Swedish sperm donors are well-adjusted men: Study

(REUTERS) - Men who pass a screening process and donate to sperm banks in Sweden score better on personality measures, such as responsibility, confidence and self-acceptance, than other men in their peer group, according to a Swedish study.

Sweden was the first country to pass a so-called non-anonymous law, which entitles children to contact the sperm donor if they choose. Britain, Australia and other nations also require that donors consent to being contacted.

The United States allows donors to remain anonymous and for them to get paid, unlike Sweden, where men can only volunteer.

The non-anonymous laws could be a problem for both sides since nobody can prepare themselves for their reactions if a child decides to contact the biological father, said Dr Gunilla Sydsjo, lead author of the study and a professor at Sweden's Linkoping University.

Surprising Fertility Facts You Better Know

PHOTO CREDIT: CRISTINA TARANTOLA


Unless you know for sure that your guy is STD-free, condoms are your best protection against fertility threats such as chlamydia and gonorrhea. If left untreated, these bacterial infections can enter your uterus and fallopian tubes, where they morph into a more serious condition called Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). Scarily, one in five women with PID end up infertile.

Caught early, chlamydia and gonorrhea can be easily cured with prescription meds. But not all women experience symptoms, such as a green-yellow discharge or burning and pain, so they don't know they are infected and never seek treatment. Bottom line: Be screened after any incidence of unsafe sex as well as at your yearly gyno checkup, just to play it safe.

Why women's breasts are getting bigger

There is a growing demand for bras with larger cup sizes.

JUST two years after Bravissimo, a lingerie maker for women with larger bust sizes, launched a KK-cup size, it recently introduced the L-cup to meet the growing demand for larger sizes.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the unprecedented demand for bigger bra sizes can be explained by three things:

Fat

*The average British bra size has increased dramatically. In the 1950s, the average size was B-cup, but it has since increased to 36C. Bravissimo estimates, however, that it could in fact be closer to 34E.

Exercises to Make Your Bust Bigger

I'm not trying to sound gross or trampy, but is there any way to make your bust bigger? I don't want a product, I want something I can do at home without having to buy something. Please help me. Thanks.

Question:
Hey, no need to apologize. All women want great looking breasts. But before I answer your question, let me give you a quick anatomy lesson. Your breasts are actually made up of fatty or adipose tissue, so their size depends upon how much fat you tend to store there, which calls in factors like your genetics, your weight, your health and your age. The muscles that reside directly underneath your breast are called the pectorals. They are partly responsible for the "perkiness" of your breasts.

Remedies For Menopause

Malaysian Health Journal - Facing the realities of menopause can be most difficult. The changes are inevitable. A menopausal woman may experience insomnia, depression, hot flushes, mood swings, and painful urination. While the menopause years mean coping with these changes, going through this special stage in a woman’s life need not to be lonely.

As mentioned, you don’t have to go through menopause alone. During this period, getting the support and understanding of family members and friends can make a whole world of difference. For a start, you can consult your doctor about menopause.

Kids who misbehave face trouble as adults: Study

WASHINGTON - CHILDREN who are over-active, cannot concentrate or act impulsively as early as age three tend to become troubled adults unless they learn self-control along the way, said a study on Monday.

An international team of researchers examined young children in New Zealand and Britain and found that the low-scorers on measures of self-control as kids faced more financial, health and substance abuse problems as they aged.

Measures of low self-control in the study of 1,000 New Zealand children included 'low frustration tolerance, lacks persistence in reaching goals, difficulty sticking with a task,' said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Other indicators were 'over-active, acts before thinking, has difficulty waiting turn, restless, not conscientious.' The children who scored lowest on those counts faced a host of problems as adults, 'things like breathing problems, gum disease, sexually transmitted disease, inflammation, overweight, and high cholesterol and blood pressure,' the study said.

'Rogue gene' discovery could brake cancers

PARIS - SCIENTISTS on Monday said their discovery of a 'rogue gene' could stop the spread of most late-stage cancers, providing one day the right drug is found.

Known as WWP2, the gene controls an enzyme which attacks a natural inhibitor that prevents cancer cells from spreading. Researchers at the University of East Anglia in eastern England found that by blocking the action of WWP2, levels of this inhibitor are boosted and cancer cells cannot reproduce.

Lead author Andrew Chantry said that the work threw open new avenues of investigation into stopping metastastis, or when cancer starts to spread aggressively, especially in breast, brain, colon and skin tissues.

Breast Firming Gel... Have you tried it?

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I know a lot of men will read this, but here go. I do not have considerable breasts, but would like them to stay firm throughout my go. Would breast firming gel help?

Flibanserin: Pill designed to boost sxx drive in women

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Development of a pill designed to boost sxx drive in women has been halted, the German manufacturer said.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH said this followed a sceptical response from US regulators.

The company said it made the decision because of the "complexity and extent of further questions that would need to be addressed to potentially obtain registration".

In a review in June, the Food and Drug Administration said two Boehringer studies failed to show a significant increase in sxxual desire in women who took the drug as recorded by them in a daily journal.

The company said that despite its decision it "continues to believe in the value" that its drug, called flibanserin, could have.

