Cows are helping doctors understand fertility and look for better ways to help women conceive children through procedures like IVF. One of the reasons cows can be so helpful in this research is that they have an estrous cycle that is similar to a woman’s menstrual cycle. They can also be infertile, and that leads to dairy farmers losing money. Solving infertility in cows, which are easier to study than humans with this issue, can help farmers, as well as people who want to start or grow their family.  The issue of cow infertility isn’t one that’s typically being treated or talked about ye ..read more

Sportscaster Erin Andrews went through a decade of stress and discomfort on her fertility journey and eventually chose to work with a surrogate to make her dreams of growing her family come true. Now, she’s helping others who may not have the financial means for fertility treatments through the creation of a grant. She presented a $20,000 grant to a couple struggling with infertility on the TODAY show, to help make their IVF dreams a reality. The couple, high school sweethearts Caitlin and Tyler Fairres, were afraid they wouldn’t be able to have a child after Caitlin was diagnosed with prematu ..read more

If you’re experiencing infertility it’s understandable that you could also feel anxious or depressed. Mental health challenges are common during infertility, especially if you’ve been struggling with the condition for months or even years. With some extra self-care and support, though, you can help protect your mental health as you continue to work toward building your family. Here are a few important tips to consider. Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Support There are many other people in the world who also experience infertility, and talking with them can help you feel less alone during your journey ..read more

The High Court of Justice in Israel has ruled that both women in a lesbian couple can be listed as birth mothers on their child’s birth certificate. The reasoning was that, in practice, both women are equal partners in raising and caring for their child, regardless of who physically gave birth to the baby. The ruling is specifically for lesbian couples who conceive through an anonymous sperm donor and will take effect right away. It was a response to nine couples who petitioned for the change, citing that the listing of both partners in a same-sex couple is common practice in many other areas ..read more

The National Health Service (NHS) in England is now offering paid leave to any of its staff members who experience a pregnancy loss in the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy. A birth parent who loses a pregnancy can take as many as 10 days of leave, and the partner of someone who has experienced pregnancy loss can take five days. Any staff member who has a miscarriage after 24 weeks (six months) will be able to take paid maternity leave. Up until recently, this type of loss was something most people had to go through alone, or with only the support of their partner or family. Having an employer ..read more

In the past, parents in England had no formal way to acknowledge the loss of a baby before 24 weeks. Babies lost after that time were eligible for a death certificate, but earlier pregnancy losses were mostly ignored, at least from an official standpoint. Now, though, the rules have been changed. Parents who have lost a child before 24 weeks from September 2018 onward can now get a government certificate that recognizes their grief and the loss they faced. The new baby loss certificate is designed to help parents process their loss and the trauma that comes with it, by formally acknowledging t ..read more

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are unborn children. That creates some potentially messy legal issues surrounding whether embryos that aren’t used for IVF procedures can be destroyed. Because of that, fertility clinics throughout the state stopped offering these treatments, putting them on hold until the legality around how embryos are handled is decided. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth and many of her colleagues are using this as a way to push back against the changes Republicans are trying to make to women’s rights, especially when it comes to reproduction. She has ..read more

A past law in the Ukraine required that any frozen sperm from a soldier who was killed in action had to be discarded, but a new law is changing that. Now, the Ukrainian parliament has approved a measure which alllows sperm to be used from soldiers who die in action. One of the considerations in changing this measure is the rising death toll among young men in the ongoing war with Russia. Additionally, the fertility rate is low and there are millions of emigrants, as well. This makes demographics a big consideration and one of the ways to increase the population is to allow frozen sperm to be u ..read more

Greece has legalized same-sex civil marriage, making it the first Orthodox country to do so. There was significant opposition to the legalization from the Greek Church, which is socially conservative. However, the measure still passed and same-sex couples will be allowed to enter into civil marriages. There were 176 lawmakers out of the 300 members of parliament who voted in favor of the change, and they came from both parties. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his center-right government were the ones who drafted the bill, and 76 members of parliament rejected it. There were also two mem ..read more

It’s widely known that a woman’s age matters for fertility, but how much a man’s age affects procreation hasn’t really been discussed. Most people assume that men can have children much later in life, which is often technically true. Men produce sperm far longer than women produce eggs, which is why some men in their 60s and 70s become biological fathers. However, age is still a factor in sperm quality, and older fathers could be adding increased health risks to their offspring. The older a man is when he conceives children, the higher the chances of that child having a neurodevelopmental issu ..read more