science, the real proof may come when other researchers try to duplicate these findings.

Article: 28th February 2012 Voice of America www.voanews.com

Read more about IVF and egg donation at www.prideangel.com

Melinda Roberts, mother of Thomas, 3, and Matthew, 7 months, said Pope Benedict XVI's words angered her. "Both of my children were conceived through IVF, and every day my husband and I are eternally grateful for the assistance," the Glen Waverley mum said.

Is the Pope right to speak out against IVF? Join the debate below Monash IVF director Professor Gab Kovacs said the Pope was out of touch, and "most ... in his congregation take no notice of him".

Many Catholic couples sought fertility treatment, allowing themselves to be dictated by their consciences and what was right, rather than the church, Prof Kovacs said.

He said the Catholic Church had not changed its stance since the beginning of reproductive medicine in the 1970s. Speaking at a conference on infertility in Rome, the Pope said artificial methods of getting pregnant were arrogance, insisting that sex between a husband and wife was the only acceptable way of conceiving.

Matrimony was the "only place worthy of the call to existence of a new human being", he told scientists and fertility experts. "The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn't consist in a "product", but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual," he said.

Melbourne's City Fertility Centre medical director Dr David Wilkinson said most of his patients had already been trying to conceive through conjugal relations, but it had not worked.

The Pope was also critised for his recent comments stating that 'Gay marriage is one of several threats to the traditional family unit that undermines 'the future of humanity itself'.

The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalise gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

Fotunately many people including Roman Catholics do not agree with some of the moral teachings of this Pope, or his charismatic predecessor, Pope John Paul II, on matters such as birth control, fertility treatment, women priests or homosexuality.

Article extracts: 26th February 2012 www.heraldsun.com.au

Read more about IVF and gay parenting at www.prideangel.com

They are NOT currently looking for divorced couples who are “co-parenting.”*

The production company are looking for individuals or couples such as:

- single, platonic friends who decide to have and raise a child together; could be gay, straight, whatever
- single parents who decide to team up with another single parent to cooperatively raise their kids and support family life
- any unique parenting situation outside of the “norm”
- Looking for families and friends to share their stories to show how the idea of family can be fulfilled in so many ways

We’d also like to hear from you if you know anyone that fits above description; we want to know what’s going on out there!

If you are interested in helping or just want more information please contact us at Pride Angel, alternatively email info@prideangel.com

Pride Angel 24th February 2012 www.prideangel.com

The funds have been gradually accumulated from the £75 fee paid by the NHS and private clinics to the HFEA every time a woman has treatment. Campaigners have demanded the organisation gives the money back to the dozens of NHS trusts which are refusing women IVF because they are so short of money.

Last year a report by MPs found three quarters of primary care trusts are denying women treatment and not funding the three courses recommended by the health watchdog NICE.

This includes five PCTs which refuse to pay for IVF altogether while many others reject women deemed too fat, thin, old or young. As a result, couples desperate for children are having to go to private clinics and take out loans or re-mortgage their homes to cover the hefty fees.

Last year 45,000 women underwent IVF treatment, with 60 per cent having to pay for it privately. One cycle of IVF can cost between £4,000 and £8,000 as clinics charge vast fees for ‘extras’, including up to £200 for a consultation and as much as £1,000 for freezing and storing embryos.

The surplus, the equivalent to half of the organisation’s annual budget, could pay for about 850 women to have IVF at a cost of £4,000 a treatment. Clare Lewis-Jones of the charity Infertility UK, said: ‘We believe the funds built up by the HFEA should be re-invested back into the area which they regulate and that infertility patients should in some way benefit from this excess.’

The HFEA has insisted that the money was accumulated through ‘prudent’ budgeting, and said it would be too ‘complex’ to try to give the money back to cash-strapped NHS trusts. The figures were obtained by the Health Service Journal.

A poll in December revealed that a quarter of women having IVF said that they have to take out high-interest loans, reach their credit card limit and even re-mortgage their homes for a chance to realise their dream of motherhood.

A third of the 2,500 British women questioned by Red Magazine for its annual fertility report had spent more than £20,000. Success rates are just 32 per cent for women under 35, falling rapidly with age to just 1.5 per cent for those over 45. This means that many are being forced to fork out for three or more cycles of treatment.

Dr Allan Pacey, of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘This comes at a time when NHS funding for infertility treatment such as IVF has been cut in many parts of the country as a cost cutting measure, and both hospital and household budgets are feeling the squeeze.

‘The £3.4million is a significant sum of money and by a conservative estimate would fund over 850 cycles of IVF treatment. ‘The BFS believes it is inappropriate for the regulator to amass such a sum, which by its own admission is “unusually large”. ‘We will be writing to the HFEA chief executive to ask for an explanation.’

A spokesman from the HFEA said: ‘Previously, we have agreed with the department not to pursue the possibility of returning the money to clinics due to the complex principles and practicalities that would entail.

‘We developed proposals to enhance our capabilities in three ways, to spend the surplus money “wisely”, over three years. ‘The Department of Health have told us that they cannot agree to this for the next financial year, and so we await the department’s alternative suggestions.’

Article: February 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more about IVF and the HFEA

That's because the provincial law is targeted at adoptive children and does not address - or violate - the constitutional rights of children of gamete donors, who can remain anonymous, provincial lawyer Leah Greathead told the B.C. Court of Appeal.

