See the following article, Fertility Treatments Bring Twins—and Trouble, based on a book on infertility treatments, Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World that appears to be relevant and well-researched. As a woman who used assisted reproduction and third-party reproduction to conceive my children, I am always appreciative of balanced reporting and literature and the following article and book appear to have achieved those goals.
Fertility Treatments Bring Twins—and Trouble
by Joanne McNeil
These days, everyone has twins. Julia Roberts has twins. Holly Hunter, Patrick Dempsey, Lance Armstrong, Cheryl Tiegs, Joan Lunden—and don't forget the President and First Lady. Since 1980, the number of twins has climbed 75%, from 70,000 to close to 130,000 in 2003. Women over 35 are likely to have a multiple birth at a rate of 1 in 18. With in vitro fertilization (IVF) births, the rate of multiple deliveries is 1 in 3. That means more than half of all IVF babies are born in a "set."
But Liza Mundy, Washington Post reporter and author of Everything Conceivable, shows that these multiple births come with a risk. The likelihood of cerebral palsy, developmental delay, and other brain and nerve disorders increases. The infant mortality rates of twins are four to five times that of single births, and for triplets the rate is higher still.
Mundy's book steers a clear path through many of IVF's complicated implications. She provides a thorough history of IVF’s scientific progress, along with engrossing anecdotal narratives and commentary on ethical dilemmas.
Mundy's book steers a clear path through many of IVF's complicated implications.
Women that use IVF are often characterized as selfish, career-driven, and shortsighted: If they wanted so badly to be mothers, couldn't they have done it at the age of 25? Mundy quickly dispels this stereotype, reminding us that while feminists might have secured a place for women in the workforce in the 1980s, few policies back then allowed for a family/work balance. Maternity leave was unheard of, and workdays were not flexible. "Women responded by not taking maternity leave and by not asking for flexible workdays. They responded—to a complex set of incentives, including the fact that their partners and husbands were really liking this extra paycheck thing, this high-earning spouse, this chance to endlessly dine out and travel—by not having children, yet.”
And there are other reasons for couples to delay having families. Richard Paulson, chief at the fertility clinic at the University of Southern California, gave Mundy a hypothetical example of an infertile woman born in 1943, "[In] 1983 when she was forty, IVF technology was starting to percolate into clinics in the States, but they were only taking women under forty. In 1988, she was 45 and her eggs were not going to work. Then she turns fifty and the technology of egg donation was now available. She finds that technology has finally caught up with her, and at the age of fifty, she can go in and have a baby.”
Data show adoptive parents are as loving—in some research even more loving—of their children as biological parents, but technology is further blurring that binary distinction. If a woman conceives a child, produced from the egg of a donor and her husband’s sperm, is she any less of a “biological” parent than her husband?
Still, the use of donor eggs remains the ultimate IVF taboo. Not a single celebrity, 40-something new mom has confessed to using a donor, although at that age it is almost impossible to conceive with one's own eggs. When Slate magazine speculated that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards, used a donor to conceive her twins (she was 48 at their birth, he was 50), she admitted to "shots," but said that disclosing any more would not be "ladylike."
Mundy's account of the dilemmas posed by unused frozen embryos is the most compelling. She interviewed one couple that pays $2,000 a year to two separate clinics to keep their unused embryos stored in liquid nitrogen. "The range of choices is dizzying: Should they donate these excess embryos to another couple to gestate and bear? Their own daughters' full biological siblings, raised in a different family? Should they donate the excess embryos to scientific research? Or should they authorize both clinics to remove the glass straws containing the embryos from the liquid nitrogen? Knowing how difficult pregnancy is for her?"
As one doctor tells her, “Even cancer patients aren’t as motivated as fertility patients.”
Fertility clinics often suffer the consequences of deadbeat IVF patients. They hire collection agencies to get former patients to make an executive decision, but if the clients can’t be found, the clinics are stuck. One fertility clinic chief told Mundy he fears what will happen when he retires. “The person buying [the clinic] does not want to inherit embryos. That’s the rule. People do not want to inherit embryos. So what do you do with them? I have embryos that have been here since 1992.”
Not without controversy, fertility clinics in Great Britain are ordered to destroy unused embryos after five years. In reality, IVF technology is so new that we don’t even know if there is a natural expiration date. Mundy reports a San Francisco couple gave birth to child who, as an embryo, was frozen for thirteen years.
