FRIDAY'S DIGEST: Fertility Facts, News and Views - Cancer Treatment and Fertility

Women of childbearing age and men battling cancer, will sadly find that their infertility is affected due to cancer treatment.

Cancer treatment can affect fertility in a number of ways although it largely depends on the age, type of medication used, type of cancer and target area for chemotherapy or radiation.

Infertility can be permanent or temporary although it can never be determined how soon it will be restored.

This is why women and men diagnosed with cancer have been preserving their fertility. Women are freezing embryos, having parts of their ovaries frozen or take a hormone which puts their ovaries into temporary menopause, while men are doing sperm banking, which simply involves collecting a sample of semen and freezing it.

I learnt as recently as yesterday, on a local newscast, that there seem to be a new drug that can be administered to women at the time of their cancer treatment, which also freezes the ovaries until cancer treatment is completed so that later when a woman decides to have children, her ovaries will be unaffected by her cancer treatment, making it possible and safe to conceive.

Apparently this finding is very new because I was not able to find any further information online. I will continue to check, so stay tuned for more on this.

The more we know.....








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FERTILITY FACTS, NEWS AND VIEWS –Letrozole May Help Women diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Conceive

PCOS affects 5 to 10% of women of childbearing age resulting in problems conceiving. PCOS is one of the leading causes of infertility, with symptoms of  absent of  ovulation, resulting in very irregular are absent periods, weight problems, facial hair and thinning hair on scalp.

A recent article published in Science Daily, reports that a nationwide study led by Penn State College of Medicine researchers, found that the drug Letrozole, results in higher birth rate for women diagnosed with PCOS, over the conventional treatment, Clomiphene Citrate, (a drug that stimulates ovulation), which results in only 22% success rate with up to six cycles of treatment.

The study also found that fewer twin pregnancies were associated with the drug Letrozole, 3.9%, compared to 6.9% on Clomiphene Citrate.

Read more by following the link below:-

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140709182159.htm

The more we know.........

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FETAL SURGERY FOR SPINA BIFIDA

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This is certainly good news for all women of childbearing age.

There is currently a new study which states that fetal surgery could possibly be done to treat, Spina Bifida, the most common form of birth defect and could offer hope for treating other birth defects.

See article in RedOrbit

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1993923/fetal_surgery_takes_a_huge_step_forward_in_treating_children/index.html?source=r_health

From the article:

“Spina bifida is the most common birth defect of the central nervous system, affecting about 1,500 babies born each year in the United States”.

"This is the first time in history that we can offer real hope to parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis of spina bifida," said N. Scott Adzick, M.D., Surgeon-in-Chief at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, director of Children's Hospital's Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, and lead author of a federally sponsored study reporting results of a clinical trial of fetal surgery for myelomeningocele, the most severe form of spina bifida. Adzick, who led a team at CHOP that pioneered fetal surgeries for this condition and set the stage for this clinical trial, added, "This is not a cure, but this trial demonstrates scientifically that we can now offer fetal surgery as a standard of care for spina bifida."

EARLY LABOUR DETECTOR TO PREVENT PREMATURE BIRTHS

Pregnancy is usually a joyous time for everyone involved, but sadly this time can be complicated with worries of varying kinds. For persons who have finally become pregnant after struggling with infertility, there is mixed emotions as you are so elated from finally becoming pregnant and now you cannot help but think that this is too good to be true, and then worry that something might go wrong.

One of these worries being, having a premature birth. I had so much anxiety in my pregnancy with my son, after years of struggling with infertility and suffering a miscarriage a few months before. I also had a lot of cramping and tightening of my stomach and was actually terrified that this could be signs of pre-term labour. Luckily, for me, with the help of my OB, I had a full term pregnancy.

There is currently a prototype that has been built by some Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students, and is now undergoing testing in animals. With further refinement, the students say, their system could eventually help physicians discover early signs of labour and allow the doctors to delay preterm deliveries, giving these babies more time to mature. 

This is certainly good news for women of childbearing age, and all others concerned, because, should this materialise, it would be one less thing to be concerned about during pregnancy.

See link for article in Medical News Today, below:

 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/195566.php

From article:-

“The normal length of a pregnancy is 40 weeks, while babies born before 37 weeks gestation are considered to be preterm. By detecting preterm contractions with greater accuracy and sensitivity than existing tools, the new system could allow doctors to take steps at an earlier stage to prevent premature births, its inventors say.”