Strollerderby : uterus

Exploited and Discarded? Seeking Protection for Egg Donors

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:01:00 GMT

The new parents beam, the babies gurgle and coo, and People magazine takes a picture of yet another family made possible by egg donation (you don't think all those 45-year-old actresses are just having twins by some crazy coincidence, do you?). But what happens to the woman whose biological material helped make it all possible? Her job done, the egg donor typically recedes into the background, a check for $5,000 (or more, or less) in her hand, gone without a trace.

Now some former donors and other advocates for women's health want that to change. While the Centers for Disease Control keeps track of the number of eggs donated to women facing infertility -- it was more than 15,000 in 2006 -- the donors of those eggs, and information about their health after serving as donors, is not followed in any way. Given that egg donation involves treatment with powerful hormones, many of which carry at least some cancer risk, the lack of follow-up and systematic tracking bothers many.

"Right now egg donors are treated like vendors, not as patients. Patients need to be followed up," Jennifer Schneider told Time magazine. Schneider, a doctor, has become a critic of the way donors are treated ever since losing her own daughter, who donated three times and died of colon cancer at 31.

Even worse, many egg donors appear to lack basic information about even the short-term health risks they're taking on when they agree to donate. From the Time article:

In an article published in Fertility and Sterility in November 2008, researchers found, for example, that 34% of former egg donors didn't recall being aware at the time of donation of the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, the most common side effect. The majority of donors experience at least the mild or moderate form of this syndrome, which involves discomfort, bloating or nausea and usually resolves itself on its own. The severe version of this syndrome is rare - only 100 to 200 for every 100,000 women - but its consequences can include kidney failure and death. And then there are other side effects, such as bleeding, infection and death, which are associated with any surgery performed under general anesthesia. But fully 20% of the 80 donors interviewed said they didn't know there were any physical risks to egg donation at all.

With a growing number of families seeking advanced reproductive technology, and an increasing number of willing donors (motivated at least in part by economic woes, some clinics are reporting a jump of over 50% in the number of prospective donors over last year's numbers), egg donation isn't going away. But it's time to stop treating it as a simple exchange of money for risk, or even money for genetic material. Donors need more information, and clinics need to not only make sure they understand the risks but provide follow-up healthcare, as well as tracking outcomes so that future medical professionals -- and donors -- can understand the actual long-term risks. Right now there are no credible studies that can assess those risks -- the most frightening aspect of which is uterine cancer -- because no registry has ever existed.

Currently the American Society for Reproductive Medicine is consulting with fertility docs on a nonprofit, voluntary registry of both egg and sperm donors, but as recent controversies have made all too clear, self-regulation isn't a strength of the fertility industry (really, of any industry). One hopes that the parents who benefit from the technology that brought them babies will also remember the generosity and courage of the women who provided their eggs and push their clinics for better care and research -- and contact their political representatives to ask for the same from our government.

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Two Wombs, Two Babies: Mom Delivers Twins

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:18:00 GMT

I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Like finding out you have two uteruses (uteri actually) and getting pregnant with twins - one child per uterus. Oh, and best of all? Giving birth to two healthy little girls.

Michigan mom Sarah Reinfelder has uterus didelphys - a rare condition in which the two tubes in a female fetus don't join to create one larger, hollow organ. They remain two distinct parts of the body - uteri.

The condition isn't dangerous, and many women go on to have children, but twins from uterus didelphys are rare, which makes Reinfelder's daughters extra special. So far, only three cases have been reported in the entire world.

The larger twin developed in Reinfelder's larger uterus, weighing in at four pounds, fifteen ounces. Her sister was a full pound smaller. The girls were delivered via a C-section, approximately seven weeks prematurely. The babies are expected to be released from the hospital in three to four weeks. Reinfelder and husband Shane have an elder child - 10-month-old William at home. They were shocked to find out she was pregnant with the twins - especially because she was on the birth control pill at the time.

