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Introducing Writer and past Surrogate: Helen Zanone!
A married mother of 3 independent and rambunctious children and with a wide range of interests, Helen is now broadening her horizons to include writing poetry, short stories and articles. Having a diverse background which includes a stint in the United States Air Force, living in Europe, an on-going marriage of 18+ years, and agreeing to be a Gestational Surrogate (twice!), Helen has extensive personal knowledge to share with her readers on various life changing topics using her brilliant writing skills.
With all of her first hand experience and thoughtful introspection, Helen writes of the pain, fear and finally, the ultimate goal of surrogacy: the end of a long unconventional journey that is completed with a babe held in the Intended Parents arms.
Unconventional Birth
Dear women I feel your pain.
I see your cheeks that tears have stained.
You have no idea why this is happening to you.
You are not sure what to do.
Arms ache for a baby to hold.
You would treat a child like precious gold.
Maybe there is something I could do,
A way to help dreams come true.
There is a reason God put me on this earth,
To bring you a child, through an unconventional birth.
I will keep your baby safe for nine months or so,
Just long enough for her to grow.
I remember the way my children smelled,
When close to my heart, they were held.
I want to bring that joy to you,
A little one to dress in pink or blue.
Together with a lot of hope and prayer,
Soon, in your babys face you will stare.
I will know that my job is through,
When your arms hold the baby that has always belonged to you.
By: Helen Zanone
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I hope that doctors are already educating and offering the option to harvest and freeze eggs to all of their cancer patients that qualify but if not here is a chance to read up on preserving your fertility....and having hope for your future!Sharon
Fertility preservation hope for cancer patients |
| Charlotte Maden Progress Educational Trust 11 July 2008 A group of German researchers has reported a new technique that will increase the chances of preserving fertility in women having treatment for cancer. The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, offer new hope to female cancer patients hoping to conceive in the future. Women undergoing treatment for cancer can opt to have their eggs collected and frozen for future IVF treatments. This is something many choose to do as chemotherapy and radiotherapy techniques can damage ovaries, sometimes permanently. The current process requires stimulation of the ovaries on the first day of the menstrual cycle, followed by harvesting of the eggs. Problems arise when the cancer diagnosis comes later in the cycle, as a woman could have to wait two to six weeks before it is possible to collect eggs, hence delaying potentially life-saving therapies. Dr Michael von Wolff, of the Department of Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproduction Medicine at the University Heidelberg, Germany, says: 'two weeks is an acceptable amount of time in many diseases to wait before starting a cancer treatment such as chemotherapy, but three to six weeks is far too long'. Von Wolff led the group of researchers in a pilot study of 40 women, to look at whether it was possible to initiate ovarian stimulation during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle (the stage between ovulation and the start of menstruation). They administered a drug known as a GnRH-antagonist, which blocks a key hormone in the luteal stage, and then a standard follicle stimulation hormone (FSH) to women in the luteal stage. The ovaries were stimulated in about 12 days and 10 eggs were produced, compared with 10 days and 13 eggs in the women whose ovaries were stimulated early in their cycle. Approximately the same percentages of eggs were viable in the two groups. They conclude that it is possible to harvest mature eggs in an average of two weeks from women in the late stage of their menstrual cycle before cancer treatment commences. Von Wolff hopes to disseminate information about this new method to oncologist's around the world to help them preserve their patients' fertility. 'I am desperately working to try to have everybody who does fertility to know about it', he says. |
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We created this tool to help you better decide which family building options are right for you.
Please note that we cannot provide personal medical advice, and the information provided here should not be considered medical advice. As always, the information provided here should never replace the information you get from your medical team. Please consult with your doctors for specific information about your options.
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Now here is the question of the day! One that goes hand in hand with should surrogacy be regulated? Should egg donation be regulated? Should embryo donation have regulations? These are some of the issues that the newly formed Egg Donation and Surrogacy Professional Association (EDSPA.org) hope to discuss in its future. However, before any of this happens, through state or federal government agencies, perhaps we can try some self-regulation? The link above will bring you to a four page news article by ABC News. 'Should IVF Be Regulated? With Multiples More Apt to Have Medical Problems, Doctors Face Ethical Dilemma'. This is not new news! I do find it interesting that this article starts out with Jon and Kate Gosselin and their larger then life TV family because they didn't use IVF! They went through IUI, Intrauterine Inseminations, to conceive their family, which, by the way, is cheaper and easier then IVF. Now here is a statistic for you: "According to the CDC, multiple births have increased greatly in the last 20 years, thanks to fertility drugs. In 2005, 68 sets of quintuplets or more were born, compared with 13 in 1990." No surprise there! I was standing in the line to register at the ASRM meeting earlier this month continuing a conversation with an older doctor about my experiences as a gestational carrier, giving birth twice to twins. A much younger doctor snorted when he heard that 3 embryos were transferred each time. He stated that it was just ridiculous to transfer that many embryos..however the older gentleman then asked the 'right' question; how old was I when the transfers took place? The answer? 36 and 40. ahhhhhhhhh! Well, that's the reason, then, for the decision. My point here is that all factors need to be taken into consideration including age and embryo quality. So if there is any 'government regulation' someone had better be very flexible in the guidelines and make sure that each situation can be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Sharon
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An ideal egg donation begins with an infertile couple seeking a young, healthy and intelligent woman to provide the genetic material to help start a family. In return, the altruistic donor is compensated for her time and the physical discomfort she endures. The cold realities, however, differ from this idyllic situation.
