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You know how today's young women are just waltzing through life, oblivious to their shriveling ovaries? Actually, for a lot of women (and men) the opposite is true — they wrongly assume they're infertile. And that can cause its own set of problems. More »
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Young people with cancer have a lot to contend with, and one major issue is the potential effect of treatment on their fertility. But young female patients say doctors are failing to discuss potential fertility problems with them. More »
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You know how a deep voice in a man is a surefire sign of his ability to impregnate you with lots of his genetically-fit babies, which is exactly what you, as a woman, are hardwired to want? Yeah, no. Turns out, dudes with deep voices actually have substandard sperm. More »
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A San Francisco man has been told by the FDA to cease and desist selling his sperm over the internet after helping 14 women become pregnant. The 36-year-old man claims he's simply providing a free service to women who want to become mothers without going through typical sperm donation process; authorities say he's a public health hazard. And no matter how you slice it, there are few things less appetizing than imagining receiving a big pack o' sperm in the mail. More »
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The Obama administration has barred over-the-counter sales of Plan B for women under 17 because of as-yet unelaborated upon health concerns. A popular breast cancer drug doesn't work. Breast cancer screenings may be harmful. And now, the Food and Drug Administration wants birth control manufacturers to include new warnings on their packaging informing pill popping harlots that their consequence free sex now comes with a higher risk of blood clots. The FDA wants to make sure that every day in every way, you're aware that your ladyparts are going to kill you. More »
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On a recent Tuesday evening, I applied to be an egg donor. "Help create a family," read the two-inch-square ad ripped from the Chicago Reader's classifieds. "$7,000 to all healthy women to be anonymous egg donors." I have textbook-good blood pressure. I've been hospitalized just once, for a few hours, when I had a tonsillectomy. And I'm on the low end of the target 21 to 28 age range. I completed a short online questionnaire quite pleased with myself. I'd taken a practical step toward monetary independence, so elusive to my demographic during this recession. A mostly selfish act –- taken to help silence student debt collectors -– could result in selfless consequences. Maybe I could give a couple the family they desire. I have healthy eggs but no upcoming plans to use them –- why waste a good thing? More »
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A new study suggests that using a WiFi-enabled laptop could lead to sperm damage. Some scientists, however, say a sperm freakout is premature. More »
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Ladies, men have finally caught on to our dastardly plot. Our days of stealing used condoms to collect their precious seed, running off to a shady fertility clinic, getting pregnant, then living large on $800 per month are numbered. A Houston man is suing his ex-girlfriend for undergoing fertility treatments without his consent and having his twins in a plot so incredible that Kanye West has declared it the greatest golddigging scheme of all time. More »
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Hundreds of women in Peru who believe they're infertile may actually be the victims of a horrible government policy that led to them being sterilized. The country's attorney general says there are about 2,000 documented cases of women who had their tubes tied without their consent under a program meant to provide birth control options to deal with the country's high birth rate. More »
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New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that America's facing a crisis of unparalleled proportions— no one's having babies anymore. Some experts blame the decline in birth rate on the everlasting economic Dutch oven in which we now live. With an imminent shortage of able bodied youngsters waiting to replace us at our shitty jobs, who's going to pay for our future entitlement costs and feed us thickened coffee when we get old?! Who are we going to call ungrateful slackers in 20 years? More »
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On one hand, we're practically beaten over the heads with the idea that eventually our ladygrapes are going to run out of juice. On the other, a poll suggests that women seem to be in mass denial of — or improperly educated about — the fact that fertility, like all things, must come to an end. How can the medical community make facts about infertility stick? Incessant nagging sure isn't working. More »
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Maurice and Katisha Gordon were planning to conceive a second child using IVF, so after he was murdered in June 2010 by a gunman targeting his cousin, Katisha decided to go forward with their plan. She conceived using leftover embryos from the first procedure and on July 26 she delivered a baby girl named Zoe. "The baby is beautiful, but it is sad at the same time because Maurice is written all over her face," says Maurice's sister Dionne Gordon. "He was a such a father figure to Zoe, and he doesn't have that opportunity to do it with Paige." More »
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In his new memoir, Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband (a phrase that never gets old!) of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, tells the very personal story of Gabby's recovery after being shot in the head in January. Among the many frank details the book reveals, there is one that stands out and makes the whole incident even sadder than it already was: Giffords, who at the time of the shooting was 41, had been trying to get pregnant when she was injured. She was undergoing fertility treatments and was hoping to be pregnant by February. She even had a doctors appointment scheduled for just two days after the shooting. Talk about heartbreaking! More »
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The transgender man who became famous after posing for photographs while pregnant recently gave birth to his third child and has decided that he's about had his fill of having a uterus. More »
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In addition to academic and career advice, do college women need preparation for deciding if and when to have kids? One Barnard student argues that they do. More »
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A new product called CycleBeads purports to help women become the overlords of their ovaries by charting their menstrual cycles using a necklace and a rubber ring. Every which way I turn, someone company somewhere is trying to get their bead-shaped product near my vagina. Please stop this. Please get those beads away from my vagina. More »
