This is the first time I was made to feel like Jews

As a Christian, I occasionally remind my Jewish friends that I owe my faith to them. Indian tradition maintains that a few years after Christ's death, one of his apostles, Thomas (‘the Doubter’), sailed to Kerala to share the Good News with his co-religionists. Jews have lived in India for thousands of years, perhaps arriving on a mission from the court of King Solomon to trade in ‘elephant's tooth, peacocks and apes’. The Jews of Cochin are said to have been less than receptive to Thomas’s message, though he did make many other converts.

India’s ancient Jewish history, evidence of the country’s tolerance for people of all faiths, has long been a source of pride for us. But an even greater cause for satisfaction has been the fact that Indian Jews have never faced persecution. Indian Jews have flourished, and nowhere is that more evident than in Mumbai. Some of the city’s best-known landmarks, including Flora Fountain, have been built with donations from Jewish philanthropists who grew prosperous on trade and manufacturing. Most notable among them were the Sassoons, a family from Iraq. Their name is etched in plaques in at least four schools, a magnificent library, a dockyard and at least two of the city’s nine synagogues.

A more chilling reminder of the city’s role as a sanctuary for Jews is to be found on another set of marble tablets in a cemetery in Chinchpokli in Central Mumbai. One wall bears memorials to people who died in faraway concentration camps such as Auschwitz. It was donated by friends and relatives who found refuge here. Many of these exiles had arrived in India because of the intervention of Jawaharlal Nehru. “Few people can withhold their deep sympathy from the Jews for the long centuries of most terrible oppression to which they have been subjected all over Europe,” Nehru wrote, as he lobbied the British government to allow Eastern European Jews into India. “Fewer still can repress their indignation at the barbarities and racial suppression of Jews which the Nazis have indulged in during the last few years.”

Many of the exiles soon became an important part of Mumbai society, serving as catalysts for the modern Indian art scene. Rudolf von Leyden, Walter Langhammer, and Emanuel Schlesinger had brought with them full-colour reproductions of European masters and a world of ideas and discussion. They proved vital in helping the Mumbai artists discover a new way of seeing. These ideas found expression on canvas when painters such as M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, and K.H. Ara founded the Progressive Artists Movement in 1947, bound together by the desire to find a new way to depict the stories of their newly independent nation.


Despite the significance of the contributions of the Baghdadis or the European exiles, the Jewish community that has left the deepest impression on the city are the Bene Israelis, who believe their ancestors were shipwrecked just south of Mumbai in 175 B.C.E. Centuries later, many of them migrated to Mumbai, where they built a synagogue in 1796.

Perhaps the best-known member of the community was Nissim Ezekiel, one of the pioneers of Indian poetry in English. My favorite of his poems is ‘Island,’ a tribute to my home city. The first stanza says, “Unsuitable for song as well as sense/ the island flowers into slums/ and skyscrapers, reflecting/ precisely the growth of my mind./ I am here to find my way in it.”

Though thousands of Indian Jews have emigrated to Israel over the years, many of those who stayed behind have an ambiguous relationship with the country that offers them the Right of Return. Among them is my friend Robin David, the author of City of Fear, a gem of a memoir that describes the horrors he witnessed as a reporter during the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. He also explains his frustration with Israel, a country to which he has attempted to emigrate three times, only to return. “I realised that the Promised Land was not my country,” he writes. “Even the strong fragrance of spices, wafting in from the Arab market through the yellowing Jerusalem sandstone, did not help. Just like Teen Darwaza [in Ahmedabad], but not quite home."

There’s another aspect to the relationship that goes unnoticed by most Indians. Each year, an estimated 20,000 Israelis take their vacations in India after finishing their three-year compulsory military service stints. Their 15,000-shekel bonuses go much further in India and, as one Israeli told me recently, “It’s nice to be in a place where you don't always have to watch your back.” The beaches of Goa and the slopes of Kulu and Manali rank high on the visitors’ itineraries. The massive numbers of Israelis in the subcontinent prompted the Brooklyn-based Lubavitcher sect to open its first Indian mission centre — known around the world as Chabad Houses — in Pune in 2000.

