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Environmental Toxins, Autism, and Love
July 21, 2009 - Tuesday
Posted by admin
I have such a lighthearted step right now, I can’t begin to tell you. My heart is singing. I just sent my son Connor alone to the grocery store with a shopping list for the very first time! He went. He spent money. (Bread crumbs, long grain and wild rice, orange juice and green tea). He kept the receipt, and got the right change.
Connor is 14 years old. He is also autistic. In truth what he has is called Asberger’s Syndrome which I used to call the “Cadillac of autism spectrum disorders” because these kids have such high IQ’s. What a silly thing to say, really, but understandable when your head is reeling from the diagnosis you feared most and the kid being discussed in a room full of experts is your own.
I’m proud of my son.
Some of you know he was the victim of a violent attack earlier this year because of his autism. The details don’t matter anymore, except to say that he circumvented the house of the young men who attacked him in order to go to Golden Farm to buy groceries today. That took courage. These men never heard him play Beethoven’s 7th on the piano I guess, or read aloud from Lord of the Rings. They just saw a young man, gawky and tall, that they perceived to be a weaker link. Perhaps perception is not always what it seems.
Now that The AFA has become so focused on the avoidance of environmental toxins (poisons, really) to safeguard reproductive health. I think a lot about Connor’s autism in a different way than I did when he was younger.. Please read this article on environmental toxins and autism in the SF Gate: to learn more about toxins in our environment.
As a patient advocate and educator, I feel a drive to move this information forward. As a mom, all I can think is, did I poison my son.
People. Something’s going on here.
You don’t have to be a scientist to notice that the kids filling up the classrooms of the special ed schools today are disproportionately born through reproductive technology, and a huge number of them are from twin sets. Is there a link?
Something is going on here. We all must be a part of the machine that drives this inquiry forward.
Because it’s the children that matter. Our children.
Corey Whelan
Program Director
The American Fertility Association
Categories
Fertility •
Fertility and the Environment •
Fertility Preservation •
Infertility •
Reproductive Health
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What do male frogs with eggs, genital defects and your everyday products have in common?
July 20, 2009 - Monday
Posted by admin
By: Heather Sarantis
Yesterday as I trolled the New York Times, I was excited to see that Nicholas Kristof was at it again. I am a fan of his under normal circumstances, but his recent columns focusing on hormone (or endocrine) disruptors just really hit the nail on the head.
Hormone disruptors are substances not naturally found in the body that interfere with the production, release, transport, metabolism, binding, action or elimination of the body’s natural hormones. They can scramble messages that natural hormones normally transfer between cells.
They are used in numerous everyday products, including plastic bottles, cosmetics, the lining of food containers, medical devices, pesticides and many others. And the vast majority of people are being exposed to them–some tests showing more than 90% of the people tested by the Centers for Disease Control having certain hormone disruptors in their bodies.
Kristof’s columns highlight several important trends. First, we are seeing evidence of hormone disruptors in wildlife, such as male fish developing eggs, which means their use is widespread enough that they are dispersing into the environment. Second, we are seeing evidence in humans – for example, baby boys developing genital malformations or young girls entering puberty prematurely, which means we are putting ourselves and our children at risk for reproductive and other health problems.
Researchers have known for years that hormone disruptors may cause health problems. For example, Bisphenol A, a hormone disruptor found in some plastic bottles (including some baby bottles), was known to have potential health problems as early as the 1930’s. But scientific consensus about chemical safety–and subsequent regulation–is often a tough row to hoe. Last month marked a big success in the struggle – the Endocrine Society released a ground breaking report stating that exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals are a growing threat to human health and well-being. Recognition from professional societies such as this is critical in tipping the scales toward better safety regulation of chemicals, and many of us who work on chemical safety applaud the Endocrine Society for taking a bold stand on this issue.
So, what do hormone disruptors mean in everyday terms? If you are reading this blog, you are likely either thinking about having children or are several months or even years into trying have children. This is a good time to be learning about these chemicals. What a woman is exposed to throughout her life, especially during pregnancy, can have long-term impacts on her baby’s health. There are too many hormone disruptors, and too many health risks from exposure to list them all here, but they can increase risk for a wide range of reproductive health problems, such as impaired fertility or infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, miscarriage, shortened lactation and breast cancer. For a more complete understanding of these issues, see Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women’s Reproductive Health.