While one might not sway with some of the regulatory proposals Mundy subtly hints at, her book is nevertheless illuminating, exhaustingly researched, and, most importantly, sympathetic. Assisted reproduction has helped couples achieve their dreams of parenthood, but it has also further broken the spirits of others. As one doctor tells her, “Even cancer patients aren’t as motivated as fertility patients.” Thanks to this book, many of these would-be patients will not proceed on their quest to have children quite so blindly.
Joanne McNeil is science and technology editor of Brainwash. She is also a frequent contributor to Bookslut and The Washington Times.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Birth Battle: Couple Says Surrogate Mom Won't Give Up Baby
As an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of California, my first response to the article below is who was the drafting attorney? It is the drafting attorney's responsibility to ensure that the Intended Parents and the Surrogate execute (sign) the contract before any legal clearance is issued. Which leads me to my next question: Who was the IVF physician? The majority of IVF physicians that I work with (I know of only one) will not perform an artificial insemination (IUI) or an in vitro procedure (IVF) without receiving legal clearance from the drafting attorney.
Further, I always counsel my IPs that if they are going to work with a traditional surrogate, they are leaving themselves open to the very real possibility that the surrogate could change her mind and decide to keep the child. In California, the court would side with the surrogate and she would be declared the legal mother (see Johnson v. Calvert).
Also, the surrogate should have had a consult with a licensed psychologist who specializes in assisted reproduction. Perhaps this couple would not be in the predicament that they face today. I am not licensed to practice law in the state of Florida, but it is my understanding that there are some laws that protect couples who enter into a traditional surrogacy agreement.
The contract was not executed, however, the parties should have at least signed consent forms in the doctor's office, which would be evidence of the parties' intent, which controls in California (see Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Buzzanca). One can only hope that the doctor involved, if there was one, had the parties execute those documents.
By Grayson Kamm
First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A couple paid a First Coast woman to have their child because they couldn't conceive on their own. Now, they say she won't give them the baby.
It's a birth battle that stretches across Florida. The couple that wants to bring this baby to their home says it's fraud, extortion, but -- most of all -- it's heartbreaking.
In a home near Orlando sits a baby's bedroom, trimmed out with a Tinkerbell theme. It was all lovingly built by the Lamitina family for their new baby girl, Rochelle Amber.
But that baby may never lay its head in this crib.
“My biggest fear is that we may not be able to bring her home. That's what's so hard,” said Gwyn Lamitina, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
The Lamitinas say they had a great experience having a surrogate mom give birth to their two-year-old son TJ, so they were thrilled to try it again. Through a website, they found and hired a surrogate mother from Jacksonville.
But they say this fairy tale turned foul.
"I just kinda hope -- I pray everything will work out all right," said a tearful Tom Lamitina.
Last year, the couple says it signed a "surrogacy contract" with the Jacksonville woman. But they say since they trusted her, they never checked to see if she signed the document.
Then, two months into the pregnancy, the family says their surrogate started asking strange questions. "Personal questions, like how much money I made doing this, doing that. And then how much money I made at the end of the year," Tom remembered. "My first surrogate never asked me how much money I made."
And then, a letter arrived from the surrogate mother's lawyer.
It says this case is now a "child support issue."
"We didn't think anybody would be that low to use a child as a way to scam people out of money. That's pretty -- I mean -- I just didn't think anybody would be that low," Tom said.
We went to the mother's home in Argyle Forest looking for answers. As we did, a woman sped away. In the back of her minivan was what looked like the handle of a baby's car seat.
At the doorstep, a hand reached out from inside the house and stuck a sign on the front door. It said "No comment," and suggested we contact the surrogate mother's attorney.
So we did.
The surrogate's lawyer, Kelly Hampton, declined an on-camera interview, but said over the phone, "Under the laws of the State of Florida, surrogacy is like adoption. The surrogate mom has the option to keep the baby."
We asked, "Is she asking for child support?" The attorney said, "I'm not going to answer that."
Both sides agreed to a DNA test. A document provided to First Coast News by the Lamitinas showed the test was performed by a company on the First Coast and that the test determined a 99.9999 percent probability that Tom Lamitina is the baby's father.
Tom says the surrogate did cash their $1,500 deposit check.
But still, the couple says the surrogate, who provided the egg, never signed that contract. To them, the motive's clear.