Female egg donation is a serious event with great risks and rewards. In the course of a typical egg donation, a donor, normally screened by an ob-gyn and a geneticist, is given a series of hormonal injections to help stimulate ovulation. The egg retrieval is a relatively painless procedure with side effects that include mood swings, abdominal pain and fainting. The medical procedure can, in rare cases, lead to future infertility in donors and even death.
Unfortunately, donors are sometimes misled about the health risks. Doctors working at fertility clinics have a conflict of interest because they are paid by infertile couples but give medical advice to donors. As a result of this conflict of interest, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has received complaints from donors that they were promised coverage for egg-donation-related medical costs only to find that the coverage was extremely limited or came with high deductibles.
Proponents of a free-market egg-donation system may claim that cases of abuse are rare, but the simple reality is that no one knows the true scale of abuse. The Centers for Disease Control is only required to ask fertility clinics how many successful births result from donor eggs. They don't ask important questions like the amount of times a donor has previously donated, reported side effects or long-term medical issues.
With practically no government regulation and increasingly astronomical compensation prices, the blossoming egg donation system is rife for potential abuses. Donors have financial incentives to cover up their medical history, and growing evidence suggests that repeated egg donation may result in decreased fertility for the donor and damaged eggs for the recipient. Without a system to monitor and control egg donations, both donors and recipients could be abused.
Perhaps most glaring is the lack of substantive knowledge about the long-term health risks. Female egg donations are a relatively new procedure, first started in Israel in 1986. Because egg donations are often anonymous, and donors are not tracked, there is a void of medical research. There is a need for information to help medical professionals and policy experts target emerging problems or trends.
To remedy the lack of available knowledge and limit the influence of a market system on egg donation, the federal government should increase regulation. In coordination with unbiased medical experts, the federal government should create a national register of egg donors and authorized fertility clinics. Equally important would be the implementation of a maximum limit on egg-donor compensation; in 2007, an ASRM ethics report suggested a $5,000 maximum. Lastly, the government should require that fertility clinics fully disclose their medical coverage plans to both donors and recipients.
A national registry would help identify budding developments, highlight ineffectual treatments and health risks, and allow fertility clinics to know how many times a specific donor has given eggs before. A limit for compensation would serve to reimburse women for the time, stress and physical risks they take while discouraging high payouts that could negatively influence poor and desperate donors. Allowing for full disclosure will help donors and recipients make informed decisions.
The formulation of an effective national registry system will take time, and in the absence of government intervention, citizens and communities should help. By providing space to potentially unreliable and unsafe fertility clinics, college newspapers around the country - the ‘Prince' included - could endanger well-meaning community members.
The ‘Prince' business office reserves the right to "reject any advertising" but it has no guidelines that bar ads for unsafe or unproven products. I urge our Business staff to exert greater care in soliciting advertisements.
College newspapers are tasked with providing their communities the best possible news and information. This charge should not end in the newsroom but should continue into the business office. With a lack of governmental regulation, the current system of free-market driven egg donation is prone to the same neglect and extravagances of Wall Street. The recent economic meltdown should stand as a reminder to the dangers of an unregulated market.
Michael Collins is a sophomore from Glastonbury, Conn. He can be reached at [email protected].
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A baby girl was born in London to a 38-year-old woman who received an ovary from her identical twin sister, a doctor said Wednesday.
The Daily Mail reported it was the world's first full ovary transplant.
Dr. Sherman Silber, a U.S physician who conducted the transplant, said the child was healthy, weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces. The infertility specialist, who practices at the Infertility Center of St Louis, said women could have an ovary frozen in their 20s and then have it implanted in their 30s or 40s.
