TUESDAY, June 1 (HealthDay News) — For half a century, women have had access to birth control pills. Men? Still waiting.
To date, no one has come up with an equivalent product for men, a male “pill” that would safely block or dramatically reduce sperm production.
Efforts are underway, however. Researchers are exploring potential hormone-based products that would provide effective contraception for men. Getting the product to market, though, could prove challenging.
Research on a male birth control pill has lagged for a number of reasons, said Dr. John K. Amory, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Partly it’s a matter of biology. The differences between men and women have made it easier to successfully research how to shut down female reproduction, Amory said.
The male reproductive system also is more active. “Men make 1,000 sperm a second. Women make one egg a month, mostly,” Amory said. “It’s harder to suppress that level of production.”
Research has focused on the potential of testosterone to halt sperm production. Doctors have found that when the body is flooded with an excess of testosterone, sperm production halts. “It blocks the signals from the brain to the testes to create sperm,” Amory said. Excess testosterone often causes sterility in male bodybuilders, he noted.
Other studies have looked into using progestin, a synthetic hormone used in female contraceptives, Blithe said.
Attempts to create an oral pill using testosterone to shut down sperm production have not worked because the body absorbs the male hormone before it can get the job done. “It gets metabolized pretty aggressively by the liver,” Amory said.
However, studies have found success through injecting the hormones or applying them through the skin.
Chinese researchers, for instance, have shown that injectable testosterone can be effective in male birth control. Once a month for 30 months, the doctors injected 1,045 healthy, fertile Chinese men, 20 to 45 years old, with 500 milligrams of testosterone undecanoate mixed in tea seed oil.
The contraception proved effective, with a pregnancy rate of just 1.1 per 1,000 men in a two-year span. Additionally, the men reported no serious side effects and returned to normal fertility after they stopped taking the injections. The findings were published last June in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Amory is part of a research team investigating another means of hormonal birth control for men — a gel that would be applied to the skin. The team is enrolling men for the study, and results could be more than a year away.
Though both are promising avenues of research, Amory warned that people shouldn’t get their hopes up about a male “pill” anytime in the near future.
A RARE surgical procedure to preserve the fertility of a woman while removing her cancerous cervix has been performed at Thomson Medical Centre.
Banker Lisa Guit, 31, is possibly the first patient in Singapore to successfully undergo an abdominal trachelectomy, which removes the cervix through the abdomen while leaving the uterus intact.
As the cervix is part of the uterus, removal of it usually means the loss of the uterus, and ends a woman’s ability to conceive.
A trachelectomy can be performed through the abdomen or the vagina. But in Ms Guit’s case, surgery through the latter was ruled out due to cancer treatment two years ago.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Tay Eng Hseon, senior gynaecologist at Thomson Medical Centre (TMC) said: ‘For a patient who has undergone radiotheraphy before, we tend not to recommend this type of surgery as it increases its complexity. ‘After radiotherapy, the tissues are harder to dissect and the risk of complications are higher,’ he added.
But he went ahead with the surgery at the request of Ms Guit, who learnt about it through her own research.
This advice is most often given by therapists and well-meaning friends/mothers! Whilst it may seem odd that you would want to distract yourself during such an important time period, it may be the best shot you have at salvaging your sanity! Being able to take your mind off of the routine injections, hormone pills and almost daily examinations, will help you feel more relaxed in the long run.
2. Tell your family and friends that you are going through IVF.
It may be a good idea to let your family and friends know that you are embarking on IVF – that way they have been forewarned should you suddenly start acting like a raving lunatic because your body does not like the immense amounts of hormones that are being injected into it on a daily basis!
3. Don’t tell your family and friends that you are going through IVF.
Not telling your family and friends inevitably means that you are taking away the element of surprise for when you do start acting like a hormonally-charged, raving lunatic! Why on Earth would you want to rid them of such fun?
4. Ignore the stories.
Whether or not you do decide to let people in on your IVF secret, you will undoubtedly come across stories about how your friend’s cousin’s best friend became pregnant during a holiday in some exotic locale. Well that may be just dandy for them, but if you are about to embark on an IVF journey, chances are pretty slim that you’ll have the extra money lying around for quick vacation to some distant land in the hopes that there may be just ‘something in the water’.
