Women in their 20s and 30s should be discouraged from freezing their eggs simply to allow them to pursue a career before having children, scientists are recommending.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Fertility Society say it is wrong that young women undergo the £5,000 procedure ‘for lifestyle reasons’.
They warn women could be risking their chances of having a baby by relying on treatment that has a very low success rate.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133509/Women-urged-delay-childbirth-scientists-warn-egg-freezing-huge-gamble.html
A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.
The research involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211121835.htm
If you need another reason to quit smoking, consider that it may diminish your chances of being a parent or grandparent. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that women exposed to second hand smoke, either as adults or children, were significantly more likely to face fertility problems and suffer miscarriages.
An epidemiologic analysis of more than 4,800 non-smoking women showed those who were exposed to second hand smoke six or more hours per day as children and adults faced a 68 percent greater chance of having difficulty getting pregnant and suffering one or more miscarriages. The study is published online in Tobacco Control and is one of the first publications to demonstrate the lasting effects of second hand smoke exposure on women during childbearing years.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081205113932.htm
A genetic link controlling both appetite and fertility has been found by US researchers. A gene, TORC1, appears to act as a “master switch”, switching off food intake and allowing pregnancy. The gene probably offered an evolutionary advantage, by stopping women getting pregnant in times when food was scarce, the researchers said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7588093.stm
Are males becoming an endangered species? That’s the question scientists and researchers have been pondering since alarming trends in male fertility rates, birth defects and disorders began emerging around the world. More and more boys are being born with genital defects and are suffering from learning disabilities, autism and Tourette’s syndrome, among other disorders. Male infertility rates are on the rise and the quality of an average man’s sperm is declining, according to some studies.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=fffbfc6d-38c4-463b-8b8a-6f2d367b1c5f