Women can always have egg donation but this is so much nicer and more convenient if it's safe,
he said. A young ovary can be transplanted back at any time and it will extend fertility and delay the menopause. You could even wait until you were 47.
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London, Oct 30 (ANI): An international poll has come out with varied results on one of the most debatable questions among scientists when human life “begins” biologically?
The results come prior to a controversial constitutional amendment next week in Colorado, which will confer legal rights on embryos at the point of fertilisation.
Out of the 650 votes polled in, only 22.7pct of voters selected fertilisation as the point when human life begins.
But, detection of foetal heartbeat scored the highest, with 23.5 pct vote in its favour, and at the third position was implantation of the embryo in the womb lining with 15pct.
Jaclyn Friedman of Reproductive Biology Associates, the IVF clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, which commissioned the poll, said that the poll question asked respondents when human life began in a biological sense of being an original entity.
“We didn”t ask when it’’s a person. There’’s a distinction between when a group of cells is considered living, and when it deserves human rights, and that’’s what comes into play with this amendment, New Scientist quoted her, as saying.
However, the amendment has proposed that fertilisation is not only when human life begins, but also that this is when someone becomes a person, deserving the same legal rights and protection under the American Constitution as any baby, child or adult citizen.
People might say this or that is when life begins, but it doesn”t necessarily confer legal rights on that entity, said Thomas Elliott of Reproductive Biology Associates,
Theres a clear divide of opinion based on religion and geography when it comes to the question of when biological life begins.
Roman Catholics were found to have the highest proportion voting for “sperm-egg” fusion, with 31pct. On the other hand, a total of 29 pct Jewish respondents voted for agnostics and 27pct of Muslims opted for foetal heartbeat and the same was seen with 38pct of IVF patients.
Geographically, just 13pct of UK respondents opted for “sperm-fusion”, with 43pct choosing “fetal heartbeat” as compared to 47pct of Australasians, who voted for “sperm-egg. Only 7pct voted for “foetal heartbeat”.
The figures in North America was more even, with 27pct opting for “sperm-egg”, 24pct “foetal heartbeat” and 18pct “implantation”.
The results of the study will be presented in San Francisco at the Annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. (ANI)
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Invasive procedure: Start of (Injectable) Medications
Usual fee: $500.00
The reason I specify "Injectable" Medications is because some woman are asked to take birth control pills as the start of the medical regimen. They can be on these small pills for sometime while the cycle is being controlled and/or synchronized with either the egg donor or Intended Mother. In actuality most women are already using this method of birth control before they even consider being a surrogate. When the other medications are introduced is when the "Invasiveness" happens....first is a daily shot of Lupron. This is given with a small needle and is substations. For those who are not used to giving themselves daily injections this can be a bit intimidating but for the most part they are easily administered and not painful.
The next and most dreaded are the progesterone shots. These needles are quite large and are intramuscular. They are usually given/taken in the behind area...upper hip....a hard to reach area and can be quite uncomfortable. If a surrogate does become pregnant she can expect to take these shots for 8-12 weeks depending on the clinic's protocol. It is really hard to find a place that hasn't already been 'hit' once during this time frame and as the weeks pass, this area becomes somewhat tender. Estrogen is also part of the regimen and these often come in pill form but I have also experienced them (personally) in the intramuscular shot form.
If a surrogate has an RE who uses something other then the shot forms of these and other medications there is still the discomfort and side effects of each medication. Hot Flashes and mood swings to name a couple. Besides being required to take pills by mouth there are the vaginal suppositories and creams which can lead to yeast infections and other messy, uncomfortable itchy discharge. (Always ask your clinic for instructions on how to give yourself your medication....I am no doctor and am only sharing my own experiences or those of people I have worked with.)
If a surrogate has agreed to 3 IVF cycles then she would have a start of medication fee each time...potentially leading the IPs to paying $1500.00 for just this clause in a contract.
I will be touching on other invasive procedures and the fees associated with them in the weeks to come. If there is one you would like more information about please feel free to ask!
Sharon
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The Hope Uncorked wine tasting kit is a grassroots awareness campaign dedicated to helping cancer survivors fulfill their parenthood dreams. | ||
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| Fertile Hope 65 Broadway, Suite 603 New York, New York 10006 US |
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Health Insurance
I touched on Health Insurance when talking about the base fee. Health Insurance is so important when carrying a baby. There are so many issues that could go wrong and drive up the potential cost of a surrogacy arrangement. Some Intended Parents think that they will 'self pay' on the labor and delivery at the hospital and at the OB but with all of the risk factors they are taking a huge financial risk! And any woman agreeing to be a surrogate needs to know that she can easily be left holding the bag with thousands of dollars of medical bills for a pregnancy that isn't problem free. After all...it's all in her name...the hospital, the doctor, everything! She is relying on the "medical reimbursement' clause in her contract to hold water....and that it may...but when the money is paid? Time will only tell. Would it happen before her credit is totally ruined?
