Beagle puppy Ruby Puppy, or Ruppy for short, is the world’s first transgenic dog. Transgenic means that she has genes from another animal. Ruppy, and four other beagle puppies, were given a florescent gene from a sea anenome which makes her glow red under ultraviolet light.

Ruppy and her sisters are all identical clones of each other.

Kinda cool, kinda freaky and kinda scary all at the same time. And also a little hard to see the point of – why does science need to create a glowing dog?

Byeong-Chun Lee of Seoul National University in South Korea and his team bred the dogs to test if adding a gene from another species works in dogs. It’s been done in insects and plants, mice, sheep and goats, but Ruppy and her sisters are the first transgenic dogs.

Lee says that next they hope to use the same principle to investigate human fertility. They plan to breed dogs lacking an oestrogen hormone receptor, and use them to study hormone-related infertility in women.

They speculate that the procedure could also be used to study other human diseases using the transgenic dogs as models.

Talk about weird science. Some other geneticists have criticized Lee’s laboratory, saying the procedure is too expensive and slow to truly be useful, and that other methods are better for studying fertility. It does sound very complex to me, but then human fertility is also very complex and poorly understood, so perhaps the scientists will be able to shed light on some fertility issues and the glowing puppies will eventually lead to (not glowing) human babies.

Brittany Donovan is 13 years old and was born with fragile X syndrome, FXS. FXS is a genetic disorder causing mental impairment – Brittany has severe learning difficulties.

Brittany was conceived using sperm from a New York sperm bank, Idant Laboratories, and testing showed that her FXS was inherited from her biological father. A US judge gave Brittany clearance to sue Idant Laboratories under product liability laws.

First, Brittany’s mother tried to sue in 2008, but couldn’t because of the statute of limitations in product liability cases is only two years. But the rules are different for minor children and Brittany is able to sue the sperm bank.

Brittany and her lawyers don’t have to show that Idant was negligent. They have to show that the sperm Idant provided was unsafe and caused injury.

Do you think the sperm bank is responsible for Brittany’s condition? Genetic testing was in its infancy in 1996 when the sperm was donated and while it was possible to test for FXS, it would have been prohibitively expensive to do routinely.

And picking a mate and having a baby the old-fashioned way is certainly no guarantee against genetic disorders.

If Brittany wins her case, it will likely open the way for thousands of other cases brought by babies and children with sperm donor families. Sperm donors are currently not in short supply in the USA, but this lawsuit together with likely future changes that will reduce or remove anonymity of donors, there may well be a shortage of sperm donors soon. And then what will families who dearly wish for a child but need donor sperm do then?

Other families, like Gwenyth Jackaway and her son Dylan, are living in similar circumstances, but right now are not planning to sue anyone and say that they don’t blame their sperm bank. Dylan is five and conceived with donor sperm. He is also autistic, and so are three other children concived using sperm from the same donor, strongly indicating a genetic cause.

Currently, there isn’t a screening test for autism, and doctors aren’t even sure if there is a specific autism gene, so right now there’s no way that the sperm donor could have been tested.

Would Gweneth be happier if it had been possible to screen her son’s sperm donor for autism? Gweneth said that “I’ve done a lot of thinking about this, and to say yes to that is to say that I wish Dylan isn’t Dylan… I love my son and everything about him, and that means loving his autism also. Loving your children means loving everything about them. Our children don’t have autism; they are autistic. It’s part of who they are.”

Or when you have a child, you accept that you get what you get. And we have almost no control over how our child will turn out. If sperm donors are to undergo increasing amounts of screening, it leads to the inevitable question of what is screened for. Genetic diseases are obvious, but what about screening for appearance? Intelligence? Height? Physical ability? Personality traits?

So is the Brittany Donovan case a valid one to compensate a mentally impared child who will need medical care her whole life? Or does it feed a culture that expects perfection, even in it’s babies, and will sue if that’s not what is delivered? Or perhaps a little of both?

When Susanne Butscher was just 15 years old, she went through menopause. But thanks to her twin sister?s donated ovary, Mrs. Butscher is now the proud mum of Maja Charlotte Shasa Butscher, born last week in London.

Because Mrs. Butscher was suffering the effects of early menopause, especially osteoporosis, but was concerned about the long-term effects of hormone replacement therapy, she and her identical twin decided to try the pioneering surgery. The German-born British woman received the organ at a clinic in St. Louis, Missouri.