"Fraud. Very fraudulent," Gwyn said. "It's almost like extortion... I have the baby, and you have to do what I want."
For now, like their hearts, the baby's room is empty.
"I have been praying a lot and I've got a lot of people praying for me. It's gonna be all right," Tom said.
The Lamitinas' attorney says he plans to go to court soon, filing a suit to give the family full custody of the baby.
Further, I always counsel my IPs that if they are going to work with a traditional surrogate, they are leaving themselves open to the very real possibility that the surrogate could change her mind and decide to keep the child. In California, the court would side with the surrogate and she would be declared the legal mother (see Johnson v. Calvert).
Also, the surrogate should have had a consult with a licensed psychologist who specializes in assisted reproduction. Perhaps this couple would not be in the predicament that they face today. I am not licensed to practice law in the state of Florida, but it is my understanding that there are some laws that protect couples who enter into a traditional surrogacy agreement.
The contract was not executed, however, the parties should have at least signed consent forms in the doctor's office, which would be evidence of the parties' intent, which controls in California (see Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Buzzanca). One can only hope that the doctor involved, if there was one, had the parties execute those documents.
By Grayson Kamm
First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A couple paid a First Coast woman to have their child because they couldn't conceive on their own. Now, they say she won't give them the baby.
It's a birth battle that stretches across Florida. The couple that wants to bring this baby to their home says it's fraud, extortion, but -- most of all -- it's heartbreaking.
In a home near Orlando sits a baby's bedroom, trimmed out with a Tinkerbell theme. It was all lovingly built by the Lamitina family for their new baby girl, Rochelle Amber.
But that baby may never lay its head in this crib.
“My biggest fear is that we may not be able to bring her home. That's what's so hard,” said Gwyn Lamitina, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
The Lamitinas say they had a great experience having a surrogate mom give birth to their two-year-old son TJ, so they were thrilled to try it again. Through a website, they found and hired a surrogate mother from Jacksonville.
But they say this fairy tale turned foul.
"I just kinda hope -- I pray everything will work out all right," said a tearful Tom Lamitina.
Last year, the couple says it signed a "surrogacy contract" with the Jacksonville woman. But they say since they trusted her, they never checked to see if she signed the document.
Then, two months into the pregnancy, the family says their surrogate started asking strange questions. "Personal questions, like how much money I made doing this, doing that. And then how much money I made at the end of the year," Tom remembered. "My first surrogate never asked me how much money I made."
And then, a letter arrived from the surrogate mother's lawyer.
It says this case is now a "child support issue."
"We didn't think anybody would be that low to use a child as a way to scam people out of money. That's pretty -- I mean -- I just didn't think anybody would be that low," Tom said.
We went to the mother's home in Argyle Forest looking for answers. As we did, a woman sped away. In the back of her minivan was what looked like the handle of a baby's car seat.
At the doorstep, a hand reached out from inside the house and stuck a sign on the front door. It said "No comment," and suggested we contact the surrogate mother's attorney.
So we did.
The surrogate's lawyer, Kelly Hampton, declined an on-camera interview, but said over the phone, "Under the laws of the State of Florida, surrogacy is like adoption. The surrogate mom has the option to keep the baby."
We asked, "Is she asking for child support?" The attorney said, "I'm not going to answer that."
Both sides agreed to a DNA test. A document provided to First Coast News by the Lamitinas showed the test was performed by a company on the First Coast and that the test determined a 99.9999 percent probability that Tom Lamitina is the baby's father.
Tom says the surrogate did cash their $1,500 deposit check.
But still, the couple says the surrogate, who provided the egg, never signed that contract. To them, the motive's clear.
"Fraud. Very fraudulent," Gwyn said. "It's almost like extortion... I have the baby, and you have to do what I want."
For now, like their hearts, the baby's room is empty.
"I have been praying a lot and I've got a lot of people praying for me. It's gonna be all right," Tom said.
The Lamitinas' attorney says he plans to go to court soon, filing a suit to give the family full custody of the baby.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Local Doctor Pioneers Ovary Transplants
By Tina Hesman Saey
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Feb. 12 2007
When Dr. Sherman Silber made history in 2004 by transplanting ovarian tissue from a twin into her identical sister, he said it was a unique case that he wouldn't repeat.
He changed his mind. Six sets of twins are glad he did.
Now, the St. Louis surgeon has become the first person to transplant a whole ovary — last month in twins, and last week, in non-twin sisters.