How to find health insurance? This is the question that may people are asking now that Insurance Companies are adding surrogacy exclusions to their policies. Even 2nd and 3rd time surrogates are finding that their policies have changed from one pregnancy to the next. Some women who have tried to check with their policy holder have been totally honest and up front and found that even if its not listed as an exclusion that they were not covered because the person they talked to on the phone took "notes" and right in their files the word "surrogacy" is typed in black and white. Even when women who want to go with the don't ask don't tell frame of mind are risking financial ruin. If you want your IP's to be involved with the OB appointments then its going to be pretty hard to explain to the OB and the hospital staff why this other couple are so involved and interested in YOUR pregnancy. There are several 'surrogacy friendly' policies out there but they do cost quite a bit. I will touch on those options later.
Please note that Health Insurance is not meant to cover IVF, medications involved with IVF or any infertility testing in a surrogacy situation. These costs are out of pocket expenses that the Intended Parents have to be responsible for and NOT their surrogate or her Health Insurance.
Sharon
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Life Insurance
Isn't this always a depressing topic when really everyone going through surrogacy wants to remain positive.....then Life Insurance is tossed in the mix. Who wants to think that someone, especially a wife and mother who is volunteering her body to carry for another couple, has to put a price on her life. BUT it is necessary. I believe that a life insurance policy is a mental and emotional necessity. Every woman worries about her own family and even if she is a stay at home mother with zero income her contribution to her family is invaluable. If anything should happen to her then certain practical issues will come about (not to mention all of the mental and emotional trauma that will be happening to everyone left behind!)
For Stay at Home Moms the common life insurance policy that is recommended is for $200,000-$250,000. A term policy may be less then $300.00 per year. Not so much for a piece of mind. What is taken into consideration regarding the amount are some of the following issues (and some are the same concerns that a Doctor would have of anyone going through the IVF process):
Does she smoke?
What is her BMI? (Body Mass Index)
Does she work in a hazardous environment?
Does she drink?
Does she take recreational drugs?
Does she have any dangerous hobbies? (sky diving?)
If the surrogate is a working/career woman, often her work offers a Life Insurance policy. She may not be taking advantage of it but she can contact her work place and see what is available and the Intended Parents can reimburse her for the yearly cost. Note that all Life Insurance companies require that the person being covered is the one who pays for the policy so the surrogate will always have to be reimbursed for any policy that is purchased, The Intended Parents can not go out and buy one for her on their own.
Sharon
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Spanish 'saviour sibling' attracts pro-life opposition |
| Ailsa Taylor Progress Educational Trust 26 October 2008 Last week saw the birth of Spain's first so-called 'saviour sibling' - a term used to describe babies conceived following embryo testing to ensure their umbilical cord blood will provide tissue-matched stem cells for an existing sick child. It is hoped that stem cells from baby 'Janvier's' cord blood will provide a cure for his 6-year-old brother, Andres, who has 'beta-thalassaemia' - a genetic blood condition requiring monthly blood transfusions to avoid life-threatening anaemia.
The technique leading to Janvier's birth involved creating embryos by IVF and then testing them to ensure that they would result in a baby both unaffected by beta-thalassaemia and who would also be a suitable tissue match for brother Andres. One of the embryos which was tested was implanted back into the womb to continue developing. The remaining embryos, which were either affected by beta-thalassaemia, not a tissue match, or excess to needs, were then either frozen or discarded.
The only cure for beta-thalassaemia is a stem-cell transplant from a
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Democracy is…the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. 
— Harry Emerson Fosdick
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Children and young people who go through cancer are often left infertile by the treatment and are faced with having to use donated eggs and sperm or adopting to have their own family.
The problem is especially difficult for children who develop cancer before they reach puberty because they cannot freeze their own eggs and sperm.
But now scientists have managed to grow eggs in the laboratory from samples of ovarian tissue taken from girls as young as five.
Immature eggs can be removed from the tissue and grown to maturity in special culture.
The next step will be to see if they can be fertilised to create viable embryos. These could then be frozen and stored for future use or the unfertilised eggs could be frozen using the latest techniques which have proven more effective.
Between 1,500 and 1,700 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with cancer each year and half of those are under the age of five.
The most common form of cancer in children is leukaemia, which affects 35 per cent, followed by brain or spinal tumours.