“At the time my primary concern was to treat my osteoporosis, but at the back of my mind it was also about fertility, even though I had been told so many times I couldn’t have children.? That was in January 2007. Soon, Susanne began ovulating. The transplant had been a success. “After the surgery there was this tiny flame of hope that I might have a child, but it was difficult trying to balance hope with realistic expectations.” That sentiment is common among women undergoing fertility treatment.

But when she skipped a period earlier this year, she feared the organ had failed.

Happily, she was wrong. Mrs. Butscher had conceived naturally, and her baby, who is named for the Roman goddess of fertility, was born by cesarean without complications?just 13 months after the transplant. A fellow surgeon said he was ?awestruck? at the success.

Although there are examples of women receiving strips of ovarian tissue, this full transplant and pregnancy was a first. Strangely, the British Fertility Society does not support transplants for treating typical infertility. Rather, they are suggesting it only be used when women have their own ovary removed and stored for later re-implantation following cancer treatment.

Of course, transplants couldn?t treat infertility caused by anything but ovary failure. And of those candidates, many women would have difficulty finding a tissue match. But why would the Brits be against pursuing ovary transplant when it is a viable option? I think this is such a hopeful story. And I hope that many more women are able to bear children by this procedure. My husband pointed out that technically, the eggs aren?t the mother?s. But does that matter at all? Certainly it doesn?t to the Butschers.

October 19-25th, 2008 is National Infertility Awareness week.

To increase awareness, and also in an effort to help many couples realize their dreams of becoming parents, The New Hope Center for Reproductive Medicine in Virginia Beach, Virginia is giving ? free consult sessions. If you are struggling with issues surrounding infertility, this may be a great time to research your local medical options and see if your clinic may be offering any such programs. If you live near The New Hope Center, make a call today to schedule the consult.

According to the statistics I saw, about 10% of US couples struggle with infertility issues. That amounts to about 1 in 10 couples or about 1.6 million people. Doctors basically use the term infertile to describe couples who have tried unsuccessfully for about a year to conceive or to describe those who are unable to carry a pregnancy to term due to miscarriage.

Doctor?s also stress that it?s important to remember that infertility does not mean sterility?in other words, there is hope. Of the millions of couples that seek help each year, over 50% of those couples eventually are able to conceive and birth a child.

If you are struggling with infertility issues, know that you are not alone and that there is hope. Check with your local resources to see if they are participating in National Infertility Awareness Week. Ask if they are offering free consults. Taking that first step may be hard, but you can do it!

Recently supermodel Naomi Campbell revealed that she had been infertile, and that her condition had been corrected through surgery. She told People magazine, ?They thought it was a cyst but when they opened it up they realized it was more. I was not able to have children up until March?. The catwalk darling who is dating Russian businessman, Vladislav Doronin, was first reported to have had surgery in Brazil in March 2008.

She spoke about her personal struggle during a recent fashion event. ?Now it’s in God’s hands. I would love to have a family but it’s up to God. I do want to have kids. I’m 38 years old,” she said. Now that the surgery has successfully resolved her infertility issues, her dreams of starting a family can now be realized.

Aside from ruling the catwalk, Campbell is also a singer, author, actress and fashion designer. Her company, Design House of Naomi Campbell has so far created seven fragrances for women. Most recently she has been in the news for her legal troubles, with the most recent incident involving being arrested at Heathrow airport on April 3, 2008, on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

Hopefully the good news about Campbell?s successful surgery will provide some inspiration for infertile couples, and remind them not to give up. One can only wonder if there will soon be a future runway star in the making.

Good luck to Naomi with her plans for a family.

An unnamed 59 year old Frenchwoman, of Vietnamese origin, gave birth to triplets on Saturday night. After seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Vietnam, the woman delivered two boys and a girl by cesarean at a Paris hospital. According to a spokesman, ‘everything went smoothly.’ The babies are healthy, weighing between 4 lbs 9 oz and 5 lbs 5 oz. No further details have been released yet.

There is obvious controversy surrounding this announcement. In France, the maximum age set by most clinics for a woman to participate in IVF is 42. In Vietnam it is 45. According to French media, it is illegal to provide fertility treatment to a woman past natural childbearing age. And according to at least one spokesman for the Catholic church, it is wrong. Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois said, ‘On this particular point, scientific progress is not good for mankind.’ But she is not the first, nor the oldest, Frenchwoman to have accomplished this.

A baby was born in 2001 to a 62-year-old. And a 70 year old Indian woman gave birth to twins after receiving IVF treatment.