His colleagues applaud the achievement as a technical tour de force and praise Silber's pioneering spirit.
His work is exciting because it's a first step toward preserving fertility for cancer patients.
Before Silber, no one had shown that a woman's ovary could be replaced successfully. If other doctors can replicate Silber's success, a woman facing chemotherapy and radiation could have her own ovary frozen and returned to her later.
Silber's transplants have worked well because the women involved didn't require immune-suppressing drugs to keep them from rejecting the implanted ovaries.
Most sisters who are not identical twins would require those drugs, and even Silber's supporters question whether the risk of those transplants outweighs the benefits.
Benefits of a whole ovary transplant include restoring fertility and natural hormone production, which helps prevent osteoporosis, heart disease and contributes to a woman's general health. Immune-suppressing drugs can have serious side effects, and there are other ways to treat infertility and replace
hormones.
Silber's latest patient says the transplants are "opening a door" for young women locked in early menopause.
Three years ago, Joy Lagos, 30, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Her older sister Maeapple Chaney, 31, was a perfect tissue match.
Chaney gave her younger sister her bone marrow. The donation worked. Lagos was cured of her cancer, but the treatment shut down her ovaries and plunged the young woman into menopause.
"When you lose the function of your ovaries, you lose more than your fertility," Lagos said.
She developed osteoporosis. Her sex drive waned.
"I didn't feel like a woman," she said.
TV report opens door
Chaney was willing to donate eggs so Lagos and her new husband, Rodrigo Lagos, could have a baby through in vitro fertilization. (The couple got married last September.) But Lagos wanted to feel like a young woman again. Her sister was willing to do anything she could to help. So Joy Lagos began looking for someone who would transplant her sister's ovary into her.
Rodrigo Lagos was flipping through television channels one day. A teaser featuring Silber caught his eye. He recorded the "medical miracle" program featuring Silber's first ovarian tissue transplant.
He couldn't quite believe what he saw, so he searched the Internet. The first hit was Silber's clinic at St. Luke's Hospital. The second was a New England Journal of Medicine article describing the first transplant.
The Lagoses knew then that Silber was exactly the person they were looking for.
So Lagos and Chaney headed from their homes in California to the Infertility Center of St. Louis at St. Luke's, which Silber directs.
Last week, Silber removed one of Chaney's ovaries and gave it to Lagos. Such surgery is incredibly difficult because the artery that feeds blood to the ovary is no bigger around than a thread. Other gynecological surgeons described Silber as a "brilliant" and "extremely skilled" microsurgeon.
"Not everyone is going to play golf like Tiger Woods. It's the same thing," said Dr. Richard Gimpelson, a colleague of Silber's at St. Luke's and the past president of the AAGL, an association of gynecological surgeons.
Even so, reattaching the blood supply to the ovary is the most difficult procedure Silber has ever done, he said.
He chose to do the rigorous operation because he was disappointed in the longevity of the previous transplant technique he used in twins. The original procedure placed strips of ovarian tissue from the fertile twin into her prematurely menopausal sister.
Two of the recipients have had babies. Stephanie Yarber, Silber's first transplant patient, now has two children thanks to the surgery. She had previously tried egg donation without success.
All of the women who have had the transplants are menstruating and ovulating normally, Silber said. But their ovaries are running out of steam faster than he had hoped. The women may get only two to five years of ovarian function using the strips of tissue, he said.
He hopes that a whole ovary with its own blood supply will last decades.
Silber's success is exciting for people who hope to help cancer patients preserve their fertility, said Dr. Pasquale Patrizio, director of the Yale Fertility Center at Yale University.
Patrizio and others are working on ways to freeze whole ovaries. Right now, women who face infertility because of cancer treatments can have strips of their ovarian tissue frozen and replaced once they are in remission. But no one yet has successfully frozen a whole ovary and transplanted it.
Some reservations
Even Silber's supporters are ambivalent about transplants that would require immune-suppressing drugs because of possible health effects for the mothers and their babies.
Silber said he's pretty sure that low doses of the drugs wouldn't harm a developing fetus. About 2,000 women who are on immune-suppressing drugs because of kidney transplants have had healthy babies, he said.
Lagos won't need to take immune-suppressing drugs because the bone marrow transplant and the close match to Chaney makes her able to tolerate her sister's tissue.