Research published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility revealed that a team at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centre in Jerusalem examined the ability to remove and preserve ovarian tissue from young female cancer patients and then retrieve, mature and freeze eggs from that tissue.
They worked with 19 patients between the ages of five and 20. On average they were able to retrieve an average of nine eggs per patient and 34 per cent of them were successfully matured.
"As our ability to treat childhood cancers improves, it becomes more important that those survivors are able to live rich, full lives, including the ability have children," said David Adamson, MD, President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"This research helps move us to the goal of allowing paediatric cancer survivors to become parents." Fertility doctors have attempted several methods to help young people going through cancer to conceive their own children.
Ovarian tissue has been successfully removed, frozen and reimplanted after the cancer treatment is complete. Some women have had babies through IVF and naturally after using this method.
Fertility specialists in the UK have also looked at developing a treatment to grow eggs from non-cancer sufferers, to allow them to delay motherhood.
The first stage of the technique involves removing slivers of ovarian tissue through keyhole surgery. Although only a few millimetres wide, each sample would contain thousands of immature eggs.
The procedure, which has been criticised by the pro-life charity Life, is seen as a low risk to women and has the added benefit of securing thousands of eggs rather than just a few.
It can then be stored until a woman is ready to try for a baby. The procedure is expected to be offered to patients within five years.
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Joe Whale Watching...want to see one...want to see one...is THAT a whale?
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
— Frank Lloyd Wright
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Are you surprised at this headline? I'm certainly not. I know that RE's in the UK are attempting to avoid a multiple pregnancy by considering just transferring one embryo and as someone who has carried two sets of twins I understand the dangers and complications of a high risk pregnancy. However, I do know that Intended Parents want to have a better chance at conceiving on their first IVF round if at all possible. Because this program is government funded in the UK, and not out of pocket for IP's, it may not meet with the same resistance that I believe it would here in the USA. Your thoughts?Sharon
Potential fall in success for IVF patients under 'single-embryo' initiative. |
| Sarah Guy Progress Educational Trust 26 October 2008 A study into the potential effects of transferring a single embryo (SET) into the womb during IVF treatment has revealed that success rates are likely to drop as a result. The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, was undertaken by Dr Daniel Brison and his colleagues at the UK's University of Manchester and explores the practicalities of implementing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)'s latest initiative to attempt to reduce the numbers of multiple births resulting from IVF treatment. Dr Brison supports SET on the grounds that multiple births are the greatest risks faced by IVF patients and their babies. In many countries, multiple embryos are often transferred in order to maximise the chance of pregnancy. In the UK, the most recent guidance, found in the HFEA Code of Practice, stipulates that clinics should transfer no more than two eggs or IVF embryos at a time to women under 40 years old and no more than three eggs or embryos to women older than 40. Implanting more than one embryo can increase the chance of having a successful outcome - but it also increases the incidence of twin births, which puts increased strain on intensive care and neonatal units. A campaign called 'One at a Time' was launched in June this year and, in September, The British Fertility Society (BFS) and the Association of Clinical Embryologists (ACE) introduced new guidelines aimed at reducing the number of multiple births, recommending that a SET policy should be adopted for women under 37. Dr Brison commented that 'single-embryo transfer is the right way forward, but we have to fund more than one cycle', highlighting the fact that only 15 per cent of NHS trusts provide the full three state-funded cycles recommended by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004. The government aims to cut multiple births from one in four to one in ten by 2012. Dr Brison's study constructed a model based on these figures which show that in order to achieve that target, the equivalent of 55 per cent of patients at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester would have to have SET thereby bringing the success rate down by about 20 per cent. The paper suggests that in order to limit a negative impact on pregnancy rates, women would need to be carefully selected according to an analysis of their embryos, their age and their hormone levels. Professor Peter Braude of Kings College London, leader of the group who devised the single-embryo policy, insisted that women could be chosen who would not be disadvantaged by the policy. 'It doesn't reduce pregnancy rates in women who are most likely to get pregnant, and who are also most likely to have twins,' he said, adding 'we have never said that a single embryo is right for every woman and the 10 per cent target is an aspiration'. He suggests that by identifying women most likely to have multiple births, incidences can be reduced without having a detrimental effect on pregnancy rates. Dr Brison emphasised that implementation of the HFEA's policy needed to be backed up by better NHS access to IVF, particularly follow-up treatments using frozen embryos. Evidence from Scandinavia and Kings College London shows that a woman's chances of conceiving are not necessarily reduced by single-embryo transfer if the cycle is then repeated using another frozen embryo. |
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