I’m still on the fence about this. But I’m leaning toward thinking if a woman wants a child this badly, I believe she’ll probably do her best to be a good mother. The life expectancy for a Frenchwoman, according to the CIA World Factbook, is 84. So it’s not like she won’t be able to see the children grow up. And I have had several close friends and a family member go through the pain of infertility, so I understand why couples pursue IVF, though I don’t think I’d do it myself. I’m not sure why a country would even have laws about how young you have to be to get pregnant. I also don’t agree with the Archbishop who thinks it’s bad for mankind.

For my part, I just don’t know why anyone would want to have a baby at that age. I’m feeling too old sometimes for my 5-month old, and I’m ‘only’ 35. My OB told me there was still plenty of time to have babies, but I think he must be working on job security. Because, as long as I have a say about it, I’m done.

According to medical statistics, lack of ovulation, or ovulation irregularity is the most commonly cited reasons for infertility. Now, researchers in Canada and France, have successfully found the gene that controls ovulation. This is an exciting discovery, for it means that drugs meant to control and regulate ovulation can be more targeted. This may be the beginning for drugs specifically for ovulation problems causing infertility in women, or the flip side of the coin, to more efficiently inhibit ovulation.
The Lrh1 gene seems to be tied closer to fertility however, according to Bruce D. Murphy, director the Animal Research Center at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and an adjunct ob/gyn professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universite de Montreal:

“Until this point, the role of Lrh1 in female fertility was unclear, but we have found the gene regulates multiple mechanisms of ovulation and may affect fertilization.”

The gene, called Lrhi, was first found in medically tested mice, before isolated in the human female. To prove correlation, the scientists are now embarking on studying ovarian cells from fertility programs to see if there is an absence or a strange mutation on the same gene.

I saw an article yesterday about the clash between our modern culture and our biology. Basically, the author had interviewed a lot of women trying to conceive later in life and came to the shocking conclusion which many of us ‘older‘ women have already discovered: reproducing when you are nearing 40 is not as easy as reproducing in your 20’s.

Sure, we all know that our biological clocks wind down as we age-or so we‘ve been told. When I talk with my friends who are attempting to have a child later in life, they all are aware of the facts. Yet, without a doubt, almost all of them still cling to the fact that somehow they’ll be different. The studies MIGHT say whatever they might say, but nevertheless, the great majority of women want to believe that somehow, they are immune to the realities of that reproductive time clock.

I call this ‘The Star Trek Effect’and I’ve seen examples of this effect in other areas of my life. For example, my two oldest children have a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa and are slowly going blind. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve met or talked with that are shocked, absolutely and utterly shocked, that ‘they’haven’t found a cure for this type of blindness yet. Ah, ‘The Star Trek Effect’in action! Humanity somehow believes that there is a cure for everything, and that science one day will give us all the answers we need if we only do enough exploration and are open to learning. Perhaps in the distant future this will be so, but for now, science is woefully lacking in some areas.

Sometimes ‘they’can’t cure the disease. Sometimes, having a baby isn’t as simple as one would think it should be. Sometimes, ‘they’can’t fix it.

Right now, I personally know of three women who are waging war with their biological clocks. Two of those women have invested numerous hours and dollars in their war. One woman is just beginning her battle. All of them, despite the harsh reality of their situation, believe that somehow, they will be the one to beat the clock. They will be having that healthy, beautiful child they want-and soon too. They are positive that medical science will have that answer for them too, if they need it. All they have to do is invest a little more time and money to the cause.

As we approach Mother’s Day, my heart breaks for these women, and all the other women who struggle with fertility issues, no matter what their circumstances.

One-third of couples have trouble conceiving because of male infertility, and in order to conceive must rely on donor sperm and in vitro fertilization. But advances in the study of artificial sperm may change all of that, allowing a father to have a biological connection to his child.

In 2006 a German medical team successfully created artificial sperm in a lab from the embryonic stem cells of mice harvested from their bone marrow. Professors Nayernia and a team of genetic scientists at the Georg-August Unviersity in Gottingen, Germany were able to successfully separate stem cells that had started to turn into sperm. The sperm was grown into adult sperm and injected into the eggs of female mice through in-vitro fertilization. The fertilized eggs were then transplanted into female mice, and after the standard gestational period, the female mice gave birth to seven baby mice of which all but one survived. At the time, Professor Nayernia, was quoted as having said, “This will help us to understand how men produce sperm and why some men are unable to do this. If we understand this we can treat infertility in men.”

