Judge says James MacDougall, 37, was not upfront about fragile-X syndrome and should not meet some of those he fathered
A man with an incurable genetic condition who advertised his sperm to lesbians on social media has been banned from contacting some of the children he fathered as a result.
A family court judge took the unusual step of naming James MacDougall after finding he “took advantage of these young women’s vulnerability and their strong desire to have children”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Studies show high temperatures and air pollution during pregnancy can cause lifelong health effects
The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.
Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.
Continue reading...Registered births fell by 3.7% in 2020, with the total fertility rate at an all-time low of 1.58 babies per woman
Australia’s fertility rate continues to plummet, with registered births dropping below 300,000 for the first time in 14 years.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed there were 294,369 registered births in 2020, a decrease of 3.7% from 2019. The previous year’s decline was 3%.
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Continue reading...Couples to sue clinic after raising girls for months that were not theirs, says lawsuit, before babies were swapped back
Two California couples gave birth to each other’s babies after a mix-up at a fertility clinic and spent months raising children that were not theirs before swapping the infants, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.
Daphna Cardinale said she and her husband, Alexander, had immediate suspicions that the girl she gave birth to in late 2019 was not theirs due to the child’s darker complexion.
Continue reading...It’s 7pm on a weeknight when my husband Chris and I open our laptops, pour two glasses of wine and start browsing through profiles of women in their 20s. Attractive, interesting, available women. It’s the spring of 2020, we’ve been living in Los Angeles for a year (having relocated from London for work) and a couple of times a week, this has become our little routine.
I get a good feeling about a pretty blonde yoga teacher, then worry that she’s only 5ft tall. I love the idea of someone who works for Nasa, but I’m put off by her distinctive nose. I am swayed by a sense of humour and spirit for adventure; snobby about hobbies, fussy about ailments and firmly rule out anyone who resembles a party-goer on spring break. It’s an uncomfortable, confronting process. Am I really this superficial or judgmental?
Continue reading...It’s certainly not just women who worry about ageing and procreation – and now men have begun speaking about their own deep anxieties
It was when Connor woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom that he started thinking about it. The 38-year-old civil servant from London got back into bed and couldn’t sleep: he was spiralling. “I thought: ‘Shit, I might not be able to have children. It actually might not happen,’” he says.
“It started with me thinking about how I’m looking to buy a house, and everything is happening too late in my life,” Connor says. “Then I started worrying about how long it would take me to save again to get married, after I buy the house. I was doing the maths on that – when will I be able to afford to be married, own a house and start having kids? Probably in my 40s. Then I started freaking out about what the quality of my sperm will be like by then. What if something’s wrong with the child? And then I thought, oh no, what if me and my girlfriend don’t work out? I’ll be in an even worse scenario in a few years.”
Continue reading...Demand for fertility preservation has ballooned in the last decade. New research by Monash suggests many are happy for their employer to pay for it
Last year, while working from home as a result of the Covid pandemic, Emily went through the process of freezing her eggs.
It was something the 26-year-old Australian had been interested in for several years, but she made the decision to undergo the procedure when her company introduced it as an employee benefit.
Continue reading...Five patients of a California fertility center have been awarded a total of $15m after a freezing tank failed, rendering some of more than 3,500 frozen human embryos and eggs unviable.
While the extent of the damage from the accidental thaw is unclear, jurors awarded the sum to clients of the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco after finding that the storage tank maker, Chart Industries, knew about a defect that prevented accurate temperature monitoring and had not warned the center about the problem.
Continue reading...Scientists emphasise safety but younger women still hesitant
Amy Taylor was chatting to friends over a Zoom drink when the conversation took an unexpected turn. One of the group – all in their early 30s, mostly university-educated and in professional jobs – mentioned that she had concerns about the Covid vaccine because she wanted to try for a baby in the next year or two.
“I was surprised when others said they were also a bit anxious. Then I started thinking maybe I should be worried too – even though I’m pro-vaccinations and I know this is the way out of the pandemic,” said Taylor*. “This really plays into the fertility insecurity that lots of women in their 30s have anyway – have I left it too late, will I need IVF, should I freeze my eggs? We don’t want anything else that could interfere with our chances of motherhood.”