Legal, religious, social and ethical issues that don't apply to other organs may surround ovary transplants, Gimpelson said.
"These other organs are donated to save someone's life. The ovaries are to make
someone's life complete. It's a little bit different," he said.
Silber's critics don't give him enough credit, his colleagues say.
"I look at him as a pioneer. He's willing to push the envelope, but he's also really helping these patients. It's not like he's out there looking for some experimental case," said Dr. David Battaglia, director of the IVF laboratory at Oregon Health Sciences University. "We're getting an idea of what is possible for a whole population of patients. We need people like Dr. Silber to show us the way."
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Feb. 12 2007
When Dr. Sherman Silber made history in 2004 by transplanting ovarian tissue from a twin into her identical sister, he said it was a unique case that he wouldn't repeat.
He changed his mind. Six sets of twins are glad he did.
Now, the St. Louis surgeon has become the first person to transplant a whole ovary — last month in twins, and last week, in non-twin sisters.
His colleagues applaud the achievement as a technical tour de force and praise Silber's pioneering spirit.
His work is exciting because it's a first step toward preserving fertility for cancer patients.
Before Silber, no one had shown that a woman's ovary could be replaced successfully. If other doctors can replicate Silber's success, a woman facing chemotherapy and radiation could have her own ovary frozen and returned to her later.
Silber's transplants have worked well because the women involved didn't require immune-suppressing drugs to keep them from rejecting the implanted ovaries.
Most sisters who are not identical twins would require those drugs, and even Silber's supporters question whether the risk of those transplants outweighs the benefits.
Benefits of a whole ovary transplant include restoring fertility and natural hormone production, which helps prevent osteoporosis, heart disease and contributes to a woman's general health. Immune-suppressing drugs can have serious side effects, and there are other ways to treat infertility and replace
hormones.
Silber's latest patient says the transplants are "opening a door" for young women locked in early menopause.
Three years ago, Joy Lagos, 30, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Her older sister Maeapple Chaney, 31, was a perfect tissue match.
Chaney gave her younger sister her bone marrow. The donation worked. Lagos was cured of her cancer, but the treatment shut down her ovaries and plunged the young woman into menopause.
"When you lose the function of your ovaries, you lose more than your fertility," Lagos said.
She developed osteoporosis. Her sex drive waned.
"I didn't feel like a woman," she said.
TV report opens door
Chaney was willing to donate eggs so Lagos and her new husband, Rodrigo Lagos, could have a baby through in vitro fertilization. (The couple got married last September.) But Lagos wanted to feel like a young woman again. Her sister was willing to do anything she could to help. So Joy Lagos began looking for someone who would transplant her sister's ovary into her.
Rodrigo Lagos was flipping through television channels one day. A teaser featuring Silber caught his eye. He recorded the "medical miracle" program featuring Silber's first ovarian tissue transplant.
He couldn't quite believe what he saw, so he searched the Internet. The first hit was Silber's clinic at St. Luke's Hospital. The second was a New England Journal of Medicine article describing the first transplant.
The Lagoses knew then that Silber was exactly the person they were looking for.
So Lagos and Chaney headed from their homes in California to the Infertility Center of St. Louis at St. Luke's, which Silber directs.
Last week, Silber removed one of Chaney's ovaries and gave it to Lagos. Such surgery is incredibly difficult because the artery that feeds blood to the ovary is no bigger around than a thread. Other gynecological surgeons described Silber as a "brilliant" and "extremely skilled" microsurgeon.
"Not everyone is going to play golf like Tiger Woods. It's the same thing," said Dr. Richard Gimpelson, a colleague of Silber's at St. Luke's and the past president of the AAGL, an association of gynecological surgeons.
Even so, reattaching the blood supply to the ovary is the most difficult procedure Silber has ever done, he said.
He chose to do the rigorous operation because he was disappointed in the longevity of the previous transplant technique he used in twins. The original procedure placed strips of ovarian tissue from the fertile twin into her prematurely menopausal sister.
Two of the recipients have had babies. Stephanie Yarber, Silber's first transplant patient, now has two children thanks to the surgery. She had previously tried egg donation without success.
All of the women who have had the transplants are menstruating and ovulating normally, Silber said. But their ovaries are running out of steam faster than he had hoped. The women may get only two to five years of ovarian function using the strips of tissue, he said.
He hopes that a whole ovary with its own blood supply will last decades.