Boehringer Ingelheim said it would reallocate resources to areas such as stroke prevention, diabetes and cancer.

~ The Press Association.

Viable option for leukemia

CHICAGO - ADULT patients with leukemia fare just as well when they get stem cell transplants taken from a cord blood bank as they do from a well-suited adult donor, US researchers said on Tuesday.

They said umbilical cord transplants are a viable option for adults with leukemia who urgently need a bone marrow transplant to replace cells destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation treatments, but cannot find a donor.

'What we found is when you look at the outcome of leukemia-free survival, which is the likelihood of a patient being alive without disease, it's the same whether you are transplanting using an adult graft which is from an adult donor or a cord blood unit,' said Dr Mary Eapen of the Medical College of Wisconsin, whose study appears in the journal Lancet Oncology.

Cord blood worked even if it was not a great match, Dr Eapen said in a telephone interview. Only about half of all white adult patients can find a suitable donor, and the odds are much lower if the patient is African American or Asian, Dr Eapen said.

'In general ... if you don't have an acceptable tissue match with a donor, your chances of having a complication are higher and it can result in death,' she said.

But that is less so with stem cells from umbilical cord blood. 'The body is more tolerant to the cells in the placental blood, even though they are not a perfect match.' Dr Eapen and colleagues analysed data from 216 transplant centers worldwide. They compared the results of 165 patients 16 or older with acute leukemia who had been received umbilical cord blood to 888 adults given unrelated stem cell transplants, and 472 who had been given unrelated donor bone marrow. -- REUTERS

Bacteria Could Play A Wider Role In Obesity

Bacteria may play more of a role in people predisposed to obesity than previously thought, according to studies presented by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers at the 110th general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in San Diego.

"Work currently under way suggests that an interaction between genetic factors and the composition of the bacteria that inhabit the human gut may predispose certain individuals toward obesity," said Margaret Zupancic, PhD, a research fellow with the Institute for Genome Sciences at the School, who presented one of the studies. "These results potentially provide insight into the mechanisms by which genetics may predispose some people to obesity. They could also help pave the way toward a future in which genetic screening in conjunction with individually tailored treatments could help people at risk for obesity to maintain a healthy weight."

Zupancic and her colleagues analyzed the gut bacterial communities of lean and obese individuals in the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pa. For the benefit of such research, their population is relatively homogenous in regard to both genetics and lifestyle. Initially, the researchers found no correlation between the composition of the gut bacteria and obesity, but when they factored in the genetic makeup of the participants, certain patterns began to emerge.

One pattern was a statistically significant correlation between whether the participant carried a given variant of a gene called FTO associated with obesity and the presence of certain bacterial groups in the digestive tract.

The researchers also found that in people with certain genetic variations in taste receptor genes, a low level of bacterial diversity in the gut correlated with a higher likelihood of obesity, while a high level of bacterial diversity correlated with a lower likelihood of obesity.

"While this work is still at a relatively early stage, results such as these could lead to applications such as probiotic [stimulate beneficial bacteria] or antibiotic-based treatments for obesity that could be individualized based on a person's unique genetic and gut microbial makeup," says Zupancic.

The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) is an international research center within the University of Maryland School of Medicine led by Claire Fraser-Liggett, PhD, and a team of internationally recognized faculty. Comprised of an inter-disciplinary, multi-department team of investigators, the Institute uses the powerful tools of genomics and bioinformatics to understand genome function in health and disease, to study molecular and cellular networks in a variety of model systems, and to generate data and bioinformatics resources of value to the international scientific community. The scientific discoveries that are being made at IGS are helping to unravel the mysteries of biological systems and to improve health care for people around the world.

Source: University of Maryland Baltimore

Coffee shrinks babies: study

NEW YORK - PREGNANT women who drink six cups of coffee every day may have smaller babies than women who consume less caffeine, according to a Dutch study.

Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam followed more than 7,300 Dutch women from early pregnancy onward of whom between 2 and 3 per cent said they consumed the caffeine equivalent of six cups of coffee per day during any trimester.

On average, their babies' length at birth was slightly shorter than that of newborns whose mothers had consumed less caffeine during pregnancy. 'Caffeine intake seems to affect length growth of the fetus from the first trimester onwards,' researcher Rachel Bakker told Reuters Health.

Heavy caffeine consumers also had an increased risk of having a baby who was small for gestational age - smaller than the norm for the baby's sx and the week of pregnancy during which he or she was born.

That finding, however, was based on a small number of babies, and the significance is uncertain. Of 104 infants born to women with the highest caffeine intakes, seven were small for gestational age.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to the conflicting body of research into whether caffeine during pregnancy affects fetal growth. Some studies, for instance, have linked regular caffeine consumption during pregnancy - even a relatively modest one or two cups of coffee a day - to an increased risk of low birth weight. But other studies have found no such effects. -- REUTERS

Babies after ovarian transplant

LONDON - A WOMAN has given birth to two children after her fertility was restored using transplants of ovarian tissue, the first time the complex treatment has produced two babies from separate pregnancies.

