Day: March 8, 2009

Sex Drive Patch

Once again it is Sunday and not much new to report…..Sex is always a good subject…..It is Sexy Sunday!

Intrinsa was recently licensed in the UK for the treatment of women, who have gone through the menopause as a result of womb and ovary removal, and who are subsequently experiencing a drop in sex drive.

The condition is referred to as hypoactive sexual desire disorder or HSDD for short.

There is some evidence to suggest that a fall in sex drive after the menopause might be linked to low levels of circulating testosterone.

Intrinsa is prescribed for women with HSDD, who are receiving oestrogen replacement therapy. It delivers a daily dose of testosterone from a patch replaced twice weekly and worn continuously on the lower abdomen.

The key trials on testosterone patches have involved highly selective groups of women – excluding, for example, those with various mental or physical conditions that could affect sex drive, says DTB. And in some trials a diagnosis of HSDD was made on the basis of short, unvalidated questionnaires.

There was also a large placebo response in the studies, with significant numbers of women not treated with the patch reporting improved sex drive, which indicates that low hormone levels might not have been the problem, says DTB.

Furthermore, the improvements were small. And the fact that some of the women were already having sex twice or three times a month before they entered the trials, raises questions about whether they really had a poor sex drive in the first place.

Design-A-Kid

The fertility clinic operator who grabbed headlines with his promise to help parents create “designer babies” has backed away from the plan—for the moment.

Dr. Jeff Steinberg, director of The Fertility Institutes, earlier this year had offered parents the opportunity to select their future offspring’s hair, eye and skin color by genetically testing embryos.

After an outcry, he changed his mind. “Though well intended, we remain sensitive to public perception and feel that any benefit the diagnostic studies may offer are far outweighed by the apparent negative societal impacts involved,” according to a statement posted on the clinic’s Web site this week.

Fertility experts were quick to note that science didn’t support Steinberg’s marketing pitch. Although embryos created through assisted reproduction can be tested for some genetic defects, the science of selecting cosmetic traits based on DNA data is not even close to being well established.

“The truth is that we cannot (yet) reliably test embryos for eye color, hair color, skin tones and other ‘cosmetic’ features,” warned a statement from the Center for Human Reproduction, a fertility clinic. “It will still take years before all of this will become technically even feasible.”

Distaste for the service that Steinberg promoted was widespread. Writing on her blog The Fertility Advocate, Pamela Madsen, founder of the American Fertility Association, said:
“Some things do need to have some sacred space around it. And the creation of life and the end of life is one of those things that deserves sacred space.”

Is it just me or does this sound a lot like eugenics?

Two For The Price Of One

Sarah Reinfelder, 21, from Michigan in the U.S. gave birth to Kaylin Joy and Valerie Marie seven weeks prematurely by Caesarean section on Thursday at Marquette General Hospital in the Upper Peninsula.

She has a condition known as uterus didelphys, in which the womb develops in two parts, each with its own fallopian tube. Doctors said such twin births are rare.

Doctors said Kaylin Joy was delivered first and weighed 3 pounds, 15 ounces, while Valerie Marie weighed 4 pounds, 15 ounces. The doctors added that both the babies have not fully developed the use of their lungs yet though are otherwise healthy. They said the babies would probably be kept in hospital for up to a month and they and their mother are doing fine.

A case like Reinfelder’s is rare although there have been several other similar cases including that of a British woman, Hannah Kersey, of Northam, Devon with a double uterus who gave birth to triplets which was the first case of its kind. In 2006, Kersey gave birth to a pair of identical twins from an egg that had implanted in one womb and then split, and also to a baby from a single egg in the other womb. The chances of this kind of a birth are very rare, and have a likelihood of one in 25 million.

If you have a deviate mind this story brings up a plethora of questions.