No formula currently exists that can determine the exact effects hormone disruptors will have on a person’s health. Research indicates that the effects depend on the potency and dose of the chemical, the timing of the exposure (especially if exposure happens during pregnancy), and overall health. Taking good care of your general health is important, and other ways to protect your and your potential future babies’ health include:
1. Support policies to prevent exposure to hormone disruptors and other chemicals that have not been proven safe. Current standards for chemical use do not adequately protect us. New national policies are needed to identify and phase out harmful chemicals and to require that safer substitutes be used.
2. Use healthier products when possible. There are many easy, affordable and simple changes anyone can make at home to reduce their exposure to environmental contaminants. For ideas on how to make these changes, please see www.womenshealthandenvironment.org.
Heather Sarantis is the Women’s Health Program Manager at Commonweal/Collaborative on Health and the Environment. She is the author of the women’s health and environment toolkit, works on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and does many other things to help people reduce the exposure to harmful chemicals.
Categories
Endometriosis •
Family Building •
Fertility •
Fertility and the Environment •
Infertility •
Miscarriage •
PCOS •
Pregnancy Loss •
Reproductive Health
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Oh Bitch Please!
July 16, 2009 - Thursday
Posted by admin
By: Dr. Daniel Shapiro
Today, Maria del Carmen Bousada, the Spaniard who three years ago became the oldest woman on record to conceive through IVF, died of cancer. She left behind twins and no known biological father to care for them. On seeing the news of her passing on CNN, my 16 year old daughter reflexively yelled out ‘Oh Bitch Please!!” at the TV. Being a conscientious father (and an IVF doctor) I castigated my scion to be respectful of the dead. I further cautioned her against use of the ‘B” word in describing women.
My eldest, who suffers fools lightly, explained that she was not in any way criticizing poor Maria, but making a general comment about the absurdity of the situation. She went on to say that ‘Oh Bitch Please!” means the same as ‘Tcha, as if!?’ which she was sure I would understand since I am old and from the 80’s.
In fact, I do understand exactly what she means.
To date, there are fewer than 20 reported pregnancies ever in women over 60. ALL of the recent cases occurred as a result of IVF and donor eggs. These pregnancies occurred solely by choice and with great effort on the part of many players. The press has gleefully shown every sexagenarian pregnancy that they can and in every case the debate about whether we should do this or not rages back and forth both in print and between wonkish talking heads on the tube.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says plainly that we should not do this. The ASRM guidelines suggest that egg donation services be limited to women at the natural age of menopause (51+) or less.
Proponents of individual rights correctly point out that men are under no such limitation and that it is inherently sexist to apply age limits to women who wish to be parents.
So what’s a society or an IVF clinic to do?
The debate really boils down to competition between the rights of the individual and the best interests of society as a whole. Though I do not pretend to know the right answer to this one, I think I can make a logical argument as to why the rights of the individual here should be secondary to societal norms.
The desire to parent is essentially an accepted form of narcissism. Though childbearing serves a social need by bringing joy to family units and creating a new generation of workers, consumers and thinkers we are all deluding ourselves into thinking that we are individually capable of parenting well. Of course no one person has the right to criticize the parenting style of any other person as long as we stay within legal boundaries and keep our children housed, fed, clothed, schooled and reasonably safe. At the same time we do have the right as members of a larger social group to limit parenting arrangements that put a child or a parent at risk.
In cases such as these the benefit to the individual is narrow and particular and does not serve the greater good. We now see in painful strokes of pointillist realism why this is so. Who now will care for Maria’s twins? Aside from the inherent benefit to the children by being born, who else benefited from this arrangement beside the doctor and those who write about this for the tabloids?
Though Maria’s death is tragic at many levels, the real tragedy is that this happened at all. Saying this usually elicits an uncomfortable ‘utz’ in the stomachs of reasonable people: criticizing the birth of any child after that child is born goes against our natural wiring. Yet this story represents failure at many levels.
Let’s start with Maria herself. Ms. Del Carmen Bousada just wanted to have a baby. Fair enough. But at age 66, she should have asked herself how being 83 teaching her twins to drive would work. Or maybe she should have asked who would manage the house if she broke her hip at 77. Maria sadly was only thinking of herself and succumbed to narcissistic rationalization.
Now let’s consider her doctor. The clinic’s cut-off was age 55. This is outside ASRM guidelines and opens the clinic up to criticism and scrutiny. The doctor here was a ‘co-dependant enabler’ of our tragically narcissistic lead player. A simple 2-letter word, ‘NO’ would have prevented this.
Our clinic cut-off used to be 55. I personally have helped a 54 year-old conceive. We now adhere to ASRM guidelines precisely because of what we are seeing happen here.
