Infertility

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

Ncise Cwayita, a 20 year old from South Africa, gave birth to a healthy baby girl after she had grown in her liver, instead of the womb. The baby had attached herself to the liver which is a rich source of blood and had her nutrients provided from that. She then expanded into the abdominal cavity. Doctors didn't discover this until they did a scan a week before Ncise's due date. They then did a complicated operation to deliver the baby, who was perfectly normal and weighed 6lbs, 3ozs.

A 42 year old woman in Nottingham, UK, gave birth to a baby girl who had developed in her bowel. The baby had implanted in the lining of the bowel where she was able to obtain nutrients. Doctors thought the woman had a tumor growing on her cervix, but this was actually her unused womb. They didn't realise the baby was in her bowel until the day of delivery. The mother needed blood transfusions but both she and her baby are healthy. She had been told she could never have children.

A 37 year old woman in the UK gave birth to a baby girl, Millie, after she had developed in her abdomen. Doctors hadn't realised the baby was outside the womb and tried to attempt an induction of labor. After being in labor for hours with no progress, they decided on a caesarean. It was then that they realised the baby wasn't in the womb and ended up doing emergency operations to deliver the baby, a bowel operation and a full hysterectomy. The mother, Lisa, was too ill to see Millie for 3 days afterwards, but now both are healthy. Baby Millie was a bouncing 8lbs, 7ozs.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

Not recieving treatment or stopping treatment can lead to life threatening complications in a thyroid disorder, but there are a number of natural measures that you can take to improve your thyroid function and overall health and fertility, alongside your treatment.

There is a herbal remedy for under-active thyroid called Bladder Wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) which may lessen your symptoms. It can be taken as a tablet or a herbal tea. Nettles are also good, either as a tablet, tea or soup.

Nutrition and diet: this is very important. Certain foods worsen the symptoms of an under-active thyroid, such as caffeine, sugar, dairy products and processed foods. Cut these out altogether or at least reduce them to give yourself the best chance of health. Foods like cabbage, soya beans, spinach and nuts can sometimes interfere with hormone production so reduce these.

If you are suffering from over-active thyroid, increase your consumption of them instead.

Yoga has been shown to help in some cases. Please consult a qualified yoga practitioner to find out which exercises could help you.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

In the UK, the caesarean section rate is 25% of all childbearing women. In the US, the situation is even worse, with around 36% of babies being born by caesarean. Back in the 1980's, this rate was about 4%, and in a true life threatening emergency, it should never go above 4%.

I have no doubt that caesarean does save lives but these days it is used more and more in non-life threatening situations such as breech presentation which is not a medical emergency. It is possible to give birth vaginally to a breech baby with an experienced midwife or doctor. Increasingly, doctors aren't even trained to deliver these babies, so surgery is all they know.

Women may be a little more questioning if they realised that surgery puts them at risk of uterine rupture during pregnancy, as the womb expands and puts pressure on the scar tissue, as well as low lying placenta which can cause heavy blood loss. That is, assuming they can even get pregnant in the first place. According to Am J Obstet Gynecol.1987 Aug;157 (2): 379-83, 6.4% of women who underwent caesarean developed secondary infertility, compared with only 2.2% of those who had had a vaginal delivery. It was suggested that there may be an infertility threshold in which the added stress of caesarean pushes women with other non-surgical infertility factors over the threshold.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

I'm a pro-lifer and I'm in favor of IVF. It may surprise you to learn that some pro-lifers don't agree with IVF or frozen embryo's. Why? Because embryo's created in IVF are unborn babies and many are discarded when the parents no longer need to try anymore. Many times the embryo's are used for medical research, which is regarded by many as disrespectful.

I feel that overall, IVF is a good thing as many thousands of people would not exist without it.

