MedWatch: Let’s blog! January 15, 2007
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Blogroll, genetics, Health, Invention, Medicine, Pregnancy, science.add a comment
Here is a mini Grand rounds, my one and only selection for this week.
- Science Finds a Way! from Tales from the Womb on harvesting stem cells from amnionic fluid
- Clearblue® Easy Fertility Monitor Significantly Increase Chances of Conception from Straight from the Doc
- The 10 Questions You Need to Ask Your Doctor Before Surgery from Healthbolt
- Alzheimer’s Genetic Suspect Comes Forward from Medpage Today
- If you do not like to exercise blame it on your genes from FuturePundit
Commercialization of human reproduction January 11, 2007
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in genetics, Invention, Medicine, Pregnancy, Prevention, science.5 comments
Washinton Post has an interesting article on the ethical issues of a company that allows parents to select embryo characteristics. In one of my previous posts, Choosing genetic defects?, I’ve had to deal with a similar subject. So now, the Abraham Center of Life creates embryos and allows parents to select embryos after reviewing the egg and sperm donor characteristics, such as race, education, appearance and personality. Jennalee Ryan, who is selling the service, points out that:
We’re just trying to help people have babies,” said Jennalee Ryan, who arranged for an egg donor to start medical treatments to produce a second batch of embryos this week. “For me, that’s what this is all about: helping make babies… selecting an embryo is more affordable than selecting both an egg donor and a sperm donor.
But this Embryo Bank raises alarm among bioethicists:
It’s like you’re ordering a computer from Dell: You give them the specs, and they put it in the mail. I don’t think we should consider mail-order computers and other products the same way we consider children.
But to be neutral, here is the opinion of the other side:
I know some people say: ‘This is shocking. Embryos made to order,’ ” said John A. Robertson of the University of Texas at Austin, who advises fertility specialists on ethical issues. “But if you step back a little bit, you realize that people are already choosing sperm and egg donors in separate transactions. Combining them doesn’t pose any new major ethical problems.”
The total price tag of the whole procession is less than $10,000. I don’t think this method is evil. What do you think?
References:
Male pregnancy and lactation? January 9, 2007
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Humor, Medicine, Mystery, Pregnancy, science.24 comments
I’ve been collecting material on this topic for a long time. The question is not so dumb as you think. Can a man give birth to a child? Obviously not, but it’s worth examining this phenomenon. Take a look at what a man needs for pregnancy and what could be the solution:
- womb: a solution could be ectopic pregnancy as an amazing 5% of extrauterine pregnancies are viable. The other method is the artificial womb.
- hormones: oral doses of female hormones would be administered to the man to make him receptive to the pregnancy.
- implantation: fertilization would be done in vitro by implantation into the abdominal cavity
- delivery: it would require open surgery (Cesarean section) to remove the baby and the placenta. Removal of the placenta is the real danger because it forms such intimate connections with surrounding vessels that massive hemorrhage is likely.
- lactation: it’s possible as there are more medications that stimulate a man’s mammary glands (mostly in hormone treatment of prostate cancer patients).
The dangers of such a course of action are far too high for the idea to be taken as anything more than a bit of scientific “what if” entertainment, however.
Malepregnancy.com is a well-known hoax site monitoring the world’s first male pregnancy. The site hosts even news coverage, video clips of Mr. Lee, an ultrasound video of his “baby” or an interview with Mr. Lee Mingwei himself.
At last, create your own genetically healthy online child at genochoice.com. They mission statement says:
Using our state-of-the-art technologies, you can quite possibly ensure that your child’s life may be free of such diseases as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease — as well as conditions like obesity, aggression, and dyslexia.
How beautiful it would be!
References:
Sperm sorting: a boy or a girl? January 7, 2007
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Biology, genetics, Invention, Medicine, Policy and Law, Pregnancy, Prevention.7 comments
MicroSort® makes it possible to choose: you want a boy or a girl. They are offering couples the ability to increase the chance of having a child of the desired gender to reduce the probability of X-linked diseases or for family balancing. We could say that it’s a severe intervention and leads to disproportion in the population between boys and girls, but the patient enrollment criteria are high:
- Married couple
- Known carrier of X-linked or X-limited disorder
- Husband and wife (donor if applicable) negative for HIV and Hepatitis B & C
And to be honest, it’s a nice method to avoid babies with genetic conditions, diseases like Duchenne‘s muscular dystrophy, Fragile X syndrome, Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency or Hemophilia.
The other side is different. Family balancing? Should we allow this? The ASRM Committee recommendations included
“…the most prudent approach at present for the non-medical use of these techniques would be to use them only for gender variety in a family, i.e., only to have a child of the gender opposite of an existing child or children. If the social, psychological, and demographic effects of those uses of preconception gender selection have been found acceptable, then other non-medical uses of preconception selection might be considered.”
Could anyone please give me an acceptable example for social, psychological or demographic effect for family balancing?
Anyway, the technology itself is quite simple. Semen contains approximately 50% female and 50% male sperm cells.
The MicroSort technology is based on the fact that the X chromosome is substantially larger than the Y chromosome. Since chromosomes are made of DNA, human sperm cells having an X chromosome will contain approximately 2.8% more total DNA than sperm cells having a Y chromosome . This DNA difference can be measured and the X- and Y-bearing sperm cells individually separated using a modified flow cytometer instrument.
A short video about the whole method:
MedWatch Update January 4, 2007
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in genetics, Health, Invention, Medicine, Pregnancy, Prevention.4 comments
Ashley X and an extremely hard decision:
Recently a Seattle family made the difficult, if not terrifying decision to sterilize… no that’s not the right term; to de-sexualize their severely afflicted daughter, Ashley X.
