How to Make a Family: The Blog

Going Soft - An Appealing Granting Org

In the 11 years since I first started spending way too much time on the topic of affording infertility treatment, I've seen granting "organizations" come and go. After awhile, it's hard not to see jade green when you read about yet another attempt to help people afford ART to have a baby. It's tough to tease out the truly well-meaning from the opportunistic.

Guess I'm getting soft with age. This one looks for real. Sweetening the appeal is the fact that Fertile Dreams' founder, Dr. Mark P. Trolice, a Florida fertility specialist, and his wife have reportedly been through IVF a whopping five times without success. They've since adopted two children. Add to that poignant fact the deal that recipients of the grants can use the funds at any fertility clinic they choose in the U.S.

Looks good. The clincher -- you have only until April 9, 2007 to apply for this year's award, and you must be able to attend the Gala presentation on April 21 in Florida.

Link: Fertile Dreams - Gala 2006.

What the Doc at U of Chicago Thinks

Stumbled across this interesting Q&A on The University of Chicago Chronicle's site. Dr. David Cohen, an RE with whom I've had the opportunity to chat briefly in the past (about an ovulation predictor product, if my memory serves me well), responds to a list of personal questions that no doubt inform his professional experience.

I vote every RE submit to the same and publish a compilation.

Link: Opine: David Cohen.

Communication Conflict Boggles College-Educated Minds

From Sacred Heart University's The Spectrum, a little lesson in how to completely confuse the young people we're hoping to educate.

As you might already know or discern, it's a Catholic institution of higher learning. So, since I was never personally indoctrinated in the religion, perhaps my furrowed brow and wrinkled up nose is based on a lack of sympathetic understanding.

It's against the rules -- as in, they have actual consequences for infractions -- to have a condom on your person or, I guess, in your pocket even. According to this opinion piece in the school paper, "premarital sex is forbidden..." But someone official there recently authorized free STD testing at the Campus, sending out email invites that asked "Are you positive that you're negative?"

So Perspectives section writer Rachel Maresca dutifully took to the lawns to find out if other students felt the same dismay as she did and, what a surprise, nobody quite gets it.

Neither do I.

I'd like to see some of those students apply for a research grant (from another institution, perhaps) to investigate the percentage of Catholic university graduates who go on to experience infertility later, as compared to folks who weren't "forbidden" to have sex.

Link: Are you positive you're negative? - Perspectives.

Fertility & Fun Can Be Found Abroad

How about that medical tourism industry? Here's a little wrinkle... Steve Cooper, formerly of London, has taken up residence in Gujarat, India where his job as Fertility Goddess allows him to be close to his believers.

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" files:

Link: AHN | Jobless Male Londoner Rechirstened As Fertility Goddess In Indian State | March 31, 2007.

Men In Hot Water

You can almost hear them ranting, "You want us in? You want us out? What?!"

A small pilot study is telling guys who want to be fertile to stay out of hot water.

Even sweeter, the lead author of the study, University of California-San Francisco urologist Paul J. Turek MD, tells men in this PR to "...treat your body like a temple..."   

Paul J. Turek MD
(photo courtesy of UCSF)

I have a second grader, a boy. Great kid. Likes swimming in the pool and Gulf, among other activities. Hates hot water, if I can use our regular squabbles about bath-time as a criterion to judge. So, like lots of boys, I presume from other parents' whines, my son's being raised to associate maternal control and related emotional stress with dousing one's body in hot water.

Later on, he could be told by some nice woman wanting a baby from him to stay out of the tub.
And to treat his body like a temple.
Better her than me.

So -- for those of you men who are ready for some back-up to the frequently heard wives' tales about heat and related male fertility... This one was just published in a Brazilian urology journal (you can actually access the entire study report in PDF format for no charge), and authored by several repro urology minded researchers in both UCSF and Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Yes, it's small -- 11 subjects -- but it's always encouraging to see positive news about non-medical interventions that can help out the baby-making cause.

Their finding:

In Ca$e You're Wondering: Organon Bought

Akzo Nobel almost went public with its Organon BioSciences, makers of Follistim (among other drugs), when Schering-Plough scooped it up for a cool $14.4 billion. Organon's Netherlands unit for research/manufacturing will be S-P's world base for gynecology and fertility products.

Link: Schering-Plough to buy Organon BioSciences for $14.4 billion - MarketWatch.

Evidence-based Science Versus The Desperate Wanna-be Mom

Back when it seemed like I was miscarrying pregnancies left and right (approximately every 6 months, to be accurate), scouring the Internet for answers developed from a hobby into an obsession and, finally, a career. If there was something out there that my MFM or RE hadn't suggested yet, by gosh, I was going to find it and lay it out for them.

That's how I wound up begging to use prednisone, a glucocorticoid aka steroid hormone.

Link: Steroid use fails to boost pregnancy rates in infertility treatments.

Using Stem Cells to Create Sperm

Far from being a done deal, there is at least the possibility of more hope on the horizon for men with cellular level infertility. Research published in the American Journal of Pathology reports that infertile mice recognized promising results when bone marrow stem cells were transplanted into the testis to see if they would replace nonfunctioning cells.

While no full sperm cells were created, the stem cells did indeed differentiate into either germ cells or supporting cells. Also, the different types of "new" cells were found among similar types, indicating influence on the stem cells by their immediate environment.

This is one of those very precursory studies in a long line of future explorations, but hopefully it's one that we'll all look back on one day and say "Remember when we'd just started to figure out how to use stem cells to create sperm?"

Link: Treating Male Infertility With Stem Cells.

The Researcher Who Loves Women

All those years... those years of gradually transforming from the conscience-laden evenings of nightly bowls filled with delectable frozen cream to the guilt-free days of yogurt sans fat. Wasted, wasted time and psychic tweaking...

Jorge Chavarro says women who are trying to get pregnant should be eating more ice cream.

Why, why now?! The unfairness of it all. Now, when I have my offspring already. Now, when I'm at an age in which a prerequisite for maintaining a half-decent weight is daily exercise, HARD exercise, like running a few miles -- if I want to eat like a normal person, anyway. Now, when I'm having to consider that my family inheritance, uncontrollable cholesterol, will zap me in mid-stride if I don't watch it like the vulture it is... why now??

Ah, well. Such is life.

For those of you who still care and can afford to -- go ahead. Grab your pints and spoons. Feel your eyes roll back in your head with ecstasy as that cold sweet stuff slides down your throat. Get pregnant.

G'head. I'll be over here with my yogurt.

Link: Eating ice cream may help women to conceive, but low-fat dairy foods may increase infertility risk.