When that frozen embryo comes from another couple and is donated to someone else, even more arguments rage. Some people say that those who donated it are the parents, and the recipients would need to legally 'adopt' it after the birth. Others say that the embryo becomes the property of the recipient once it is implanted into her womb. Some say that the donors should be given a period of time after the birth to decide if they want to re-claim the child, like in a traditional adoption where the mother has three months to take her child back if she changes her mind. Who exactly is the parent to the child? The donor who created it, or the woman who gave birth?

I am sure these arguments are insulting to any woman who has spent nine months being pregnant and had a beautiful baby. She is that baby's mother, no matter who produced the DNA. I knew when I gave permission for my eggs to be removed that they were no longer mine. If a person is secretly wanting a baby, she shouldn't be a donor.

I do agree that frozen embryo's should not just be thrown away, and if you're opposed to testing on embryo's, just refuse consent for your eggs to be used in this way.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

I was born three months early, 31 years ago. After struggling in hospital for three months and having several arrests in my breathing, I was finally stable. When I weighed 5lbs, my mother was allowed to take me home.

My health has been of concern ever since. I had a meningitis type illness at age four and growing up had frequent stomach bugs, flu and thrush infections. I developed chronic migraines at age 11, vulvodynia at age 12 (which has so far been permanent and causes me constant pain), I suffered with debilatating hyperacusis from the age of 14 until I was 25, of which I still have after-effects, and I have back and chest pain due to a twisted spine, brought on by the cerebral palsy I got from my premature birth.

When I was 17, doctors thought I may be infertile. Thankfully I proved them wrong. Fertility was not one of my issues. I now have five children, so I'm proof that pre-term people can have children. Three of my children were overdue. I do live in daily pain, though, and wonder whether my prematurity caused it.

Geeta Swarmy, MD, said

'Pre-term survival is improving because of advances in neonatal care, however, it may mean that we're improving survival while adversely affecting the health and quality of life in the long run.'

Am I glad to be alive? Yes. I look into the eyes of my beautiful children and know they wouldn't exist if it weren't for the benefits of neonatal intensive care. I am thankful I still had my fertility. But sometimes I sit in pain that won't go away no matter how many medicines I take, and I think that maybe saving life at all costs is not so black and white. There are shades of gray.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

The classified section in baby magazines I have read show advertisements for collecting your baby's stem cells to protect them from cancer later in life. Just a small sample from your baby's umbilical cord could be the answer in years to come if she ever gets a life threatening disease. It's all the rage and today's parents are paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege.

I'm not entirely against the idea. If there was a stem cell that could regenerate my daughter's myelin and stop her HMSN, then great. If there was a cell that would stop cancer without the use of chemotherapy, wonderful.

But I still feel that doctors are pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable and I cannot see how fertilizing a bovine egg with a human man's sperm is advancing science or humanity. The cross human and animal embryo would be different from a regular human when it comes to studying stem cells and diseases. Is it merely morbid curiousity on the part of researchers that propells them to do something like this? Let's face it, a half human, half cow is a crime against nature, even if it is destroyed at two weeks old.

Stem cells can be studied in completely human embryos (although pro life organisations are opposed to that, and they may have a point) so one would wonder why the need to use animal eggs? There are women who are prepared to donate their own eggs for research, and I did so in the past.

I think that scientists are simply doing this because they can, that authorities can interpret the law - which clearly prohibits this - to suit their own purposes.

Just because someone can do something, doesn't give them the right to and just because something is possible, doesn't mean it is desirable.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

Taking folic acid has been shown to be protective against heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. It prevents neural tube defects like spina bifida and anencephaly in infants and is recommended for all pregnant or planning to be pregnant women. Now, the latest research has shown it is important for men too. Researchers are tentatively suggesting that possibly men planning to be fathers should take the vitamin as well as their wives or partners. While it has not been proven, further research is indicated as necessary.

But did you know that this vitamin is controversial and there has been evidence to suggest that it can actually cause miscarriage? According to the Lancet, ( Can Terathanasia Explain the Protective Effect of Folic-acid Supplementation on Birth Defects? Lancet 350(9076): 513-515 (16Aug 1997).