Continue reading...Teresa Xu says doctor told her to hurry up and get married before having children
At the end of last year, Teresa Xu visited a hospital in Beijing to discuss options for freezing her eggs. The doctor said she could not help Xu, a single woman, because it went against regulations. Then she gave the 31-year-old some sisterly advice: hurry up, get married and have children now.
Xu was shocked and disappointed. “I had no way to express my anger,” she said. She felt like she was being treated like a wayward child. “Like I was an intruder, delaying other couples … like my demands were too much. I felt powerless and depressed.”
Continue reading...Bill is Emmanuel Macron’s biggest social reform since he was elected in 2017
France has taken a step towards allowing lesbian and single women to conceive children with medical help, setting the stage for a clash with the country’s religious conservatives.
To loud applause, France’s lower house of parliament approved a draft bioethics law in a move that has already sparked outrage from opponents, including some in President Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party.
Continue reading...A 73-year-old woman in southern India who has given birth to healthy twin girls may be the oldest woman to conceive. Mangayamma Yaramati started the menopause 25 years ago and so an egg was taken from a donor and fertilised with her 82-year-old husband Sitarama Rajarao’s sperm through IVF. She conceived in the first cycle and was found to be pregnant in January
Continue reading...Mangayamma Yaramati and babies in good health, say doctors in Andhra Pradesh
A 73-year-old woman in southern India who has given birth to healthy twin girls described motherhood as “the happiest time of my life”.
The babies were delivered through caesarean section on Thursday. Uma Shankar, the woman’s doctor, told the Guardian the mother and her children were in good health.
Continue reading...Operation could benefit thousands of women who experience serious health issues
A medical procedure that aims to allow women to delay the menopause for up to 20 years has been launched by IVF specialists in Britain.
Doctors claim the operation could benefit thousands of women who experience serious health problems, such as heart conditions and bone-weakening osteoporosis, that are brought on by the menopause.
Continue reading...Despite a senior colleague’s protests, Jean Purdy’s name was not included on memorial
The name of a female nurse and embryologist who played a crucial role in developing the world’s first test-tube baby was excluded from a plaque honouring the pioneers of IVF despite objections from her colleagues, newly released letters reveal.
Jean Purdy was one of three scientists whose groundbreaking work led to the birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. Yet her central role was largely forgotten in the rush to praise her colleagues, Prof Sir Robert Edwards and the surgeon Patrick Steptoe.
Continue reading...US scientist says it will be possible to rank embryos by ‘potential IQ’ within 10 years
Couples undergoing IVF treatment could be given the option to pick the “smartest” embryo within the next 10 years, a leading US scientist has predicted.
Stephen Hsu, senior vice president for research at Michigan State University, said scientific advances mean it will soon be feasible to reliably rank embryos according to potential IQ, posing profound ethical questions for society about whether or not the technology should be adopted.
Continue reading...Experimental IVF, which involves extra egg from female donor, criticised by UK experts
A baby with DNA from three people has been born in Greece following a controversial fertility treatment.
The baby boy, weighing 2.9kg (6lb), was born on Tuesday and both he and his mother, who is 32, are said to be in good health.
Continue reading...Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, is at the forefront of a nationalist surge in Europe, and his anti-migrant rhetoric has brought condemnation from the EU. The Guardian’s John Domokos went to find out the attraction Orbán holds to Hungarian voters, including his own father. Plus: how one woman is campaigning to prevent her frozen eggs being destroyed
What makes a person vote for Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán? It was a question intensely personal to the Guardian’s John Domokos, whose Hungarian father is a believer in economic nationalism, and supports Orbán.
John took a road trip through the country for a Guardian documentary, in the hope of understanding his father’s politics and to try to overcome their differences. He tells Anushka Asthana what he learned, while Kim Lane Scheppele, an expert on Hungary at Princeton University, discusses how far Orbán has strayed from Europe’s democratic norms.
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