Silber's success is exciting for people who hope to help cancer patients preserve their fertility, said Dr. Pasquale Patrizio, director of the Yale Fertility Center at Yale University.
Patrizio and others are working on ways to freeze whole ovaries. Right now, women who face infertility because of cancer treatments can have strips of their ovarian tissue frozen and replaced once they are in remission. But no one yet has successfully frozen a whole ovary and transplanted it.
Some reservations
Even Silber's supporters are ambivalent about transplants that would require immune-suppressing drugs because of possible health effects for the mothers and their babies.
Silber said he's pretty sure that low doses of the drugs wouldn't harm a developing fetus. About 2,000 women who are on immune-suppressing drugs because of kidney transplants have had healthy babies, he said.
Lagos won't need to take immune-suppressing drugs because the bone marrow transplant and the close match to Chaney makes her able to tolerate her sister's tissue.
Legal, religious, social and ethical issues that don't apply to other organs may surround ovary transplants, Gimpelson said.
"These other organs are donated to save someone's life. The ovaries are to make
someone's life complete. It's a little bit different," he said.
Silber's critics don't give him enough credit, his colleagues say.
"I look at him as a pioneer. He's willing to push the envelope, but he's also really helping these patients. It's not like he's out there looking for some experimental case," said Dr. David Battaglia, director of the IVF laboratory at Oregon Health Sciences University. "We're getting an idea of what is possible for a whole population of patients. We need people like Dr. Silber to show us the way."
Monday, February 12, 2007
Surrogacy advocates want level playing field
February 10, 2007 12:00am
Stephanie Caballero
The nationwide service which matches egg donors with infertile women is now lobbying for legislative change and says the nation is in urgent need of uniform laws.
Aussie Egg Donors helps donors, recipients and surrogates to navigate
They have no age requirements but have a number of older members and a membership of more than 200.
"My first recipient was 51 when her baby was born," Aussie Egg Donor's co-director Rachel Kunde, 25, said.
"Most clinics have a cut off of 50 at time of treatment. There are pretty much no discriminations on our site. We allow all ages."
NSW is one of the few states where surrogacy is permitted and Aussie Egg Donors are now lobbying for universal laws across the country to make surrogacy legal.
Ms Kunde said varying laws between states had boosted membership in recent years with an increasing number of couples turning to the site for information and support.
NSW,
In
In
Aussie Egg Donors' directors include a women based in Melbourne and another surrogate mother in
Women Who Donate Eggs for Stem Cell Research Face Few Health Risks, Institute of Medicine Report Says
Bioethics & Science |
[Feb 09, 2007]
Stephanie M. Caballero
Stephanie M. Caballero
Women who donate their eggs for stem cell research or in vitro fertilization are not at increased risk of health complications, and most of the risks are a result of the hormones used to stimulate their bodies to release more than one egg, according to a report commissioned by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and released Tuesday by the Institute of Medicine, Bloomberg reports. CIRM decided to assess the risk of human egg donation before administering grants under Proposition 71 to researchers who would use donated eggs (Waters, Bloomberg, 2/7). The process of donating eggs involves inserting a thin needle through the vagina into the ovary. Prior to the usual procedure, donors undergo a course of hormone injections to help the process of obtaining five to 15 eggs (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 10/02/06). These treatments can cause mild pain, slight enlargement of the ovaries and infrequent nausea in the women, Linda Giudice -- chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California-San Francisco and co-chair of the IOM panel that produced the report -- said. Studies of women who used hormones to provide eggs that could be used for IVF found that between 2% and 5% of the women developed ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. The report said that although most cases of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome were mild and temporary, in rare cases the condition could lead to serious complications, including kidney failure or death. Fewer than 0.2% of women taking the hormones experience symptoms such as blood clots or reduce blood flow to the kidneys, and about 1.4 of every 100,000 women undergoing fertility treatments experience kidney failure, the report said. Giudice said risk related to infection, surgical complications and anesthesia also are "remarkably low" among women undergoing the procedure. Data did not show that the women are at increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer but there was too little information to assess the risk of uterine cancer, she said. Giudice added that the data are rough estimates of the risks involved in egg donation because women who have donated eggs in the past have not been tracked for long periods of time. Members of the IOM panel suggested that researchers continue tracking women who donate eggs and collect that information in a database (Bloomberg, 2/7).
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