Doctors speculated whether folic acid could cause terathanasia (where the vitamin selects embryos which have abnormalities and causes the body to spontaneously abort). A trial in Hungary found that there was a significant reduction in children born with birth defects to those women taking folic acid, but also a 16% increase in the rate of spontaneous abortion. A 15% increase was also noted in the UK. If folic acid really does abort abnormal embryos, this would account for the reduction in birth defects.

Personally, I would still take the vitamin to prevent spina bifida and I'd encourage all men and women to eat as many greens as possible for a healthier baby!

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

My mother and sister both used tampons. They couldn't stand pads. I grew up seeing tampons as normal and not knowing many other choices, or even that most women in the world don't have access to disposible sanitary products.

Being struck down with vulvodynia at the age of 12 meant that after a few, exceedingly painful, experiences with tampons, I decided to ditch tampons in favor of pads. Two years later, I read about the death of 15 year old Alice Kilvert from tampon related toxic shock and I resolved never to try them again.

When I became a mother, I used cloth diapers on my baby because they didn't contain chemicals and fill up landfill sites. Little did I know the pads I was wearing did not biodegrade and were full of chemicals that agrevated my vulvodynia, could cause painful sex and endometriosis. I was ashamed that I got to 30 years of age before I even realised that.

So when my period returned when my son was 9 months old, I vowed it would be the last one using disposibles and I bought myself lots of cloth pads including some tie dyed ones in purple, blue, green and funky orange, from bumbeano nappies. Am I disgusted by the idea? Not at all. I'm revelling in the transition and for the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to bleeding!

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

It is widely known that there is a greater risk to the mother and baby with assisted conception, from miscarriage to birth defects to prematurity. That is, assuming the IVF is successful and she gets pregnant in the first place. The success rate of IVF is still only 20 to 25%.

But is it any wonder when you consider how difficult natural conception is? An egg is only present in the womb for one to two days each month so the chance of getting pregnant at any other time is about 5%, and that's for a fertile couple. Then the sperm have to make the journey to the egg, and they only live for between three and four days. They might not even make it passed the vaginal canal if the woman's mucus is not favorable, too acidic and they're dead before they even swim anywhere. If conditions are right, the egg's zona, or outer casing, has to be soft enough for a sperm to penetrate. If the egg is too hard, then the sperm cannot break into it and both will perish.

If fertilization does occur, the tiny cluster of human life then has to make it's way to a suitable place in the womb, a journey fraught with danger. If the conception occurs in the tubes, there is a risk of the embryo implanting there. If it makes it to the womb, the lining has to be optimal or it cannot implant and will get reabsorbed by the body.

Doctors say that a large percentage of pregnancies end before a woman has even missed her period, so she never knows she was pregnant.

When you consider the incredible odds involved, it's a miracle that IVF works at all, so anything that makes it more natural has to be good news.

Posted by Joanna Karpasea-Jones

A lot of women with infertility problems also have sexual problems, for instance, adhesions which then cause pain during sexual intercourse. This can lead to an avoidance of sex because of the pain associated with it.

If, as in my case, you have vulvodynia or another genital pain disorder, it can be difficult to have sex at all, and obviously without sex there is no baby.

According to the Medscope General Medicine journal, a number of women in the study had painful sex problems, which were then cured by the Wurn Technique.

'In the course of treating female infertility with a manual physical therapy technique,several of our patients volunteered the fact that they were having "the best sex, the best orgasms ever."

And:

'Relatively recent investigations have found the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction (approximately 40%) to surpass that of males (approximately 30%). Despite the higher prevalence, there have been few investigatory studies of female sexual problems and fewer available treatments than for comparable male conditions.'

Good sex is important when trying for a baby. The female orgasm helps to move sperm along, increasing the chance of conception. The hormone, oxytocin, is released during orgasm and this regulates our happiness and stress levels. Stress has been directly linked to infertility, so if you're having painful sex and you're not able to orgasm, maybe you should try the Wurn Technique.