Two recent news items on fertility and pregnancy, for those of us creating our families that way: A new technique for screening eggs could boost IVF pregnancy rates. Using a method normally used in cancer research, researchers mapped the number of chromosomes in an unfertilised egg to predict which eggs will produce embryos least likely […]
An Ohio court ruled yesterday that a custody arrangement between two lesbian parents is valid despite the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The couple had signed a court-approved joint custody agreement, and then split. One of the women refused to let the other have contact with their son, and claimed their agreement was invalid
Custody cases involving non-bio moms have been in the news lately, including this just in from Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that a lesbian non-bio mom had no parental rights over the five-year-old daughter she and her former partner had agreed to raise together. The women separated before marriage was an option
Before You Were Born: Our Wish for a Baby is a book series by registered nurse Janice Grimes, who works in an IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinic and is an IVF mom herself. The series is intended to help parents explain genetic origins to children conceived by assisted reproduction. Each of the sixteen volumes explains
Last night on Workout, fitness trainer Jackie Warner explored the idea of harvesting and freezing her eggs. She and her girlfriend Mimi discussed the possibility of someday having a family, with Mimi carrying embryos created from Jackie’s eggs. It’s great to see a portrayal of lesbian procreation that doesn’t focus on “wacky escapades to obtain
For years, doctors have frozen embryos and sperm to help prospective parents preserve them for future use. Eggs, however, could not be frozen and used with more than a minor chance of success. That may be changing. Japanese researchers have announced a new technique that gives frozen, then thawed eggs the same pregnancy-success rate as
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled yesterday that lesbian moms using anonymous donor sperm can both be registered as parents on their child’s birth record, without the non-bio mom needing to adopt. The judge gave the Ontario government 12 months to change the law. This may not be the last word on the matter,
Lesbians and single women of any orientation in Denmark now have the same rights to artificial insemination in public hospitals as straight couples, PinkNews.co.uk reports. Denmark was the first country to legalise same-sex civil unions, in 1989, although the rights and protections are more limited than in a marriage.
Women who get pregnant via in vitro fertilization (IVF) may have a higher risk of placenta previa, a condition in which the placenta blocks all or part of the cervix. Placenta previa can cause the woman to hemorrhage and increases the risk of a premature birth or other delivery problems. Researchers at St. Olavs University
For all of you trying to conceive: the newly invented Ovü fertility tracker, an armband that monitors basal body temperature and plays a tune when the time is right. Gadget site Shiny Shiny suggests that Barry White would be appropriate music. Looks like the device was developed with straight women in mind, but there’s no
