MetaFilter posts tagged with fertility

The Singaporean Fairytale: You can have it all, if you choose to.

divabat — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:07:37 -0800

The Singaporean Fairytale is another contribution to the efforts to get Singaporeans to procreate (previously), made by undergraduate students, using reworked fairytales as a vehicle for sex and fertility ed. A lot of the content, however, is suspect: from claiming that sex will always make you feel better (especially if you're a woman) to a woman's worth being only based by their reproductive capacity.

The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs

homunculus — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:00:22 -0800

The World’s Oldest Pornography. The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs in the Tien Shan Mountains: A Fertility Ritual Tableau.

The American Fertility Crisis

bookman117 — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:37:25 -0800

Education, Income, and Fertility in America, and What They Mean for the Future of the Country "Since the average American woman has 2.1 children, you might think we aren't experiencing a national fertility crisis. Unlike some European countries whose futures are threatened by low birth rates, Americans, on average, produce just the right number of future workers, soldiers, and taxpayers to keep our society humming... Two new studies bring the contrasting reproductive profiles of rich and poor women into sharp relief. One, from the Guttmacher Institute, shows that the rates of unplanned pregnancies and births among poor women now dwarf the fertility rates of wealthier women, and finds that the gap between the two groups has widened significantly over the past five years. The other, by the Center for Work-Life Policy, documents rates of childlessness among corporate professional women that are higher than the childlessness rates of some European countries experiencing fertility crises."

"I am lying awake in bed, trying to decide whether or not to have an abortion."

Kitty Stardust — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:54:13 -0800

"The only thing that makes my abortion decision different from anyone else’s abortion decision is that some people who are against abortion will think that my abortion is acceptable." Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker on what she's dubbed "The World's Shittiest Secret Society."

Stag Party

Artw — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:01:53 -0800

The GOP’s woman problem is that it has a serious problem with women. Frank Rich on George Stephanopoulos's unanswered question, how the Republicans have shifted to being the party of misogyny since the 70s, and why Mitt Romney would be just as bad as Rick Santorum.

Things I have learnt from and about IVF

escabeche — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:02:59 -0800

Things I have learnt from and about IVF. (apologies for linking to two long Crooked Timber posts in a week, but they're kind of on fire over there.)

Sarah and the Seed

heatherann — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:31:41 -0800

Sarah and the Seed - a 5-part comic about hope and babies by Ryan A.

Billy Donovan's Secret Sorrow

reenum — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:53:19 -0800

Three basketball coaches share the experience of a single type of tragedy.

Machisma

the young rope-rider — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:46:53 -0800

Machisma: How a mix of female empowerment and steamy soap operas helped bring down Brazil’s fertility rate and stoke its vibrant economy.

The Growing American Fertility Divide

modernnomad — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:04:52 -0800

Knocked Up & Knocked Down Why America's Widening Fertility Class Divide is a Problem You hear about the "haves" versus the "have-nots," but not so much about the "have-one-or-nones" versus the "have-a-fews." This, though, is how you might characterize the stark and growing fertility class divide in the United States. Two new studies bring the contrasting reproductive profiles of rich and poor women into sharp relief. One, from the Guttmacher Institute, shows that the rates of unplanned pregnancies and births among poor women now dwarf the fertility rates of wealthier women, and finds that the gap between the two groups has widened significantly over the past five years. The other, by the Center for Work-Life Policy, documents rates of childlessness among corporate professional women that are higher than the childlessness rates of some European countries experiencing fertility crises.

The Ethics of Selective Reduction

zarq — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:03:18 -0800

The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy. (SLNYT article on selective reduction)

"For all its successes, reproductive medicine has produced a paradox: in creating life where none seemed possible, doctors often generate more fetuses than they intend. In the mid-1980s, they devised an escape hatch to deal with these megapregnancies, terminating all but two or three fetuses to lower the risks to women and the babies they took home. But what began as an intervention for extreme medical circumstances has quietly become an option for women carrying twins. With that, pregnancy reduction shifted from a medical decision to an ethical dilemma. As science allows us to intervene more than ever at the beginning and the end of life, it outruns our ability to reach a new moral equilibrium. We still have to work out just how far we’re willing to go to construct the lives we want."

Single page version An additional article from the Washington Post, 2007: Too Much to Carry?

Reproductive technology and the child's right to know

Salamandrous — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:36:00 -0800

The Supreme Court of British Columbia decided that the BC Adoption Act is unconstitutional "because it treats adopted children differently from children of sperm donors. Adopted children are provided information about their biological parents, whereas the children of donors are not." The decision (full text) is still subject to appeal, but Canada would not be the first country to prohibit anonymous gamete donation, usually by mandating a child's right to seek information about their biological parent once they turn 18. The appeal is expected to focus on the privacy rights of donors. Alana S., the donor-conceived woman featured in Newsweek's coverage of the issue, started the website AnonymousUs to collect the stories of donors, donees, children of donors, and adoptees. Especially when it comes to assisted fertility technologies, the idea that children suffer because of not knowing their biological origins, or that knowledge of those origins is or ought to be a human right, often comes out of conservative leaning groups and individuals. For example: as the Commission on the Future of Parenthood, whose study, funded by the Center for Children and Families at the Institute for American Values, found that "children conceived by sperm donation are more likely to suffer from isolation and depression, and are roughly twice as likely as biological children to struggle with substance abuse; and Margaret Somerville, a Australian-Canadian legal scholar and ethicist who has used that right to argue against the legalization of gay marriage. In contrast, openness in adoption (among other reforms) is often supported from a feminist framework, with regards to both the rights of a biological mother and the best interests of the child.