The mice born from the original study did however exhibit problems including unusual growth patterns and respiratory problems as Medical News Today reported in 2006.

In the two years since, Dr. Wolfgang Engel, director of Human Genetics at the university, has repeated the experiment on a larger scale and with very early cells called germ cells, which are taken directly from the testes. Through this method, the researchers on his team have created 65 mouse fetuses through in-vitro fertilization with artificial sperm. The fetuses have had a high mortality rate with only 12 of the 65 reaching full-term birth. Of those 12, even of the newborn animals died within a period ranging from three days to five months of causes which the team has yet been able to identify. Regarding the mortality rate, in a report from the Australian paper The Age, Engel stated that “you can see that this is all still in the very early experimental stages.”

This new advancement in the research could still be great news for infertile couples since using sperm created from embryonic stem cells is much like using donor sperm where the father has no biological tie to the offspring. Engel, who has had success with in-vitro fertilization with testicular germ cells in mice believes that the process could also work with human testicular germ cells, which at the very least will help researchers understand the causes of infertility in men. Even if producing a child through this method may be years away, Engel is optimistic. “If it works in the mouse, I’m sure it will also work in the human,” Engel says in another recent report.

Dr. Engel’s next challenge is to grow sperm taken from a female germ cell, which could then be used to fertilize another woman’s egg. Creating artificial sperm in this manner would give both partners in a lesbian couple, for example biological ties to the child, if the procedure were successful.

Engel’s research is not without its critics who oppose it on moral and ethical grounds both in Europe and in the United States. In the Australian report, Dr. Engel said his team will stop short of tests on humans in compliance with federal law in Germany which bans all genetic research using human stem cells. But after recent changes in the United Kingdom?s Human Fertilization and Embryology bill as reported by the Observer, one member of Engel?s team has gone to Newcastle, England, to conduct research on artificial human sperm. While success on human subjects will not be without controversy, it will offer new possibilities for infertile and same gender couples seeking to start a family.

Eating half a serving of soy products a day can cut a man’s sperm count nearly in half, according to Harvard University researchers.

Researchers released preliminary results from a study of couples undergoing fertility treatment. They asked the men about their diets, and specifically if and how often they ate soy products. Men who ate as little as half a serving a day had 40% fewer sperm than those who rarely ate soy.

Soy foods contain high amounts of chemicals called isoflavones, which mimic the effects of the hormone oestrogen in the body. The Harvard scientists speculate that sperm production is disrupted in the presence of the apparent female hormone.

Some other scientists are skeptical about the results. In many Asian countries soy is an important part of the diet, and infertility rates are similar in Asia and western countries.

Still, if you are trying to conceive, and your man eats soy products, perhaps you might want to consider suggesting that he reduces the amount he consumes. Soy is in foods such as tofu, tempeh, miso soup, some energy bars, veggie burgers and soy milk.

If he is a vegan, vegetarian, lactose intolerant or has another reason to eat soy, but wants to reduce the amount in his diet, talk to a doctor or dietitian first about other sources of protein. Malnourished men are no good for baby making!

A growing phenomena, largely related to the dearth of adequate and affordable health care in the United States, is what has often been called “medical tourism”. People fly to India, Mexico, Thailand, etc. for all sorts of medical (and often cosmetic) issues including bypass surgeries, knee and hip replacements, dental work, eye surgery, you name it.You can typically cut your cost by about 90% for some procedures and hey, you can work in a trip to the beach while you’re there. There are even businesses that help place you, akin to travel agents – except these are travel/hospital agents. There’s even a website for “medical tourism in Iran”. Seems like a poor idea, but maybe that’s just me.

Then I stumbled across this little nugget which details how medical tourism has grown to include outsourcing surrogate pregnancies. I’m not sure this is what they envisioned when they passed NAFTA.

To summarize, this article details a town in India where dozens of women carry the children of infertile couples mostly from the U.S. and Britain. It appears the going rate is $4500, which is apparently what most residents could hope to make in 15 years. The going rate for surrogacy in the U.S. seems to range anywhere from about $20,000 on up to $80,000.

The women they interview do it for the money first, but also see it as a great service to couples who need their help. However, the article also articulates a more sinister side to the notion of “wombs for rent” – that $4500 is such a drop in the bucket for the uber rich, we may see a day when those who are inconvenienced by pregnancy simply pay for someone to carry their child as if they are paying someone to walk their bratty little Bichon Frise.

