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Spring Break may explain upswing in adolescent pregnancies

Researchers have found that the relative likelihood of conceiving in the month of March is higher if you're a school-aged adolescent than if you're an adult.

8 Sep 2011

Sperm donors may father over 150 children

Most sperm donors assume that they would father a few children. But with the news that some donors have fathered over 100 kids there have been calls for tighter regulation. It has been discovered that some sperm banks allow donors to father lots and lots of kids — one has over 150. And with these very large groups of half-siblings come risks: rare genetic conditions could be spread more widely through the gene pool, and children of the same donor could meet and, unbeknownst to them, commit incest.

6 Sep 2011

Biologists reveal why men's ring fingers are longer than their index fingers

Biologists at the University of Florida have found a reason why men's ring fingers are generally longer than their index fingers - and why the reverse usually holds true for women.

6 Sep 2011

Long-term effects of chemotherapy on women's reproductive health

Current estimates of the impact of chemotherapy on women's reproductive health are too low, according to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study.

26 Aug 2011

Longer looks: Doctors advocating less care; addiction as a 'disease'

These physicians are not anti-medicine. They are not trying to save money on their copayments or deductibles. And they are not trying to rein in the nation's soaring health-care costs, which at $2.7 trillion account for fully one sixth of every dollar spent in the U.S. They are applying to their personal lives a message they have become increasingly vocal about in their roles as biomedical researchers and doctors: more health care often means worse health.

19 Aug 2011

Conference to discuss latest research on gender disparities in cardiovascular disease

Heart disease has sometimes been considered a men's health issue, but the statistics prove otherwise. In the US alone, more than 42 million women live with the problem. Heart disease is responsible for more than one-third of deaths among American women each year, making it the number one killer of females older than 20.

19 Aug 2011

Celiac disease more prevalent among women with unexplained infertility

A recent study demonstrated increased rates of celiac disease in women who present with unexplained infertility. Published in the May-June 2011 issue of The Journal of Reproductive Medicine, the study evaluated 191 female patients presenting with infertility.

19 Aug 2011

Scientists uncover how human egg captures sperm to begin fertilisation process

Researchers have uncovered exactly how a human egg captures an incoming sperm to begin the fertilisation process, in a new study published this week in the journal Science.

19 Aug 2011

Australian youth mostly ignorant about sexual health

The survey found that most of the young people do not know about Pap smears, sexually transmitted infections and how the contraceptive pill works.

18 Aug 2011

Test for ticking biological clock

Researchers from St Andrews University, Scotland have been able to chart the levels of a vital fertility hormone in women of different ages thus essentially detect their biological clocks.

9 Aug 2011

Stem cells could provide sperm for infertile males

Researchers have been successful in creating sperm-producing germ cells from stem cells in a lab and transferred them into infertile mice, which after the treatment were able to produce healthy offspring. This new development could help thousands of infertile men become fathers if the method proves similarly effective in humans.

5 Aug 2011

Low fertility causes 'very real problems' for developed nations' economies

"In recent years, nearly every demographic study has painted a dire picture of the world's changing demographics. Yet when the U.N. issued its latest report this past May, it seemed almost sunny," Jonathan Last, senior writer at the Weekly Standard, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

5 Aug 2011

Nottingham animal scientist receives 'Marshall Medal' for fertility and reproduction study

A leading University of Nottingham animal scientist has been awarded one of the most prestigious medals in the field of animal reproductive biology.

3 Aug 2011

New birth control guidelines in U.S.

Planned parenting groups are cheering while some religious organizations are unhappy with the move that would require health insurance companies to provide women free birth control, in keeping with new Obama administration guidelines. The Department of Health and Human Services call it “historic” and also say that insurance companies must provide women with other preventive services free of charge.

1 Aug 2011

Study shows better education affects population growth, human development

Future trends in global population growth could be significantly affected by improvements in both the quality and quantity of education, particularly female education. Projections of future population trends that do not explicitly include education in their analysis may be flawed, according to research published today in the journal Science (July 29 2011).

30 Jul 2011

New methods to detect illegal clouding agents in sports drinks

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has developed three new methods to detect an illegal clouding agent which can be found in sports drinks imported from Taiwan.

29 Jul 2011

Antioxidants may help treat infertility problems in both women and men

A growing body of evidence suggests that antioxidants may have significant value in addressing infertility issues in both women and men, including erectile dysfunction, and researchers say that large, specific clinical studies are merited to determine how much they could help.

29 Jul 2011

Book on human papilloma virus

A pair of oncologists in the Program in Women's Oncology at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island recently co-authored a pocket-sized guide to the human papilloma virus (HPV) so physicians can make more accurate diagnosis and plan more effective treatment for women with the virus.

26 Jul 2011

Fragile X syndrome study to reveal more

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability in the world. Medical experts, including the Mater Hospital's Dr Helen Heussler, are today launching a new push to uncover the secrets of a disorder that affects a child born in Australia every week. Fragile X is passed from parent carriers who often exhibit very few symptoms. Estimates suggest more than 100,000 Australians either carry the gene mutation that causes Fragile X or have the syndrome, yet the vast majority have not been diagnosed, according to the Fragile X Association of Australia.

25 Jul 2011

China's new leadership should end one-child policy

"Chinese officials are fiercely attached to the one-child policy. They attribute to it almost every drop in fertility and every averted birth: some 400m more people, they claim, would have been born without it," an Economist editorial states, adding, "This is patent nonsense.

25 Jul 2011