BioNews reporting from ESHRE conference, Madrid:New research from the UK has shown that polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is more common in lesbian women presenting for infertility treatment than it is in heterosexual women. PCOS is a common medical condition caused by an imbalance in sex hormones and is associated...
A UK woman who travelled to Valencia, Spain to conceive a female child using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is pregnant with twin girls. Nicola Chenery, who already has four sons, underwent fertility treatment and embryo testing to ensure that she conceived a female child. Determining the sex of embryos created...
Two women appeared in the High Court today to try to prevent the destruction of their stored frozen embryos, created using in IVF. Natallie Evans and Lorraine Hadley both want to complete their IVF treatment, against the wishes of their former partners, saying the frozen embryos represent their...
The UK government unveiled its plans for genetics in the National Health Service (NHS) last week, in the form of a white paper entitled 'Our inheritance, our future - realising the potential of genetics in the NHS'. The document lays out new measures for strengthening existing genetics services, and for incorporating...
UK scientists have identified a gene, called OPCML, which appears to be switched off in the early stages of ovarian cancer. The researchers, based at Cancer Research UK's oncology unit in Edinburgh, also found that when they put working versions of OPCML into ovarian tumours, they stopped growing. 'This is...
The London Fertility Centre has launched a new scheme that it hopes will encourage more women to donate their eggs and increase the chance of women becoming pregnant following fertility treatment. The new 'egg giving' option, available at the centre, means that some women undergoing IVF would give all the...
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Comment
Putting genetics into practice
by Dr John Gillott
Back in April 2001, Alan Milburn, the then Secretary of State for Health, announced that the Government would publish a Green Paper on genetics in 2002, drawing together advances in the field, mapping out the steps needed to prepare the NHS 'so it can harness the benefits of these future...