How to Make a Family: The Blog

Genes That Affect Follicle Growth Identified

In yet another study that seems way too remote from the topic of getting pregnant to be interesting, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have pinpointed 348 genes -- in mice -- that quite possibly impact follicle growth.

According to one of the researchers in this article in ScienceDaily, humans and mice are "very similar" at the molecular level in regards to ovarian biology. Hence the "aHA!"

So, big yawn for now, but this is information that could possibly become the basis for a host of diagnostics and treatments for numerous ovarian disorders, one of the most common causes of female infertility.

Then again, here's Brandom Keim of Wired, griping that rather than doing mice studies, "why not do a whole genome association study of infertile women" to come up with firmer pieces of the puzzle.

Link: ScienceDaily: Hundreds Of Genes Controlling Female Fertility Identified.

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.

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:

Diagnosis of Rare Disease Tipped Off By Common Illness

Primary ciliary dyskinesia, or PCD, is a rare genetic disease that can result in infertility, but a new study has found that the majority of people with PCD started out in life with respiratory distress.

PCD can be misdiagnosed as more common conditions like asthma, allergies, and cystic fibrosis. While there are numerous other distressing symptoms of PCD -- recurrent sinus and ear infections that don't respond to treatment, persistent wheezing and cough -- fertility becomes an issue because of one of the disease's hallmarks, cilia that don't do their job. Cilia are tiny hairs that exist throughout our innards and are charged with the duty of moving things along -- mucus, and with it, bacteria and other bad things. Cilia also exist in the reproductive system. PCD is sometimes called Kartagener Syndrome, immotile cilia syndrome, and ciliary aplasia.

In addition to stuck cilia, PCD patients have reversed internal organs.

The study authors found retrospective evidence that 80 percent of PCD patients have a history of respiratory distress as newborns. They therefore encourage the exploration of possible PCD diagnosis for patients who are term (born at or around 40 weeks), have respiratory distress or persistent hypoxemia (low blood oxygen), and particularly if the patient is already known to have reversed internal organs.

Link: Newborns with respiratory disease may have rare hereditary disease.

The Unglamorous World of Sperm

Fascinated with the little buggers' determination, a renowned sperm researcher -- who declares he's no "sperm specialist" -- talks with NYT's Claudia Dreifus about how the things he's accidently learning will lead to practical application in both infertility management and male contraception.

Link: A Conversation With David E. Clapham - Small Wonders: Understanding the Way of the Warrior Sperm - New York Times.

Sizing Up the Guys' Role

No real news here, but a quick-read report about a recent JAMA article that sums up how important the male biological clock really is -- even if they don't even seem to notice the noise like women do.

Link: ABC News: Piecing Together the Infertility Puzzle.

Veterans' Fertility Risks: Agent Orange

Dioxin, found in Agent Orange during the Vietnam era, apparently could have promoted male infertility by way of suppressing prostate gland growth and related hormones.

Link: MySA.com: Metro | State.

Never in a million years. Well, okay, in 30-something...

Everyone who hears the word "infertility" pointedly uttered in their personal direction feels the same way: "What? Me? How? When?" -- only to finally land on "Why??"

So, my own personal story is just about as compelling as, well, all the other millions out there. The thing that might make mine a little different -- I turned my infertility into a career.

Cool, huh? It'll do.

I've written about almost nothing else for the past decade. I know, it sounds insane. Part of me worries about it. The other part can't get away from it. Why? No matter how hard I try to get into publishing pieces for Chirpy Mommy Mags about all manner of humans who've developed well beyond embryo stage, what keeps drawing me back to the Fertility Challenged side of life?

Well, there's a whole book in that answer, but for now...

Here's what I'll do, on behalf of my readers:

1. Access the greatest fertility-dedicated minds and pipette-wielding hands in the world, and comment on their comings and goings. I can do this -- I've already had the pleasure (or something else) of interacting with lots of them.

2. Eventually invite same famous (in addition to the not-so-very-yet) pros to put their own two cents down right here.

3. Post related news items, along with commentary designed to make the baby-making multitudes think (because getting pregnant the hard way is an emotionally arduous process that often winds up choking the life-blood out of some critical braincells.)

Right now, I'm building up for the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in New Orleans, later in October. More on that to come... (and NO, I neither represent the ASRM nor am I being paid in any way by them to promote their meeting.)