in vitro fertilization

Michelle Obama Had A Miscarriage, IVF at Age 34, Memoir Reveals

November 9, 2018 by JJ

Michelle Obama reveals in her upcoming new book that at age 34, she and President Barack Obama went through the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process when they couldn’t’ conceive through traditional means.

Inside her memoir, “Becoming“, to be released this upcoming Tuesday (pre-order yours today), she opens up in a way she couldn’t before when she was married to the leader of the Free World and she really goes in deep and personal.

In an advance copy given to the Washington Post, she revealed how she had to give herself the necessary shots when her husband was off fulfilling his duties in the state Legislature.

“I felt lost and alone, and I felt like I failed,” she told Robin Roberts in an interview that ran Friday on Good Morning America. “I didn’t know how common miscarriages were, because we don’t talk about them. We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”

Of those who had a miscarriage, 37% felt they had a lost a child, 47% felt guilty, 41% reported feeling that they had done something wrong, 41% felt alone, and 28% felt ashamed, according to a 2015 study CNN cited.

In opening up this way, the former First Lady is showing to the world that she is no different from other women who have suffered in silence. She also pointed at the social stigma of miscarriage and blamed it for why more women do not open up about their loss.

“The biological clock is real because egg production is limited. I realize that now because at 34 and 35, we had to do IVF.” she shared. “I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work and how they don’t work.”

The former law firm attorney looks to want to inspire and encourage others because her struggles, they came out on top and with two beautiful children to boot.

“Too many young couples who struggle…think there is something wrong with them,” she added during the interview, saying she wants them to realize people like her and her husband, who are considered couple goals have dealt with it.

It’s great that she is using this opportunity to commiserate with those who have lost and struggled with infertility.

Watch bits of the interview here and she talks about miscarriage about 1:08

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People Have Been Adopting Leftover Frozen In Vitro Embryos; and Bringing Them to Life

February 18, 2017 by JJ

There are now well over one million embryos frozen in storage in the United States, many left over by people who have completed their families through IVF. Rather than discarding the frozen embryos or donating them to science, many families are now choosing to put their embryos up for adoption to give them a chance at life.

Embryo adoption is the newest nationwide trend in adoption and is gaining a lot of popularity. In fact, the 500^th baby was born last month to a loving and adoptive family as part of the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program. This program allows couple to adopt embryos, some of which have been frozen for more than a decade, to become healthy, happy babies and children!

Couples who have used donated embryos to achieve pregnancy have learned that genetics really don’t matter at all, says Kimberly Tyson, director of the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program. What matters is they experienced what it was like to be pregnant and give birth to their child, the child they adopted just nine months earlier than ‘normal’.

The babies born this unique and special way to their adoptive parents are known as “Snowflake Babies“. The Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary since being first established in 1997 as the first program of its kind in the world.

Since that time, more than 1,400 babies have been born to families following an embryo adoption model. Working with fertility clinics, the program allows couples to place their remaining embryos from their in vitro fertilization treatment with a family of their choice, just like with traditional adoption of a live child.

The difference is actually a bonus: the woman who gives birth to this non-genetic child is declared the legal mother of the child on the birth certificate and the man to whom she is married is declared the father. No court finalizations are necessary to affirm parentage, as with adoption.

There is a higher cost than simple frozen embryo transfer at a clinic.

“That’s because the adoption agency is providing both families with security of the placement,” Tyson declares. “The agency is encouraging an open relationship between two families who are both parenting full genetic siblings. The agency is helping the right two families connect with one another. No secrecy.”

Many embryo adoption organizations have embryos waiting for families to adopt them, she adds. “Families placing their embryos for adoption are attracted to the fact they can have some control regarding who receives their embryo gift.”

If you are interested in learning more about embryo adoption visit www.embryoadoption.org or www.snowflakes.org.

Editor’s note: In vitro fertilization, surrogacy and other artificial means of impregnating a woman who eventually gives birth to a human child are excellent ways for couples struggling to have a baby achieve their dream.

However, these processes are also controversial for Catholics, pro-lifers, like myself, and others who struggle over the fact that fertilized eggs that would otherwise develop into a human child, but are leftover or unwanted are destroyed every year.

Embryo adoption provides some comfort in knowing that the leftover eggs are saved and donated to other couples who cannot conceive on their own; or women who want a baby but are without a partner. Bravo!

Sofia Vergara and ex spar over fate of fertilized embryos in storage

April 21, 2015 by JJ

Sofia Vergara may have the two fertilized embryos she froze while with her businessman ex-fiance, Nick Loeb, frozen for perpetuity.

Recently, Loeb slapped the Modern Family actress with a lawsuit preventing her from destroying the embryos court documents say they created using in vitro fertilization in November 2013.

“I have always strongly believed that life begins at conception and that every embryo is life on the journey towards birth,” the Onion Crunch CEO said in a statement on his lawyer Mark J. Heller‘s website Monday morning. “I created these two female embryos with the purpose of taking them to term and not destruction, because I have always dreamed of being a father.”

Loeb said he would be willing to raise the child and absolve Vergara of any parental responsibilities.