The province is appealing a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that gave offspring of gamete (sperm or egg) donors the same rights as adopted children, who have had rights to access their birth records since the law was changed in 1996.

Two days have been set aside for the appeal case, which continues today. The landmark lawsuit being heard Tuesday, the first of its kind in North America, was launched by B.C.-born Olivia Pratten, who now lives in Toronto.

The provincial government also argued that Pratten is seeking rights that are not afforded to all children, as children who are not adopted must rely on getting genetic or medical information from a parent.

For example, a single mom can choose whether or not to tell her child who the father is. The province also argued more information is available today about sperm donors than there was 30 years ago.

Greathead noted that a woman who wants to use donated sperm today can usually get information on a donor's health and temperament. The woman can also seek out a donor willing to be identified.

In an interview during a break in the court proceedings, Pratten noted donor information is only accessible by voluntary agreement. She wants to see laws in place that ensure records of gamete donors are maintained and are available to the children of those donors.

"There's a complete void in the law," said Pratten, 29. She said she's been told by legal experts to expect the case to go to the Supreme Court of Canada. Pratten said the case is not about opening up old files - hers have been destroyed - but about changing the law going forward.

Her lawyer, Joseph Arvay, told the court his client simply wants the same benefits that adopted children have under the province's laws. "I say the legislative scheme is discriminatory when it provides benefit to adoptive people ... because they have real needs [to know their genetic heritage and medical history] and deny benefits to those who have the same needs," argued Arvay.

The judges peppered Arvay with questions, noting the state has chosen not to create laws regulating the sphere of artificial reproduction. "It's [using a gamete donor] a matter of personal choice," noted Justice Mary Saunders.

In May 2011, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elaine Adair struck down the Adoption Act on the grounds that it was discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. She suspended the effect of the ruling for 15 months to allow the government time to draft legislation so it does not violate Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The judge also granted a permanent injunction to prohibit the destruction and disposal of the records of gamete donors. Countries such as Sweden, Holland, the U.K. and parts of Australia no longer allow anonymous gamete donations.

Article: 20th February 2012 www.vancouversun.com

Looking to find a known sperm donor? visit www.prideangel.com

Notes or "hidden" addendums would be linked to the certificates, telling the child that more information relating to their donor was available when they turned 18.

The move would mean all donor details could be recorded on the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the first time.

The current Assisted Reproductive Technology Register, overseen by NSW Health since its introduction in 2010, covers commercial conceptions but excludes non-medical donations or private arrangements.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, Department of Premier and Cabinet deputy director-general Vicki D'Adam suggested that the option of a hidden record would still allow the child to use the birth certificate for public identification purposes without possible embarrassment.

"Options for including donor information on the birth certificate would need to take into account issues of privacy to ensure that donor-conceived children are not stigmatised by being treated differently to other children," she said.

The inquiry was launched last year after the NSW District Court ordered that a NSW sperm donor be removed from his daughter's BDM register. It ruled that the birth mother's former partner had the right to be named on the register, despite the donor maintaining a close relationship and financial support for the child since birth.

The law says only two parent names can be on the BDM register.

Article: 17th February 2012 www.heraldsun.com.au

Read more about finding known donors willing to donate sperm by personal arrangement at www.prideangel.com

Joanna Darrell, of the Beaumont Society, which helps men who wish to or have changed gender told the newspaper that the unnamed father got in touch to enquire for help having a child after having undergone surgery.

Through the charity, the unnamed man had hormone treatment to reactivate his womb. The womb had not actually been removed during his original surgery. “He got back in touch about six months ago to thank the society for its help and to say he had the baby,” Ms Darrell said.

Thomas Beatie, a trans man who lives legally in his acquired gender in the United States, conceived and has given birth to three children since 2007. His wife Nancy is unable to conceive. The Oregon couple’s first daughter was born in June 2008 and a son followed a year later and a son in 2010.

Despite being legally defined as a man for over ten years and having had some gender reassignment surgery, Beatie kept his female reproductive organs. He is thought to have had natural births with his three children and his wife breastfed both.

Before starting a family, Beatie had been on hormone treatments, but stopped taking them in order to resume menstruating and conceive through artificial insemination. All children were conceived with the help of sperm donors.

Last month, Yuval Topper, became the first Israeli trans man to give birth. Mr Topper underwent gender confirmation surgery three years ago. He was travelling to Jerusalem, but stopped to give birth in Tel Aviv.

There is a cancer risk associated with retaining a uterus and ovaries after they are exposed to high levels of testosterone associated with gender reassignment which means many choose to have them removed. Christopher Inglefield, a surgeon specialising in gender reassignment surgery told the Sunday Times: “The obvious thing is to get them to store eggs before they have the surgery, so they can have babies later using a female surrogate.”

But not everyone is supportive of trans men having children. Trevor Stammers, director of medical ethics at St Mary’s University College told the newspaper: “The fact that the medical profession is facilitating and encouraging this is a serious problem. You are hardly going to end up with a baby that’s going to have a happy, productive and optimal childhood.”

Are you gay, lesbian or transgender, wishing to find a known sperm or egg donor? visit www.prideangel.com

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