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Only four doctors in Mississippi perform in vitro fertilization, and since the state's so-called "Personhood Amendment" was added to the November ballot, they've all been receiving panicked calls from patients about the possibility that the state constitution might soon make many IVF practices illegal. More »
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We're used to hearing about female stars who have twins after undergoing IVF, but it seems that this phenomenon is destined to become something D-listers snark about on I Love The '10s. According to a new study, reproductive technology has improved to the point that transferring only one embryo during in vitro fertilization won't lower a woman's chances of giving birth, but it will reduce her risk of having to go through with a risky pregnancy or make a tough call about reduction. More »
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It may not come as a surprise that women who are underweight have trouble conceiving, since they sometimes struggle with irregular periods. What's more surprising is that even IVF, which doctors thought would compensate for these problems, is still less effective in underweight women than in those at a healthy weight, or those who are obese. More »
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A Canadian radio station sponsoring a "Win a baby!" contest has chosen the five lucky couples who will each receive $35,000 worth of IVF treatments, but not before telling them that only one couple would win. Hooray? More »
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Today in depressing: a widely-used anti-miscarriage drug that didn't actually work has been found to cause breast cancer, infertility, and a whole mess of other problems in the daughters of women who used it while pregnant. The drug's crappy effects are so far reaching that researchers also suspect that it may cause reproductive health issues in the granddaughters of women who used it. More »
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Some men donate sperm for money, others out of a desire to help. But some do it because the idea of getting women pregnant turns them on. More »
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Women's voices tend to vary in pitch over the course of their menstrual cycle, and scientists have speculated that this might help them advertise their fertility to men. Turns out, it doesn't. More »
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Interviews with sperm and egg donors reveal an interesting dichotomy: while men who give sperm think of themselves as fathers, women who donate eggs don't see themselves as moms. This may say a lot about how we view motherhood and fatherhood. More »
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Apparently being in a special club with the likes of Julianne Moore, Conan O'Brien, and Dana Scully doesn't mean redheads have it easy. Everyday our flame-haired friends are experiencing discrimination when they try to make a donation at the sperm bank. More »
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Many sperm donors assume they'll be biological dads to just a few children. But with the news that some donors have fathered over 100 kids come calls for tighter regulation. More »
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We're pretty sure Oprah blew the lid off this topic years ago, but apparently there are plenty of women who still don't realize that it's harder to get pregnant in your 40s. And it's a real mindfuck, you see, because some women who look 10 years younger than they really are, thanks to cosmetic procedures — are then these ladies are very surprised to find that their ovaries don't care what their face looks like. Your womb knows how old and crusty you really are! More »
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No, kids, there is not a bone in your penis. However, bones may have unexpected effects on male fertility. More »
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In one of the many special cases complicating the abortion debate, a number of parents are choosing to abort one fetus when they discover they're carrying twins. This has created an ethical quagmire for parents and doctors alike. More »
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British researchers have come up with a preliminary index to predict which pregnancies will end in miscarriage, with 94 percent accuracy rate. It requires no equipment and can help doctors inexpensively focus resources on high-risk pregnancies. More »
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Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis told the ladies of The View today that she used multiple surrogates in her efforts to have a baby. And apparently, the surrogates got jealous. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5815337&view=rss&microfeed=true Yes, they are more fecund than the average American family. Whatever family size works for you, but just pointing out that at this rate, they're going to outnumber us. More »
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Washington, D.C. has by far the highest per-capita rate of in vitro fertilization, followed by other parts of the Northeast. This and other fascinating facts come from an infographic compiled by Fertility Nation, drawing on CDC and census data. (Click to enlarge). More »
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Want people to more eagerly dive into baby-making? Here's a tip: Help 'em take care of the little suckers. More »
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Of the ovaries, that is. Uterine gold. Fecundi-tea. More »
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A new study of nearly 4,000 women has found that 28 percent of women with two or more children had them by different men. A longitudinal study, it took place over the course of 27 years, with 20 interviews. More »
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When I was a college undergraduate, I took a class in human behavioral biology team-taught by two male professors. Most of what I learned really bothered me –- it seemed reductionist to claim that males behaved one way and females another based entirely on reproductive goals. The tongue in cheek style, the ease with which other animals were compared to humans, agitated my righteous feminist mind. More »
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A British doctor is allegedly circumventing the UK's laws against sex-selective fertility treatments by referring patients to a clinic in Cyprus. So is he doing anything wrong? More »
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While the headline sounds a little Beverly Hillbillies, the circumstances of the birth of baby Finnean Connell were more along the lines of The Six Million Dollar Man. We can repair him! We have the technology! More »
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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban announced yesterday the birth of their biological daughter — through gestational carrier. Incidentally, surrogacy is illegal in their native Australia, and New South Wales has already banned the practice for Australians overseas too. More »
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