"I was like okay, and then they did the ultrasound and said, 'Guess what? You're pregnant twice!' and that's when I almost wet my pants," Sarah told her local TV news station.

Can you really blame her?

Image: Upper Michigan Source

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My Uterus Has Recalled!

SunnyChanel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:30:00 GMT

My uterus has been recalled! Well that is if I actually owned one of the plush uteruses by I Heart Guts, my own uterus is, thankfully, safe and sound. The toy company recently had some 'female trouble' with one of their popular products, their pink stuffed uterus. They recently issued a voluntary recall due to the plush toy failing child toy safety standard tests. They said that “basically, if you pull too hard on the fallopian tubes, the ovary pops off, creating a potential choking hazard for small children.” And really, the last thing you want to have happen in your household if having one of your young children choking on a random loose ovary. The good news is that all the other I Heart Guts products have met the U.S. and the European safety standards, so although your child can’t play with your uterus, they can play with your liver, kidney or pancreas.

Mom-to-Be Has Two Vaginas, Two Uteruses

JeanneSager — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:01:00 GMT

Whoever said it's three times the charm hasn't met Lindsay Hasaj. The British woman said it only took two tries with husband Tony to get pregnant; even though she has two uteruses, two vaginas and two cervixes.

It's one of those one-in-a-million cases, but twenty-seven-year-old Hasaj was as surprised as doctors were when she went for her OB/GYN appointment at five weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with uterus didelphys. The condition drops a woman's chances of getting pregnant by fifty percent, but the Hasajs had double the luck.

Married in July, the Hasajs started trying shortly after to conceive their first child. But when Lindsay started feeling pains in her belly in November, she went to the hospital, afraid she might have an ectopic pregnancy. But even after doctors told her the baby had not developed outside the womb, they told her they needed to do more tests.

"I was in a cold sweat," Lindsay Hasaj told London's The Daily Mail. "I thought they were going to say I'd had a phantom pregnancy or something. Ten minutes later I was told very matter-of-factly that they could see two wombs and two cervixes."

Because the outer part of her vagina (the entrance) appears normal, only splitting into two inside the body, Hasaj had made it to the ripe old age of twenty-seven without knowing she had a rare condition. She said her pap smears had always provided strange results, but apparently she never got a really invasive internal exam (now that she's pregnant, however, she joins the rest of us on that one).

She'll have to have frequent visits with the doctor - even more frequent than the average pregnant woman - because the two uteruses are weaker than one. The baby, however, is currently fine, living inside just one uterus and developing normally. As for lucky number two, the docs say it likely isn't to be for the Hasajs - but they're happy to make do with just one.

"I'm just happy that I've been given the chance to be a mum at least once."

As a mom who's one and done, I'll second that.

Image: Daily Mail

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Have a Uterus? McCain Wants You to Pay More for Health Insurance

JeanneSager — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Turns out the biggest difference between men and women in America might not be their "down there parts," but what health insurance companies think those there parts will cost them. A study in yesterday's New York Times states women ages 19 to 55 who are paying for individual health insurance plans are being charged significantly more than male counterparts for the same plans.

The reason? Women are using more insurance, the companies say. But thanks go to the sharp-witted writers at Jezebel, who were quick to point out that research has shown seeking care earlier (they often call it preventative care?) saves people down the line. Saves their lives, and saves them money. Because preventive care, well, it prevents major illness.

Jezebel's report also pointed out something American voters need to keep in mind come Tuesday. Senator John McCain's chief healthcare plans call for "tax credits" that we as Americans would then use to pay for our own health insurance plans - the ones that cost women more. He's against the (currently relatively widespread) practice of employer-based health insurance plans, or group plans, whereby insurance plans are bought in bulk by an employer to wrangle a lower cost for each individual plan. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (you see the little EEO or EOE acronyms in a lot of newspaper classifieds) watches over employer-based health plans and prohibits gender-based discrimination. In other words - our civil rights in the workplace guarantee we can't be charged more for our employer-based health plan than the guy at the next desk. Walk out of the workplace, however, and the game changes.

