Archive for February, 2010

Male Infertility

Fertility problems also affect men, because there is a risk that the sperm quality deteriorates with age. Years ago, their reproductive capacity reached 60 or 70 years, but now may be infertile from 25.The environment, food and lifestyle affect their fertility.

Causes of male infertility:

1. Mutation or loss of genes on chromosome Y-causing-reproduction, genetic damage that has been in the DNA and transmitted from one generation to another.
2. Poor sperm motility. The reason may be a varicocele (dilatation of the vein inside the scrotum), which affects fertility by raising the temperature of the scrotum and adversely affect sperm production. If you do not operate in time, the spermatogonia (stem cells that produce sperm) begin to be damaged and stop producing new gametes.
3. The mumps virus. Swollen testicle and causes damage to the mother cell.
4. Blockage in the seminal ducts (carry semen).
5. Hormonal deficiency.

Signs that may indicate an abnormality that results in infertility:

1. Abnormal Urethral discharge.
2. Coming of unusual characteristics.
3. Testicular or groin pain.
4. Sexual dysfunction.
5. Changes in urine.
6. Mumps, which produced inflammation of the testicles.

Male fertility problem treatments:

1. Varicocele surgery before there is obvious damage.
2. Surgery to repair blockage.
3. Hormone therapy, if the cause is hormonal.
4. Assisted Reproductive Technologies: intrauterine insemination, donor insemination, in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Preconception Health

Couples planning to have children should think first about their health status to see if they meet the optimum conditions that enable them to achieve a healthy pregnancy.

Both must take into account their medical history and current diseases, which can have an effect on future child development.

Women, for example, must take account of their weight, diet, lifestyle, immunizations and current health before conceiving. Therefore, it is important to keep a preconceptional consultation in which to resolve the concerns of the professional in such matters and, from the construction of medical history, knowing how likely is pregnancy or desirable at any given time. A healthy start before conception ensures also an optimal pregnancy.

Parenting means to prepare physically, emotionally and psychologically. However, very few couples planning the birth of their children.

What to expect in the consultation

A series of tests and assessments may determine the ideal time to conceive. These are the variables and procedures to consider:

1. Reproductive health. How are your menstrual cycles, how long and when was the last. Also, what plans, if you do. The specialist will determine if you have any sexually transmitted disease like chlamydia, syphilis, HIV or gonorrhea, or vaginal infections.
2. Required Tests: cytology, pelvic test, Pap smear or ultrasonography (in case of anomalies in the womb or ovaries).
3. Medical and obstetrical history. He asked if seeking their first pregnancy, have had abortions, premature or ectopic pregnancy or if previous deliveries were normal or ended in cesarean section. Any complication postpartum yours or the baby, it is also reviewed.
4. Also included in its register your current medical condition, to know if you have any chronic disease that can affect pregnancy, and infections or allergies, any condition or previous hospitalization must be reported. All these data are vital to ensure special care during pregnancy, so that everything goes well

Besides the above, it is necessary that the specialist know if you consume drugs, vitamins or special supplements.

Required Tests

1. Physical assessment that takes into account height, weight and blood pressure. Urine test to rule out urinary tract infection and blood test to see if there is anemia, toxoplasmosis, infections or genetic abnormalities.
2. Immunizations. If you have not been vaccinated against rubella or varicella, should be immunized now. If you have pets, you run the risk of toxoplasmosis. You should also get vaccinated against this infection.
3. Emotional state. Depression, eating disorders and stress will be analyzed.
4. Lifestyle. If you drink, smoke or use drugs must inform the specialist. This affects their fertility. Also, the way they feed and exercise.
5. Preconception genetic consultation. If you or your partner has a history of a congenital disease, or especially if you are over 35 years.
6. Visit the dentist. Periodontal disease can lead to premature delivery and low birth weight babies. It is also associated with risk of preeclampsia. Also, if during pregnancy will find any abnormalities, it is unlikely that you may have an x-ray, as it may harm the fetus.

The Atkins diet does it affect fertility?

All you need to know about this diet and its consequences.

“It’s less likely that female mice fed a high protein diet before conception produce live offspring, and scientists at the meeting expressed the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology made a few weeks ago in Berlin.

The information indicates that a high protein diet is not recommended while you are trying to conceive, “says David Gardner, Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, who led the study.

Supporters of the Atkins regime diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates with the hopes of reducing some kilos. At one point, fans of the program may be consuming a diet containing up to 25 percent protein, about 10 percent more than what people normally eat.

Gardner’s team to their mice fed diets from 22 to 14 proteins for a month, and then allowed to mate. The researchers transferred the 174 embryos resulting in the wombs of surrogate mothers in order to prove specifically how it affects the maternal diet before conception to the health of the embryo.

Only 65 percent of the embryos in the group fed a high protein diet was developed in fetuses compared with 81 percent in the group fed a standard protein.

It also proved more likely to animal embryos conceived by “high protein” were aborted spontaneously later in pregnancy: 16 percent of fetuses “high protein” were aborted, compared with only 1 percent of the group with a standard diet.

“Rodents and humans are very different,” says Catherine Collins, spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, therefore, is difficult to extrapolate from mouse to man. But it is possible that high protein diets have long-term effects on fertility, says Collins.

Opponents of the Atkins diet ensure that the nutritional program may cause metabolic problems, mood disorders and gout. Gardner believes that high protein diets may affect fertility by altering the genetic profile of the developing embryo.

While protein is broken down, increasing levels of ammonia. Females with high protein diets have three times more ammonium in their reproductive tracts than animals on normal diets. In turn, this could affect genetic imprinting, the process by which cells activate and deactivate specific copies of genes from parents.

As expected, more than 60 percent of the embryos of mothers “high protein” show imprinting defects compared with 30 percent of the embryos of the group of mothers with a standard diet. A growth-related gene, called H19, was adversely affected. This could explain the poor growth of the embryos, says Gardner.