Add it to the growing pile of ethical dilemmas to debate…

I’m going to dive right into something very personal with you. My wife and I struggled mightily to have a child, so much so that we invoked the involvement of specialists of female torture called embryologists and other fancy names. Yes, we went down the in-vitro fertilization path, much to the dismay of our bank account and our general emotional health. This was as difficult a time in our lives as I think we could possibly stand.

In the midst of our fickle fertility foxtrot, we started to become a little more aware and a little more sensitive to our surroundings.

For years now, one of our favorite places to eat in our hometown is a Cantonese restaurant which we affectionately call ‘Sam’s’ because that’s the name of the cook and co-owner. It has a more formal name, The New Peking Restaurant, but ‘Sam’s’ is much more efficient among friends. His wife, Jessica, is the main waitress and hostess. They have a teenage daughter who occasionally works at the restaurant, as well as a toddler who makes occasional appearances.

Sam’s is housed in a ramshackle former single-family home on a busy street sandwiched in between an historic neighborhood featuring rows of early 1900’s craftsman-style homes and less savory quick-lube shops, car washes, and motels that rent by the week. The exterior is in desperate need of repair. The cedar shingle roof likely carried a thirty year guarantee about fifty years ago and the siding hasn’t seen a fresh coat of paint over a decade. The interior is eclectic with traditional Chinese decor flanked by things such as giant Heineken cardboard cutouts.

But the look and feel of Sam’s isn’t the draw, it’s the food and their wonderful personalities that bring you back. While I don’t know the story of Sam and Jessica, I can almost guarantee their real names are not Sam and Jessica. They likely migrated here as adults, evidenced by a still-present language barrier, but they definitely get by on the English they do know. Sam is roughly 5′ 6′ and sinewy – he appears to have about 3% body fat – and he never stops smiling. He is always having fun with his customers, complete with a biting sense of humor. Upon each visit, you can be assured of a personal visit from Sam to your table. Chances are if you’ve been there a couple of times, he’ll even remember your name.

By now you’ve got to be wondering what the heck Sam’s has got to do with kids, babies, or fertility. Allow me to get to the point. For my wife and me, Sam’s became an ongoing painful joke of sorts – a microcosm of implicit and unknowing irreverence towards our plight. For years, Sam and Jessica would ask us the same questions, but what was always in good fun became fairly painful as we began learning the challenges we faced in creating offspring.

‘Michael, Michael, how are you?’ Sam asks enthusiastically.

‘I’m well Sam, how are you?’

‘Oh, good good!’ he responds, eyes widening with excitement. ‘And you…you are looking so beautiful!’ he says to my wife – a typical salutation we had become accustomed to.

‘You have baby?’ he asks.

‘No, Sam – no baby.’

‘ohhh, no baby? You like borrow my baby? Maybe you like and you have one?’ he proposes.

We laugh, but of course, we had heard this sales pitch a dozen times by now.

Sam slides over towards my wife, gesturing towards me he says, ‘Why he give you no baby? He seem like good, strong husband – should give you baby!’

‘Oh, maybe someday Sam.’ She said.

Just tell him my boys are worthless and see what he does, I think to myself…

‘Okay then, enjoy your dinner. Thank you for coming.’

Sam’s barbs were all in good fun, but if his Mongolian Beef dish wasn’t so good, I can’t say we would keep coming back for the punishment. As we recover with some tea, Jessica brings the traditional egg-flower soup for my wife and hot-and-sour soup for me.

‘HI MIKE!.’

Jessica was as pleasant as could be, but if I could bestow two new characteristics on her, it would be a voice that was several octaves lower than her current dead-waking-shrill and that she would learn the definition of ‘inside voice.’ But we loved her nonetheless.

‘YOU HAVE BABY???’

Kill me, I think.

‘no, no baby’ I say.

‘NO BABY’ WHY NO BABY???’

Kill me, now…

‘oh, we’ve got a dog that keeps us pretty busy,’ I say.

‘OKAY, ENJOY!!!’

How are you, do you have a baby, enjoy your meal. It was the same recipe each visit, whether we were dining in or taking out. As our struggle to procreate wore on, the ‘WHY NO BABY? mantra became a bit of comic relief every time we were reminded of our predicament by chance or by people too ignorant or insensitive to know better. It helped us find humor in what wasn’t funny at all.

In that way, Sam’s was really a blessing for us.