The Times report even quotes a Humana representative who claims, "Bearing children increases other health risks later in life, such as urinary incontinence, which may require treatment with medication or surgery.” Say what?

A woman who popped out a baby, but has a yearly check-up at the general practitioner plus her annual "foot-in-the-stirrups, let's get this over with doc, I hope you have warm hands this time" visit is apparently going to wet herself down the road. And that's going to cost them. But the guy who hasn't been to a doctor in a decade and sits on his ass eating Cheetos and screaming, red-faced at SportsCenter all day, every day is going to cost them less down the line?

I can invest in Depends, but he's a walking heart attack.

And, apparently, Senator McCain thinks he shouldn't have to pay as much for cardiac catheterization, an eventual quadruple bypass, a lifetime of blood pressure monitoring and heart medications, a twice-yearly stress test . . . should I go on? . . . as long as he doesn't have a uterus.

Image: CrunchGear

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Playdate: When Two Moms Don't See Eye to Eye But The Kids Do

JeanneSager — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:57:00 GMT

What makes for a good playdate in your neck of the woods? Is it the moms or the kids? I hate to admit that the closer my daughter gets to picking her own friends, the more I'm dreading it.

A recent post by boxing commentator and playgroup mommy Karyn Bryant really drove home the conundrum for me. Like me, she's a tomboy - although her description seems more specific than mine. I'm not one for sitting around "talking about breeding," like the moms she rags on, but I'm not ready to kick it with the boys and cigars either. I'll leave that to Karyn. But I feel her pain. I crave conversations that don't begin with BPA and end with Yobaby.

It's something I've noticed a lot of dads just don't get. One friend's husband invited a co-worker and his wife to their son's first birthday party. "Oh, she just had a baby, you'll love her," he assured her. The woman came, and she was a dud. She sat on the couch and every attempt at conversation fell flat. We shrugged and moved on. But my friend's husband kept bringing her up. "Why don't you invite her over? Why don't you give her a call? Set up a playdate, go shopping."

Finally, she had to break it to him. Having two recently renovated uteruses is not the makings of a the relationship of the century. You need chemistry, not just kids.

For Bryant, that means a mom who'll watch the Friday night fights. For me, it's a mom who can agree with me that we keep one eye on the kids and another on the margaritas. Or, at the very least (if it's before noon), kick back and talk about something, anything besides the kids. What my daughter's looking for in a playdate is, of course, very different. She wants to go play with the kids she's meeting out and about - whether Mommy likes their mommies or not.

I'm happily at the helm of my daughter's social calendar for the moment, with a list of moms of whom I heartily approve and kids she's known most of her little life. We'll just hold out hopes that any would-be social climbers have moms who can make the list.

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Do Doctors See Young Women as Baby Machines?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:30:00 GMT

The New York Times unwittingly opened up a can of worms when they wrote about a recent report on the health risks of sharing prescription drugs. The warning was targeted mainly at women of child-bearing age, since drugs can pose a risk to a developing fetus. Many women commented on the article, but not because they cared a whit about the health issues discussed.

Rather, they were outraged that the danger of sharing prescription drugs was framed as specifically problematic for women of child-bearing age. “Not all women are “pre-pregnant,” one reader wrote. “We are more than our uteruses!” Another wrote that she was “tired of being thought of only as a breeding machine who should be regarded as ‘pre-pregnant’ at all times.”

While I am completely sympathetic to these sentiments, I don't quite understand the outrage these women felt toward this particular article—if you don’t want have to kids, ignore the warning. Enough women in their twenties and thirties do want to have children that it only makes sense to issue warnings to this age group about how to avoid cause harming to fetuses.

That said, I definitely think that many doctors inappropriately view women as “pre-pregnant.” An OB-GYN once said to a happily childless, 30-year-old friend of mine, “Now go out there and make some babies!” Needless to say, my friend got a new gynecologist.

Image: svmomblog.typepad.com