There was a lot of hopeful infertility support data released recently from studies done in Australia. According to some of their latest research the Institute of Health And Welfare’s statistics indicate a substantial rise in the number of healthy babies being born to women in their early forties. The numbers indicated a 40 percent rise in the number of healthy births from the year 2002 compared to 4 years later in 2006. This is quite a bit of hopeful news for those women looking to assisted reproductive technology to help them concieve.
Most people today know a couple within their circle of friends that are struggling to get pregnant due to an issue with infertility. The question is how many of those couples are having this ordeal due to the male having the infertile issues. Read today this press release on the reluctance of the male’s that are suspected of having the infertility and their inability to acknowledge the problem at all. The article states that infertility in men is on the rise with the number around 1 in 20 men in the US alone. Most of the issues with the reluctance part is the association, that some how a man that is infertile is less of a man. Time to get over yourselves guys! This is a medical condition that has absolutely nothing to do with your masculinity, it’s not like you had an actual choice in the matter. You were either born with this problem or a victim of the chemical environment around you. So please read today’s clip on male infertility and their unwillingness to step up to the issue and face it head on. Women are doing it everyday guys, time to step up and be a man. Also attached today is a news report on male infertility and how it is more common than you may think so please share your opinions after your read today’s article and keep fighting!
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Oocyte-specific gene mutations cause premature ovarian failure
“We hope to use the information from this study and others that identify genes associated with this problem to find biomarkers in blood that can help us determine a woman’s risk of early infertility,” said Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at BCM and senior author of the paper. Premature ovarian failure, which means that the ovaries lose function before age 40, not only causes infertility but also bone and heart problems, he said.
“It affects 1 percent of women,” he said. “While most people associate it with infertility, women with premature ovarian failure face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and premature death. Ovarian reserves are important for women’s health.”
In looking for genes that cause the disorder, Rajkovic and his colleagues here and in China concentrated on those that are most likely to function in the ovary. A gene mutation does not totally halt gene activity, but Rajkovic believes it can accelerate the loss of eggs (or germ cells). When all the eggs are lost, the ovaries stop producing estrogen, leading to menopause symptoms.
In this study, Rajkovic and his collaborators screened 100 Chinese women with premature ovarian failure for mutations in FIGLA and found three different kinds of mutations in the FIGLA genes of four.