Claus Yding Andersen, the Danish doctor who treated the woman, said the case showed how this method of storing ovarian tissue was a valid way of preserving fertility and should encourage the technique to be used more in girls and young women facing treatment that may damage their ovaries.

This is the first time in the world that a woman has had two children from separate pregnancies as a result of transplanting frozen and thawed ovarian tissue,' said Dr. Andersen, who reported the case in the Human Reproduction medical journal.

Dr. Andersen's patient, Danish woman Stinne Holm Bergholdt, had ovarian tissue removed and frozen during treatment for cancer, and then restored once she was cured. She gave birth to a girl in Feb 2007 after receiving fertility treatment. She then conceived naturally and gave birth to another girl in Sept 2008.


Nine children have been born worldwide as a result of transplanting frozen and thawed ovarian tissue. Three (including Ms Bergholdt's two) were born in Denmark after treatment carried out by Dr. Andersen, who is Professor of Human Reproductive Physiology at the University Hospital of Copenhagen.

Gillian Lockwood, medical director of Midland Fertility Services in central England and Pete Braude, head of women's health at King's College London, both said the key to the success of this kind of treatment was the woman's age. Dr. Braude said the fact that Ms Bergholdt was 27 when her treatment began had boosted her chances. -- REUTERS

Breastfeeding 'protects mother'

Women who breastfeed their babies may be lowering their own risk of a heart attack, heart disease or stroke, research suggests.

A US study found women who breastfed for more than a year were 10% less likely to develop the conditions than those who never breastfed.

Even breastfeeding for at least a month may cut the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The research features in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting breastfeeding has health benefits for both mother and baby.

Research has found that breastfeeding reduces a woman's risk of ovarian and breast cancer and osteoporosis in later life.

And the list of benefits for the baby is long, with breast milk credited with protecting against obesity, diabetes, asthma and infections of the ear, stomach and chest.

The latest US study, by the University of Pittsburgh, focused on nearly 140,000 post-menopausal women.

On average, it had been 35 years since the women had last breastfed - suggesting the beneficial impact lasts for decades.

As well as cutting the risk of heart problems, breastfeeding for more than a year cut the risk of high blood pressure by 12%, and diabetes and high cholesterol by around 20%.

Fat stores

It has been suggested that breastfeeding may reduce cardiovascular risk by reducing fat stores in the body.

However, the researchers believe the effect is more complex, with the release of hormones stimulated by breastfeeding also playing a role.

Researcher Dr Eleanor Bimla Schwarz said: "We have known for years that breastfeeding is important for babies' health; we now know that it is important for mothers' health as well.

"Breastfeeding is an important part of the way women's bodies recover from pregnancy.

"When this process is interrupted women are more likely to have a number of health problems (including heart attacks and strokes).

"The longer a mother nurses her baby, the better for both of them."

In the UK, the Department of Health recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months.

June Davison, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Breastfeeding has long been thought to be beneficial to baby and mother.

"This research suggests that it might have also have heart health benefits for mum too.

"However, it only showed an association between breast feeding and these health benefits. We will need further research to understand why this is the case."

Hormone 'to restart reproduction'

A team of UK scientists says a recently discovered hormone could potentially form the basis of an effective and less risky fertility treatment.

Kisspeptin could restore reproductive function in women with low sex hormone levels whose system has shut down, says the team from Imperial College London.

The hormone plays a key role in stimulating release of the hormones which control the menstrual cycle.

The study was presented at a Society for Endocrinology conference.

Humans and animals lacking kisspeptin do not go through puberty and remain sexually immature.

In a previous study, the researchers, from Imperial College London, showed that kisspeptin treatment leads to the production of sex hormones in fertile women.

Now they have now extended their research to look at the effects of kisspeptin in women whose periods have stopped owing to a hormone imbalance.

In the latest study, a group of 10 women who were not menstruating and were infertile were injected with either kisspeptin or a saline solution.

Blood samples were then taken to measure their levels of two key hormones essential for ovulation and fertility - luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

Compared to the placebo treatment, kisspeptin led to a 48-fold increase in LH and 16-fold increase in FSH.

Lead researcher Dr Waljit Dhillo said kisspeptin treatment stimulated a greater increase in LH production in non-menstruating women than in fertile women in the previous study.

He said: "Infertility is a devastating condition that affects millions of couples worldwide.

"This is a very exciting result and suggests that kisspeptin treatment could restore reproductive function in women with low sex hormone levels.

Subtle effect

Our future research will focus on determining the best protocol for repeated kisspeptin administration with the hope of developing a new therapy for infertility."

Professor Richard Anderson, a fertility expert at the University of Edinburgh, said the research held the promise of a more effective and subtle way of treating women whose reproductive systems had effectively closed down.

He said most current treatments involved directly stimulating the ovaries, which carried a risk both of multiple pregnancies and side effects.

In contrast, the use of a therapy based on kisspeptin would potentially address the underlying problem, effectively re-awakening the reproductive system, while - unlike alternative treatments - ensuring the body's own protective regulatory mechanisms remained in place.

Professor Anderson said: "This is one of the most interesting new hormones that has been discovered for a very long time, and in time it may well become a mainstream part of therapy."