Maria lied to her doctor about her age. The doctor is on record as saying that she falsified records from Spain. He went on to say that he should not be in the business of checking passports. Passports are not as easy to fake and frankly he SHOULD have asked to see it. She was a beautiful woman and did look younger than her real age. But 50 something is still iffy and it should be clinic policy to verify by best possible means a patient’s true age where the reality will make a difference in management. A reproductive tourist like Maria would have had her passport handy. A minimally curious doctor should also have wondered why a Spaniard would need to travel to Los Angeles when Europe’s busiest egg donor program is in Valencia, Spain!
Society as a whole is to blame for this too. Our belief that we are entitled to anything we can conjure and the unquenchable thirst we have for sensational stories create the tableau on which such a picture is painted.
Let me be clear that I do think age limits are sexist, but I also believe that the power of true feminism is not in mimicking male patterns of behavior but in giving women the power to choose wisely for themselves. Maria and her doctor chose unwisely.
Oh Bitch Please!
Categories
Donor Egg •
Egg Donation •
Family Building •
Fertility •
Infertility •
IVF
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Stories of Persistence
July 15, 2009 - Wednesday
Posted by admin
By: Dr. Fred Licciardi
Dr. Fred Licciardi of NYU Fertility Center in NYC was one of the first voices in reproductive endocrinology to blog. Being ahead of the curve has always characterized Dr. Licciardi for us here at The AFA, where we are some of his biggest fans. We wished to share his compassion, insight and wisdom with all of you. Please welcome Dr. Licciardi as the newest voice on our growing blogger team. We will be syndicating Dr. Licciardi’s blog, as well as resurrecting many of his past posts, for you to read and learn from.
Thanks,
The AFA Staff
Reprinted from: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Anything we need or want, we hope for.
As stories from the internet have shown, some women with low chances can become pregnant.
Here are a few of my own. And these are only a few out of many others, these just came to mind.
Ms. A was 38 when we met. Her FSH was 22. She was “dismissed” from another program. 2 years earlier she delivered, but this was after trying for 18 months. The sperm motility was a little low, but the sample was close enough to normal, ICSI was not needed.
She first tried a day 2 start, her FSH was 13,4, and was cancelled and converted to IUI because there were only 3 follicles. The plan: keep trying. Her second cycle never got off the ground because of a day 2 FSH of 17.7.
Her FSH was 11.9 on her 3rd attempt and she went on to make 4 eggs, 4 fertilized . On day 3 one looked good, the other fair. This ended in an early biochemical loss.
Her next cycle we changed up the protocol a bit. She had 4 eggs, and 2 embryos transferred, both looked good. This worked, and she just delivered.
So here we have a woman who most doctors would tell there is no chance, but she persisted.
Ms. B was 35 when we met. Her FSH was 14. Her resting follicle count was less than 5. She started a cycle with an FSH of 12, got 6 eggs, poor fert and a cancelled transfer for arrested embryo growth.
Her second cycle was cancelled for no response (not one follicle).
She got pregnant on her own. This theme is an internet favorite. Buy the way, she did not use DHEA.
Mrs C. was 36 and suffered from severe edometriosis. She did 2 IVF cycles before we met.
She did 3 more retrievals with me, always making a good egg number and having good embryo quality. She travelled long distance to get to NYU. On her 3rd cycle (5th total) she became pregnant.
The next one goes under the dumb doctor category (that would be me). Mrs D, a 38 year old from overseas, e-mailed me and told me about her FSH of 25. Realizing she was from far away, I tried to save her some travel time and money and told her IVF was out, but donor egg was in. The couple came to see me, heard the donor egg schpeal and as I finished the husband looked up and said that his wife was going to be day 2 in a few days, could they try IVF while they were still in the States? Without boring him with the low odds speech, I just said, “sure why not.”
Sure enough the FSH was 12, she made 9 eggs and delivered twins. I think they are happy with me, but I am sure they have their reservations.
How can we put these all together?
1) They about women under 40. I don’t mean to exclude the 40 and over crowd from the hope discussion, as there are plenty similar stories about women in their 40’s, but the facts support that it’s easier to beat the odds when you are younger.
2) FSH may not be as important as we once thought. Again, a bad FSH is better under 40. Every so often there is a paper or abstract reminding us that pregnancy rates shoot down with increasing age and FSH levels. Which leads us to the next point:
3) Some infertile women can at times become pregnant on their own. We do use this fact when recommending that some women cancel their cycle or give up on IVF. We say yes you can get pregnant with IVF, but your odds are low, about the same as getting pregnant on your own. Of course this is much more difficult concept to accept when there is a severe male factor.