“I have previously offered to waive any parental or financial responsibilities or obligations on the part of my ex, and to even give her the opportunity to be involved with the child in the future, should she change her mind,” the statement further explained. “I take the responsibility and obligation of being a parent very seriously…Regardless of how life comes to be created, this should have no determination on the rights of either wanting to be or the requirements of having to be a parent.”

Bioethicsists say a court would not permit the embryos to be destroyed unless both parties agreed. Apparently when the two stored them, they also signed an agreement that a child would not be borne from them unless both parties agree, Radar Online notes.

Although Loeb is claiming religious reasons for not wanting the embryos destroyed, California courts would more likely regard them as property and treat the matter as a property law one.

Unless the two agree to have a surrogate carry them given Vergara is already 42, there is a chance they’ll stay in storage forever…unless they stop paying storage fees in which case the clinic banking them would be free to destroy them.

What a mess! Weigh in below!

photo: Getty

Study: More women are using donor eggs to get pregnant, transferring only one, using frozen not fresh embryos

October 19, 2013 by JJ

More women are using donor eggs to get pregnant and more are opting to transfer just one embryo as opposed to multiple ones.

Those were the results of a study published on Thursday, October 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The research discovered that between 2000 and 2010, the number of times women attempted to become pregnant by using donated eggs increased. The annual number of donor oocyte cycles increased from 10,801 to 18,306. The research also discovered a new trend of using frozen as opposed to fresh embryos. That number rose from 26.7% in 2000 to 40.3% in 2010.

Researchers concluded that evidence of success in the number of healthy born infants has contributed to this rise in in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. That also accounts for more women opting to transfer just one embryo as opposed to multiple ones to increase the chances of a live birth.

The study relied on data from The National ART Surveillance System (NASS) which gathers data about all assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles, including in vitro fertilization procedures, performed across the country.

The publishers of the study examined data from 2000 to 2010 at 443 fertility clinics which represents about 93% of all fertility centers in the United States.

Study: Too much caffeine hampers pregnancy via IVF chances

July 3, 2012 by JJ

Drinking large amounts of coffee may hurt a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a new study from Denmark suggests.

In the study, woman who drank more than five cups of coffee per day were 50 percent less likely to become pregnant through IVF compared with women who did not drink coffee, the researchers said.

Drinking between one and five cups of coffee a day did not affect women’s chance of pregnancy with IVF.

The findings suggest that consuming of large amounts of coffee is comparable to smoking in terms of the detriment to IVF success, the researchers said.

However, the study only found an association, and not a cause-effect link. And because there has been limited research on the effects of coffee on IVF, more work is needed to confirm the results.

In general, drinking coffee in moderation while trying to become pregnant in fine, said Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center For Human Reproduction at the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, N.Y. However, during pregnancy, doctors recommend that those who’ve undergone fertility treatments drink hardly any coffee, and so women may want to consider weaning themselves from coffee before their IVF treatment begins, Hershlag said.

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Study: Staying locked up in your home after in vitro increases pregnancy odds

June 3, 2012 by JJ

According to a study conducted by Bangalore Assisted Conception Centre (BACC), social isolation of women for 3-6 days following sexual intercourse or in vitro fertilization increases chances of pregnancy by 50%.

The study saw participation from 1734 women over 5 years. The study suggests that if a women is isolated from all other men, and not her husband, for at least 3 full days after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or embryo transfer following in vitro fertilization, her chances of pregnancy are elevated by 50%.

The study further states that, “Three days are required for implantation of the embryo developed in the lab following IVF or ICSI, on the wall of the uterus – a prerequisite for further development of the embryo – it would appear that the above isolation of the woman increases the chances of implantation.”

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Lesbian couple devastated after giving birth to wrong race IVF baby

May 2, 2012 by JJ

So here’s the thing: It really is unfortunate that a UK lesbian couple were shocked that their second IVF (in vitro fertilization) child was born a different race from their own and their youngest child, but really, is it something that should be described as “devastating” and “catastrophic”?

That is how the lawyer for the couple described the emotion over a mix-up at a British IVF clinic.

“The damage to the [younger] child in the future, to both the siblings and the family unit could be quite catastrophic,” said Caron Heyes, the couple’s lawyer.

There are 13,000 babies born in the UK via IVF each year and mixups are rare though they have happened before, Fox news reports.

Back in 2010, a white couple sued a Belfast hospital after giving birth to a black child and in 2002, a white couple had mixed race twins after an Asian man’s sperm was used to fertilize the woman’s eggs at a Leeds IVF clinic.

“All we wanted was a family. Instead, we were landed with a nightmare that will last forever,” the woman later said.

Color me unsympathetic, but these people brought a life into the world, irrespective of the unintended circumstances, but really? That is how you are going to describe that child which has your DNA? Nightmare. Catastrophic. Devastating mistake.

Nice.

I know there are challenges raising a child of a different race, but it is not uncommon in this day and age and perhaps those children are better to be adopted by parents who truly want them.

I feel bad for those kids. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox. What do you think?

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Father of In Vitro Fertilization wins Nobel Prize

October 4, 2010 by JJ

National Geographic reports:

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Robert G. Edwards, an 85-year-old British scientist who pioneered the fertility treatment in vitro fertilization.

Today nearly four million people have been born thanks to in vitro fertilization, which occurs when sperm is injected into an egg cell outside the body and the resulting embryo is implanted back into the womb.