5. Get rich quick!
IVF is expensive, but an easy way to help pay for it is to collect $1 from each person, each time they offer you conception advice. And don’t forget to collect when they suggest an acupuncturist, naturopath, masseuse, intuitive healer, psychic, a herbal concoction, intimate position or some other type of ‘Old Wives’ tale.
6. Stay away from the green-eyed monster.
Some women can pull off wearing green but, there is such a thing as too much green; Lugging around the green-eyed monster whilst undergoing IVF is a quick way to lose friends. Whilst you know deep-down that you would be a much better parent, allow your friends to enjoy their parenthood by showing genuine happiness for them.
7. Learn to cope as a couple.
IVF has its many ups and downs and who better to share them with but your better half? Confronting IVF together will help you better cope with the process. Taking up pillow fighting is a fun way to confront all of your IVF issues, whilst having a good laugh at the same time.
All jokes aside, if you are dealing with IVF and are having trouble coping, in Salt Lake City you can contact The Healing Group on (801) 461-9060. They are a team of counselors that can offer you counsiling.They are located at 4609 S. 2300 E., Suite 101, Holladay. Register for their Infertility Support Group.
Have you ever wondered why Britney Spears got pregnant with her first child after spending thousands in lingerie? If so, here is your biological answer. According to a recent study conducted by the UCLA “Center for Behavior Evolution and Culture”, women become sexually more motivated during ovulation thereby increasing ornamentation. Researchers ,who photographed and observed the behavior of 30 partnered women at their high and low fertility state, noticed more attention in self-grooming during the ovulatory cycle. As a result, a stunning 54% of the females taking part in the study were judged more attractive during their follicular phase. The research aimed to prove a strong common denominator among different species (humans vs. non-humans) in sexual selection through an innate process of fitness.
“Male bowerbirds, for example, found in Australia and New Guinea, build elaborate structures ornamented with brightly colored flowers and fruits in order to attract mates. Male bowerbirds will often also pick up a brightly colored object in their beaks while displaying to a female, thus effectively ornamenting themselves.” (Hormones and Behavior 51, 2007, 40-45).
Furthermore, in the opinion of Haselton et al., men seem to show more attention and care toward their mates during the luteal phase, and appear to be more emotionally involved. Scientists believe that men respond differently according to their partners’ “ovulatory shifts”.The results of the study just showed that the higher the fertility, the more fashionable and sexier the clothing. Therefore, “the choices of fertile images are due to differences attributable to changes in body chemistry related to ovulation.”Given the rules of the mating game, one question still is left unanswered: If male bowerbirbds pick up bright colored objects while displaying to a female, what did Kevin Federline exhibit in reponse to Britney Spears fashionable fertility?
POI (primary ovarian ineffectiveness) can cause irregular menstruation cycles, bone loss and, when ignored infertility, according to an audio segment on National Public Radio (NPR), a nonprofit membership US-based media organization, on May 3.
Many link stress and diet to skipped periods, as well as unusually light and heavy flows, however gynecologists may be overlooking a more serious health concern – POI, “the disruption in reproductive hormones that affects 1 in 100 women by age 40.”
Lawrence M. Nelson, MD, gynecologist and investigator at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Human Development in the United States believes putting women on the pill as a quick fix without conducting a simple blood test that could spot POI, is a mistake that can cause long-term problems and even infertility.
Nelson said, “The menstrual cycle is just seen more as a nuisance by many women. But actually, [when periods are regular] it’s the sign that the ovaries and the whole endocrine system related to reproduction is working the way it should.”
He continued, “Birth control pills don’t cause the condition but they can mask it for years.”
“It might be reassuring to women to think, ‘Oh, it looks like things are fine now, because my periods are coming,’ but, in fact, their ovaries aren’t supplying the hormones to make that happen, so it’s masking the fact that their ovaries aren’t working.”
POI is a condition that can come and go. Just because a woman has it doesn’t mean she can’t get pregnant. With POI the ovaries can stop functioning but then start up again, Nelson explained, “hormone levels – particularly of follicle stimulating hormone, or FSH – may fluctuate, going in and out of the menopausal range. Somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of women diagnosed with the condition do get pregnant and give birth.”
It is conceivable that women as young as 30 with POI can become post-menopausal and not know it because of the pill. So before you use the pill to sort out any irregularities ask your doctor to run a simple blood test that can screen for POI by analyzing your FSH levels.