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Infertility is a part of life for 1 in every 8 couples in the United States. Most people know that risk factors like age and tobacco use can make having a baby difficult, yet, there are young, tobacco-free families who struggle to get pregnant in every community. Because knowledge is critical in safeguarding your reproductive health, here are five causes of infertility you may never have heard of. 1. LEEP Procedures If you’ve ever had an abnormal Pap smear, you may have heard of LEEP (Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure). With this treatment, doctors use an electrically heated wire loop to...

When Catholic couples experience trouble getting pregnant, they often seek medical help and begin to research what options are available to them. A number of moral considerations and questions generally emerge during this process: Why are techniques like in vitro fertilization (IVF) considered immoral? What approaches will the Church allow us to try? What does our infertility mean, spiritually and personally, in the face of our fervent but frustrated desire for a baby?When a couple, after having non-contraceptive sexual intercourse for a year or more, begins to investigate whether there are issues related to infertility, some medical professionals simply...

Dr. DiCenco says the numbers in a state health department alert about STD’s and HIV among 15-24 year olds in Beaver County are “quite concerning and we, in our practice, have seen an uptick in the number of Gonorrhea and Chlamydia cases.” The state alert says the cases of Gonorrhea among 15-24 year old men and women were up 34 percent in 2017 compared to 2016. HIV was up almost threefold. “The HIV rate increasing 300 percent is very concerning,” says Dr. DiCenco. So why are the numbers among young people rising? Students on the Carnegie Mellon Campus had these...

Several months ago, I contacted the White House to recommend that the Trump administration appoint a Czar for Veterans Affairs to resolve concerns relating to Military Toxic Exposure. Nearly 900,000 Marine Corps veterans were poisoned by contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Over the past year, I have been contacted by a number of these veterans who expressed concerns about delayed access to healthcare and disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as being denied tort claim benefits from the Department of Defense. Although VA leaders have expanded online communication relating to Camp Lejeune benefits,...

Scientists in the US discovered that mice infected with Zika had shrunken testicles, low testosterone levels and low sperm counts. Although the findings have not yet been replicated in humans, experts say that the virus may also have worrying conseqences for men who become infected. Dr Michael Diamond, of the University of Washington, who co-authored the study, said: "While our study was in mice, and with the caveat that we don't yet know whether Zika has the same effect in men, it does suggest that men might face low testosterone levels and low sperm counts after Zika infection, affecting their...

Single men and women without medical issues will be classed as “infertile” if they do not have children but want to become a parent, the World Health Organisation is to announce. In a move which dramatically changes the definition of infertility, the WHO will declare that it should no longer be regarded as simply a medical condition. The authors of the new global standards said the revised definition gave every individual “the right to reproduce”.

A San Francisco judge ruled Wednesday that frozen embryos a woman wants to use over her ex-husband's objections must be “thawed and discarded.” Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo, in an 83-page decision, upheld a consent form the couple signed shortly after their marriage in 2010. The couple agreed on the form provided by the fertility clinic that the embryos should be destroyed if they divorced.

June 18, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse) -- I’m growing weary of being told that I must either support gay marriage or disavow my own marriage. I refer not to anything my wife and I did that would violate the traditional norms of marriage, but to something we had no control over: our ongoing inability to conceive a child. My wife and I, along with all other childless heterosexual couples, often find ourselves presented as exhibit A in the court of public opinion. Our plight has become a standard response to the main reason for traditional marriage, a reason that until lately was...

The latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates continued dramatic declines in teen births, but the “news” regarding the CDC report is the general acknowledgement that abstinence efforts are contributing to the decline in teen births. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) explained: “The declines in teen birth rates reflect a number of behavioral changes, including decreased sexual activity, increases in the use of contraception at first sex and at most recent sex, and the adoption and increased use of hormonal contraception, injectables, and intrauterine devices.” [Notice that abortion is not mentioned at all;...