So for Mrs. A, C, and D, their persistence is what lead to their success. They did not accept the advice of a doctor; they did what they felt they needed to do. Of course we have to keep in mind that it is also true that there are women who try and try unsuccessfully.
Sometimes the fertility establishment is criticized for giving a bit too much hope, while profiting nicely from tons of women who are needlessly spending tons of dough. And sometimes we are criticized for not giving an infertile woman the chance she deserves.
But it will always be true that for most women with low odds, there is a small chance, and sometimes their only chance, using IVF. So it all goes back to getting to the right clinic and getting informed about your odds. After that it’s between you and your doctor, sometimes with a little tug of war.
Dr. Licciardi
Categories
Donor Egg •
Endometriosis •
Fertility •
FSH •
ICSI •
Infertility •
IVF
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Dear Toronto Sun Editor
July 14, 2009 - Tuesday
Posted by admin
A columnist with The Toronto Sun provided some very concerning and damaging advice to one of the publication’s readers, basically saying there’s no need to worry about having a baby now and that 40 is the new 30. Her remarks could mean the difference between having a baby and not being able to conceive. Please read the article and then the response below written to The Sun by AFA’s Communications Director, Brian Armentrout.
+++
Dear Toronto Sun Editor,
As a former journalist of nine years, I was a bit surprised to see journalist Robin Anderson so presumptuously jump to conclusions regarding one’s fertility in the recent column entitled Biological Clock Tick-Tockin’ Away.
While the title is accurate her statements within the piece are completely and entirely contradictory and go against the point made in the article’s title. As a journalist, I constantly upheld my honesty, integrity, and credibility by thoroughly investigating and researching everything I wrote and took the ten o’clock news. It’s clear Ms. Anderson’s standards are much lower. Let me explain.
“These days, 40 seriously is the new 30. Many women are waiting until they are more “mature” to marry and have children.”
This statement is inaccurate. A woman’s fertility begins to decline substantially at age 27. Ms. Anderson has fallen into the mindset for which we can thank Hollywood. All of these 40 something actresses are getting pregnant; what they fail to tell you is they probably spent thousands of dollars on infertility treatments and medicine, not to mention to emotional agony experienced by someone dealing with such a horrible problem. The truth is 40 may already be too late.
“I would, however, caution you to examine why you want to have a baby before you do anything. If it is because you think a woman needs to be a mom to be whole, or because you want something to nurture and love, please reconsider.”
If a woman wants to have a child to be whole, or want something to nurture or love, what’s so wrong with that? A woman’s decision to become a mom is her business and her business only. It’s not up to a columnist to tell her to not have a child because she wants something to love.
“Give yourself six months to think about things.”
Seriously? That’s like telling a smoker to keep smoking for twelve more months before you decide to quit, not to mention the possibility of getting cancer in the meantime. Or telling an alcoholic: go ahead keep drinking, give yourself a half a year to think about quitting and only hope your liver doesn’t fail during that time. A woman’s fertility is constantly declining and six months could mean the difference between being able to successfully conceive child and not being able to get pregnant. You must act quickly. Infertility is a huge problem.
My New Career
I mentioned I’m a ‘former journalist.’ Since July of 2008 I’ve been the Communications Director of The American Fertility Association. We strive to create fewer patients; not more. Our mission is simple:
To help people prevent infertility whenever possible and help people build families of choice, particularly when faced with infertility.
The AFA has been around for more than a decade and we’re doing better work now than we’ve ever done. Our biggest push in 2009 is infertility prevention in men and women, which is why it disheartens me, the entire AFA staff, and our constituents, to see this type of inaccurate editorial. In a perfect world, I’d like to see a retraction. While that may not be necessary, I’d like this letter to at least be forwarded to Missing Out on Motherhood. I’d also make the request that you post this letter in its entirety in your Letters to the Editor section. Please accept this letter in the spirit for which it’s intended.
Best,
Brian Armentrout
Communications Director
The American Fertility Association
brian@theafa.org
o: 205-425-3644
About The AFA
The American Fertility Association, a 501 (c) (3) national non-profit organization is a lifetime resource for infertility prevention, reproductive health and family building. AFA services and materials are provided free of charge to consumers and available to everyone without reservation. These services include an extensive online library, monthly online webinars, telephone and in-person coaching, a resource directory, hosted message boards, daily fertility news, a weekly newsletter and a toll-free support line.
http://www.theafa.org or 888.917.3777.
Categories
Family Building •
Fertility •
Fertility Drugs •
Fertility Preservation •
Infertility •
Infertility Drugs •
Pregnancy
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