Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto say state’s definition of infertility discriminates against same-sex couples A former New York assistant district attorney and his husband on Thursday filed a class-action lawsuit against New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, former mayor Bill de Blasio and other city leaders in a landmark case for the rights of gay men who want to conceive children in the US. Corey Briskin, 35, and Nicholas Maggipinto, 38, allege that New York’s definition of infertility discriminates against same-sex male couples, violating federal and state civil rights laws ..read more

Research finds hormone that indicates fertility at lower levels in vapers and tobacco smokers Women should give up vaping if they are hoping to get pregnant, according to a study that suggests it may affect fertility. In the first research to demonstrate a link between fertility prospects and electronic cigarettes across a large population, analysis of blood samples from 8,340 women revealed that people who vape or smoke tobacco had lower levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which indicates how many eggs women have left in their ovaries ..read more

California fertility clinic Ovation accused of mistakenly creating ‘toxic incubator’ that killed embryos that were then implanted Several couples are suing a southern California fertility center over claims the facility staff destroyed their embryos in a “toxic incubator” and later implanted these embryos into the women who sought their services. So far 11 couples have sued Tennessee-based Ovation Fertility’s Newport Beach office, with more lawsuits expected down the line. Ovation clinic staff are alleged to have mistakenly cleaned an incubator that held the embryos of dozens of patients await ..read more

In the 1960s the birthrate in Greenland was one of the highest in the world. Then it plunged. Decades later, women have finally begun speaking out about what happened Bula Larson was 14 when one day she and her friends were told to go to the hospital. Bula lived in Greenland and was Inuit like most of the population of the island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. At the hospital she and her friends lined up, and one-by-one were told to enter a room. Bula recalls how she was asked to sit on a bed with ‘cold metal stirrups’ where, to her shock, she was fitted with an IUD, a contracep ..read more

Alexandra Eccles and Lyndal Bubke were conceived from ‘Donor 59’. But the information available to them is scant – and they want that to change Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Every six months or so, Alexandra Eccles discovers a new half-sibling. The Ancestry.com family tree icon pings as another person is drawn into the knowledge that half of their life is a lie. After more than two decades, Eccles has confirmed she has 32 siblings. Some are as old as 32, others are in their teens. Her best gues ..read more

Free pets? Baby bonuses? Surely the solution to falling birthrates is clarity on immigration Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh For the past 75 years in global public health, one of the major priorities has been exponential population growth and Malthusian concerns that the supply of food on the planet won’t be able to keep up. In 1951, the world’s population was 2.5 billion, which increased to 4 billion by 1975, 6.1 billion by 2000, and 8 billion by 2023. Governments in the two most populous countries, India and China, even implemented, respectively ..read more

Exclusive: Territory’s government calls for visit to listen to those thought to be living with consequences of forced fitting of IUDs ‘I was only a child’: women tell of trauma of forced contraception The Danish health minister should “get on a plane and visit” some of the thousands of women thought to be living with the consequences of being forcibly fitted with the contraceptive coil as children, Greenland’s gender equality minister has said. In an attempt to reduce the population of the former Danish colony, at least 4,500 women and girls are believed to have undergone the medical procedu ..read more

We all deserve better from healthcare providers who sell false promise to some, while shutting down options for others You can’t have missed the conversations about the rise of freezing eggs for non-medical or “social” reasons in recent years, which forms part of an explosion in the use of fertility treatments, all with the promise of giving more options to prospective parents. The starting point is often the question of whether someone, almost always a wealthy, straight, white woman, should freeze her eggs as insurance against her “biological clock”, career development and/or the risk of not ..read more

When couples fail to conceive, it’s too often regarded as the woman’s problem. But that is far from being the case Women are rarely given the chance to forget about our biological clocks: their starting, slowing, stopping. I remember talking about whether I’d want children with my mum when I was six or seven years old. Now that I’m 32, my friends are having children, debating having them, or dating in the hopes of having the option. My female friends, that is. My impression of the men in my life is that they are not really thinking about children at all, instead assuming that they will happen ..read more

Investigation begins into Homerton Fertility Centre after errors discovered in freezing processes A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said. The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue ..read more