IT IS surprising what a little hanky-panky can do. A handful of sexual encounters between humans and Neanderthals made many of us what we are today, affecting both our appearance and our vulnerability to disease. But the genetic legacy left by the Neanderthals also highlights just how different we are from our sister species. [SNIP] ... the adaptation took thousands of years to become universal. A third study published this week describes a DNA analysis of one person who lived in Stone Age Europe about 7000 years ago – 40,000 years after any Neanderthal interbreeding. His genes suggest his skin...

If one believes the backers of Washington State Initiative 522, Tuesday’s vote is simple commonsense: It’s about the “right to know” what’s in our food... “To be clear the Just Label campaign is not an anti-GMO effort,” says Gary Hirshberg, founder of organic food maker Stonyfield Organic, and head of Just Label It... But in less guarded moments, Hirshberg makes it clear that the labeling movement has nothing at all to do with science, information and discourse—it is exclusively an anti-GMO effort...

The Coca-Cola Company isn’t smiling about the latest effort to force labels on foods and beverages that contain genetically modified organisms – this time in Washington State. It’s on a long list of manufacturers that sell products using ingredients derived from either corn or soy, both of which are nearly impossible to source in the United States without using genetically modified crops. In fact, should Washington pass its ballot initiative 522 next week, good luck finding any processed foods or beverages in an Evergreen State grocery store that don’t have GMO warning labels. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo both are on a...

The left is in a frenzy over the American agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto and other agribusinesses that tinker with crop genetics. Is there any truth to their scare stories asserting that we’re being poisoned with “Frankenfood,” breeding new strains of superbugs and superpests? Genetically modified crops, known as GMOs (genetically modified organisms), have been used by American farmers since the mid-1990s in order to increase crop yields and reduce the use of pesticides. The FDA has approved their use. Today, 70-80 percent of grocery products in the U.S. include genetically engineered ingredients. In contrast, only 5 percent of the food...

Belgian doctors have developed a low-cost version of test-tube baby technology for use in developing countries, where sophisticated Western systems are unaffordable for most couples. The researchers said on Monday their simplified process cost around 200 euros ($260) per cycle of treatment and delivered results that were not much different to those seen with conventional in-vitro fertilization (IVF) program. The price is just 10 to 15 percent of the current cost of Western-style IVF and suggests infertility care could one day become universally accessible, Elke Klerkx from the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology told a medical meeting. Around 5 million...

GM foods are banned from restaurants in the Houses of Parliament despite government claims it is ‘probably safer’ than other meals. Government ministers are demanding that ordinary families should abandon their reluctance to eat genetically modified food, however they are banned from MPs’ plates. This week the food and farming secretary, Owen Paterson, launched an extraordinary propaganda campaign to encourage the nation to accept GM crops and farming. He bolstered his campaign with claims that some seven million children in the Far East could have been saved from blindness or death in the last 15 years if only people had...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "poison" as "a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed." The legal definition of the term is "any product or substance that can harm someone if it is used in the wrong way, by the wrong person, or in the wrong amount." The medical condition of poisoning is even broader: It can be caused by substances that are not even legally required to carry the label "poison." Therefore, can food become poisonous? Of course it can if it is infected, tampered with or altered...

On Memorial Day weekend, 2 million people marched in protests against seed giant Monsanto for the purpose of bringing awareness to hazards from genetically modified food, which it and other companies manufacture. Organizer Tami Canal said protests were held in 436 cities in 52 countries. Genetically modified plants are grown from genetically modified, or engineered, seeds, which are created to resist insecticides and herbicides so that crops can be grown to withstand a weed-killing pesticide or integrate a bacterial toxin that can ward off pests. The Chicago Tribune reported that because genetically modified organisms are not listed on food or...

- A strain of genetically modified wheat found in the United States fuelled concerns over food supplies across Asia on Thursday, with major importer Japan cancelling a tender offer to buy U.S. grain. Other top Asian wheat importers South Korea, China and the Philippines said they were closely monitoring the situation after the U.S. government found genetically engineered wheat sprouting on a farm in the state of Oregon. The strain was never approved for sale or consumption. Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption. However, most of the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said. Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."… The U.S. Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.

Abstract: Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and...