Doctors recommend genetic testing for all pregnancies
There’s a big change coming for pregnant women: Down syndrome testing no longer hinges on whether they’re older or younger than 35….The newest method is a first-trimester screening that combines blood tests with a simple ultrasound exam, called a “nuchal translucency test” to measure the thickness of the back of the fetal neck.
Study says genetic mutation alters response to heart drugs
A study by the University of Wurzburg has suggested that beta blockers may induce a variable response in patients with heart disease because of a single amino acid change in the beta1-adrenergic receptor.
Eliminating Menstrual Cycles? December 18, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Biology, Health, Invention, Medicine, Pregnancy, Prevention, science.5 comments
Imagine a world, dear Ladies, where there is no menstrual cycle, where you don’t have premenstrual stress. Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of continuous-use oral contraceptives. So they can eliminate menstruation.
In the medicalnewstoday.com article, David F. Archer, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology says:
It is felt that the relief of menstrual cycle symptoms during continuous use of the contraceptive is a significant improvement in the quality of life.
Shortly about the experiment:
In the study, conducted at 92 sites in North America, researchers used a birth-control pill consisting of 20 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol and 90 micrograms of levonorgestrel, a formulation marketed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals under the name Lybrel. Healthy, sexually active women between 18 and 49 years old were given a continuous regimen without any breaks or placebos.
During the course of the study, which lasted more than 18 months, the median and mean number of bleeding days decreased progressively. For the 2134 subjects enrolled, 79 percent reported an absence of bleeding after one year while 58.7 percent reported cessation of menstrual cycles.
My additional questions would be: does it cause any significant difference in the hormonal control? Does ovulation occur during the use of year-round contraceptives?
The weirdest medical mysteries of 2006 December 16, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Humor, Medicine, Microbiology, Mystery, Pregnancy, science, Syndrome.12 comments
Here are my own list of the most interesting medical mysteries of 2006. I’ve chosen some publications and blogposts on astonishing cases, syndromes. If I missed something, please contact me or send your list and I’ll include it in the article. Enjoy the images below as well.
1. No fingertips: Sufferers of two rare congenital diseases – Naegeli syndrome and Dermatopathia Pigmentosa Reticularis (DPR) – can’t sweat, have thickened palms and soles, and their fingertips are as smooth as porcelain. But the mystery has been revealed.
2. Pregnant man: Bhagat of Nagpur, India, had a really big belly. Doctors thought he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the source of the bulge in his belly. They’ve found an other body, his mutated parasitic twin brother with limbs, some part of genitalia, hair, jaws.
3. The Girl Who Won’t Grow Up: Brooke Greenberg is 13 years old, she weighs just 13 lbs. and is only 27 inches tall. It means that she hasn’t changed in 13 years. Her condition has no name and doctors are unaware of any other child in her situation.
4. Morgellons disease: a mysterious condition marked by the sensation of insects crawling under the skin and sores that erupt and release black specks or fibers that are white or clear, or even blue or red. These fibers have nothing in common with carpet, clothing fibers and other materials. However, the fibers taken from the Morgellons patients matched each other. Still no therapy, no etiology or diagnostic criteria.
5. The death of Slobodan Milosevic: the toxicologists determined that Milosevic ingested the antibiotic rifampicin (antituberculotics), which would blunt the effect of his blood pressure medicine. As well as tribunal officials speaking on condition of anonymity suggested that the antibiotic was taken intentionally, smuggled in by visitors.
6. Glass from the head: Sarita Bista, a 12 year-old Nepalese girl has been emitting more than 130 transparent solid objects (like glass pieces) from her forehead since January 18, 2006.
7. Kids who snore regularly are nearly four times more likely to wet the bed than those who sleep silently. The possible explanation: people who snore produce more urine at night, while trying to breathe through obstructed airways may cause abdominal pressure that could also contribute to incontinence.
Strange fibers in Morgallon’s disease
The 12-year-old Brooke Greenberg
Pregnant Bellymasks December 11, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Anatomy, Humor, Invention, Medicine, Pregnancy.add a comment
They say it’s art. I believe them just have to smile anytime I see a picture like this one.
A bellymask is an heirloom sculpture created right on your pregnant torso in a simple one-hour process. Made of plaster gauze, it is an exact replica of your pregnant form.
Women are making bellymasks as a celebration and honoring of the profound experience of creating human life.
A bellymask is a powerful art form; a personal icon of the union of mother and child.
The oldest mother December 10, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Biology, Health, Medicine, Pregnancy, science.7 comments
After the youngest mother, here is the oldest one.
A 67-year-old Romanian became the oldest woman ever known to have given birth, although one of her twin girls died shortly afterwards, Bucharest’s Giulesti Hospital told a TV station.
Yes, she had undergone a fertility treatment, she became pregnant through in vitro fertilization with donor eggs, but it turned out to be a scandal as:
- She will be too old to see her children grow up.
- Very risky both for the mother and for the children.
- Furthermore the quality of the sperm used for conception is doubtful.
A new Romanian law is about to come into effect on January 1, 2007:
“This law, in line with European norms, is expected to include an age limit of around 50 years of age for Romanian women seeking artificial insemination.”
In her daughter’s first birthday she said:
“I am sorry that I don’t look like a young woman for my daughter,” Iliescu said. “I am always amazed when I look in the mirror and I see myself. There is such a difference between what I feel and what I see.”
Source: ABCNews.com
The oldest woman in the world to give birth to healthy twins was a 59-year-old American. Caesarean section was needed, and she lost 33 pints of blood during the delivery, so she had to have an emergency hysterectomy. But now, they’re fine.
