Women With Cancer Have Options For Preserving Fertility
Young women undergoing cancer treatment have an increasing number of options for preserving their fertility, a leading researcher told attendees today at the 58th Annual Clinical Meeting of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Thanks to a new medical discipline known as oncofertility, the reproductive outlook for women cancer patients is becoming as good as for men, who long have had the option of banking their sperm, according to Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, in her lecture “Oncofertility: The Preservation of Fertility Options for Young People with Cancer.” A promising new technique for preserving ovarian tissue has the potential to safeguard the future fertility even of very young girls undergoing cancer treatment, she said. Read More…
Read MoreHealthy Women Freeze Eggs To Delay Childbearing
As more women delay childbearing until their 30s and 40s, a growing number are freezing their eggs in a process known as oocyte cryopreservation, the Chicago Tribune reports. The process is most commonly used by women undergoing medical treatments that could affect fertility. However, the procedure is now being marketed as an option for healthy women who want to delay having children.
Nicole Noyes, co-director of the Oocyte Cryopreservation Program at the New York University Fertility Center, said that women lose much of their natural fertility between ages 35 and 40 and that the quality of their eggs decreases with age, which can increase their chances of miscarrying. Read More…
Read MoreNew Requirements For Male Fertility
Two independent groups of researchers have identified distinct roles for two proteins in a family of proteins known as PLA2s as crucial for sperm function and male fertility in mice. These data identify proteins that could underlie causes of infertility and provide potential targets for the development of new contraceptive agents and new approaches to treating infertility. In addition, these data provide a caution to those developing drugs that target members of this closely related group of proteins to treat hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and inflammation. Read More…
Read MoreBisphenol A Retards Follicle Growth
Plastics Chemical Retards Growth, Function Of Adult Reproductive Cells
Bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in plastics and known to cause reproductive problems in the offspring of pregnant mice exposed to it, also has been found to retard the growth of follicles of adult mice and hinder their production of steroid hormones, researchers report.
Their study is the first to show that chronic exposure to low doses of BPA can impair the growth and function of adult reproductive cells. The researchers describe their findings this month at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction.
A healthy, mature follicle, called an antral follicle, includes a single egg cell surrounded by layers of cells and fluid which support the egg and produce steroid hormones, said University of Illinois veterinary biosciences professor Jodi Flaws, who led the study with graduate student Jackye Peretz.
“These are the only follicles that are capable of ovulating and so if they don’t grow properly they’re not going to ovulate and there could be fertility issues,” Flaws said. “These follicles also make sex steroid hormones, and so if they don’t grow properly you’re not going to get proper amounts of these hormones.” Such hormones are essential for reproduction, she said, “but they’re also required for healthy bones, a healthy heart and a healthy mood.”…Read More.
Read MoreSaving Cancer Patients Fertility
This was the first time anyone had successfully grown a woman’s immature egg cells, contained in a tiny sac called a follicle, to a healthy and nearly mature egg in the laboratory. When an egg is fully mature, it is ready to be fertilized.
The researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have completed the first critical step in the development of a new technique, which, if successful in the next steps, may eventually provide a new fertility option for women whose cancer treatments destroy their ability to reproduce.
The nearly mature follicles grown for 30 days in the laboratory had been plucked from ovarian tissue of cancer patients before they began chemotherapy and radiation treatments that would destroy their fertility. The cancer patients, from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, had agreed to participate in the experimental fertility study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“By being able to take an immature ovarian follicle and grow it to produce a good quality egg, we’re closer to that holy grail, which is to get an egg directly from ovarian tissue that can be fertilized for a cancer patient,” said Teresa Woodruff, chief of fertility preservation at the Feinberg School and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
“This represents the basic science breakthrough necessary to better accomplish our goals of fertility preservation in cancer patients in the future,” added Woodruff, who developed the new technique with colleagues…Read More.
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