'These children don’t recognize the flags of their home countries, but they can all sing "Jesus Loves Me."'

zarq — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:08:21 -0800

The Evangelical Adoption Crusade "The adoption industry is on a steep decline after years of ethical problems and tightening regulations around the world." In the last two years evangelical advocacy for adoption has skyrocketed. Why? In Reclaiming Adoption, [Dan] Cruver bluntly declares, "The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel.”

An Artificial Ovary

zarq — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:48:12 -0800

Using a 3-D petri dish, Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island have built a completely functional artificial human ovary that will allow doctors to harvest immature human egg cells (oocytes) and grow them into mature, ready-to-be-fertilized human eggs outside the body. (In vitro) The advance could eventually help preserve fertility for women facing chemotherapy or other medical treatments that may be destructive to ovarian folliculogenesis. Press Release. Article link. (paywall) "The Brown researchers' innovation was using a honeycomb-shaped mold to support the egg. Human eggs are too large to be grown without some kind of support structure. "If you try to grow it by itself, in a dish, it basically collapses on itself," says [Stephan] Krotz, now a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at the Advanced Fertility Center of Texas."
In other, somewhat related news, researchers in Cairo announced that they've been able to restore ovarian function to rats using embryonic rat mesenchymal stem cells.

Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)

cjorgensen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:25:14 -0800

If plastics, or pesticides, or antidespressants have got you down, you can still make art with it, drink it or cook with it. It's been a strange week for semen. Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food. I'm dedicating this post to Astro Zombie.

Honey, where's the remote?

tarheelcoxn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:33:43 -0800

Remote control birth control. The device, an implant for men that is billed as an alternative to a vasectomy, is still in testing. That's not the only idea for new male contraceptives, though. As a 20-something male, I can say with confidence that my favorite method so far is the application of an external heat source. This blog is my new favorite.

Birthrate Ballyhoo

amyms — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:42:17 -0800

Baby Bust! After 200 years of exponential population growth, and just four decades after overpopulation doomsaying began filling the bestseller lists, the First World is suddenly gripped with underpopulation hysteria. The governments of the developed world have always maintained an interest in birthrates and procreation, but the reasons why are changing, and the ensuing demographic debates about gender, race and culture are "ideologically fraught and scientifically questionable."

A Thin Blue Line

Rumple — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:19:07 -0800

The history of the home pregnancy test kit. via the NIH History Office

The Ethics of Infertility

lalex — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:44:13 -0800

The ethics of infertility: After taking fertility drug Clomid, Ryan and Brianna Morrison conceived sextuplets. Their religious beliefs steered them away from undergoing a selective reduction procedure in favor of bringing all six fetuses to term. Four of their newborns have died; the remaining two are in critical condition. This mother of multiples says that while she's grateful that insurance and Medicaid covered her million-dollar hospital bill, her "quest to have a family resulted in a significant drain on society's resources."

Beltane Fire Festival

homunculus — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:15:42 -0800

The Beltane Fire Society Fire Festival. Happy Beltane! [Some links NSFW.]

The Return of Patriarchy by Phillip Longman

jason's_planet — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:10:53 -0800

“With the number of human beings having increased more than six-fold in the past 200 years, the modern mind simply assumes that men and women . . . will always breed enough children to grow the population . . . Yet, for more than a generation now, well-fed, healthy, peaceful populations around the world have been producing too few children to avoid population decline. . . . Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy.”

Sperm Precursor Cells Created From Stem Cells

jason's_planet — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 08:55:15 -0800

Scientists say they have successfully made immature sperm cells from human bone marrow samples.

Happy National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy! The Human Race is Dying Out.

ND¢ — Wed, 03 May 2006 08:52:07 -0800

Today is the National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In the past decade, possibly no social program has been as dramatically effective as the effort to reduce teen pregnancy. Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. teen pregnancy rate plummeted by 28 percent. This is great, except for the fact that this may be in part due to a decrease in male sperm count that will cause the human race to soon become extinct. It is also somehow related to the extinction of the taint. Previously.

Happy St. Brigid's | Candlemas | Imbolc | Groundhog Day

msjen — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 14:24:06 -0800

Celebrate the most underappreciated holiday of the year! February 1st is St. Brigid's Day or Imbolc or Candlemas. St. Brigid of Ireland, the woman who some make a good case that she should be the Patron Saint of Ireland before Patrick. Others say she was the pre-Christian fertility or fire goddess of the Celts and that the Catholic Church co-opted her day as they did with many pagan pre-Christian holidays. Whether one celebrates Candlemas as a Catholic holy day or as a one of the Pagan cross-quarter days, it is also the Festival of Lights. Regardless, I have loved February 1st and 2nd since college as Groundhog Day is the most whimsical holiday of the year, thankfully it does not have a 2 month retail buying season building up to it. Tomorrow, I shall take a photo to Puxsutawney Phil to St. Brigid's Well in Kildare to celebrate properly.

What's your genetic fitness, eh?

jfuller — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 10:04:27 -0800

Breeders are winning. "Conservative, religiously minded Americans are putting far more of their genes into the future than their liberal, secular counterparts." (WaPo link, bugmenot says try fedup@mailinator.com and fedup if you don't care to register. Definition of genetic fitness here.)