Two years ago, I travelled to Pune to interview Rabbi Betzalel Kupchick, who ran the centre. By offering his hundreds of Jewish visitors a year free meals and the chance to chat in Hebrew, Rabbi Kupchick believed he was opening an opportunity for dialogue. “There are many ways that God brings people to Him,” he told me patiently. “Here, without the pressure of family and society, Israelis are more open-minded. Often, this is their first exposure to spiritual things. When they're come to India, they’re searching.”

Mumbai’s Jewish community doesn’t have much to do with the Israeli visitors. The ultra-orthodox leanings of the Lubavitchers have been regarded with some suspicion by liberal Indian Jews. That divide disappeared on Wednesday night. When I spoke to Robin David on the phone on Friday, he was still trying to make sense of it all. “The Indian Jewish identity is the only one that hasn’t been created by persecution,” he said. “We’ve never felt scared. This is the first time we’ve been made to feel like Jews.”

That, to me, has been among the most tragic casualties of this terrorist attack. In a barrage of grenades and bullets, a part of the Indian dream that’s 2,500 years old has now been buried in a pile of bloody concrete shards.

By Naresh Fernandes
Editor of Time Out Mumbai

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Fly Catcher

Shame on Us!

Vote out this incompetent weak, government and speak out against these impotent corrupt politicians!
Vote for zero tolerance against Pakistan and any other hostile neighbour.
Stop this drama of Indo-Pak friendship tours/talks.. anything...boycott everything Pakistani....hurt their economy so their bankrupt government does not sponsor ISI/terrorism.
Look at Israel... 4 million citizens with 40 million hostile neighbours but no one dares pick up a fight with them..
Don't believe anything politicians say from across the border.
Start with convincing our pseudo-wanna-be-politicos like Mahesh Bhatt & co to stop all these pseudo-friendship tours to hostile neighbouring countries... their states kill and maim us repeatedly and we go wagging our domesticated tails to get patted on our backs by these masters of ISI...
And please stop lighting candles at the Gateway of India. We have been doing this after every terrorist attack on Mumbai.
If Javed Jaffrey is not happy staying in India, he should be free to go settle in Pakistan.
Shame on us!

Wildebeest Migration In The Age of Cellular Telephony

Post-natal Depression Misdiagnosis

Joanne Morgan was initially diagnosed with post-natal depression following the birth of her first child Thomas. But tests later revealed she had a rare pituitary gland disorder called Cushing’s disease.
I tucked my baby Thomas into his cot and dabbed my eyes – maybe I was being weak, but I’d been feeling so bad lately that I could hardly cope.
“I had no strength in my legs, no energy to carry my baby upstairs or to even bend down for anything.
“By 11am I was ready to go back to sleep, I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”
Joanne Morgan had started to feel exhausted halfway through her pregnancy with Thomas. Her blood pressure had risen and she was advised by doctors to rest.
In her 20th week she was told that she may have pre-eclampsia.
She said: “I was a first-time mum – it was no beautiful experience, but I was sure that I’d pick up after the birth.
“But after Thomas was born I wasn’t feeling any better – worse if anything. I felt totally washed out.
“Some days I was so tired that I’d fall into a deep sleep, not even waking when Thomas cried.
“And there were some odd changes in me too. I had acquired a lot of facial hair and a ‘buffalo hump’ at the top of my spine. I’d shot up from a size 12 to 20.
“The weight had settled around my middle, face and shoulders. I looked flushed and had big red stretch marks. I felt a mess.”
After seeing her GP, who took blood tests, Joanne, who lived in Llandrindod Wells, was told that she was probably suffering from post-natal depression and was given a prescription for the anti-depressant Prozac.
“I wasn’t convinced, but I had been feeling very down for quite a while,” Joanne, now 39, said.
“I didn’t know what was wrong with me.
“I couldn’t cope with Thomas and I felt that my life was falling apart.”
The turning point for Joanne came when her mother suggested she speak to her former employer Kate who worked as a doctor in London – Joanne had previously worked as a nanny for her family.
She was referred to see a private gynaecologist who asked whether she had pronounced stretch marks and said he was certain Joanne had Cushing’s disease, which is caused by a tumour on the pituitary gland.
The disease can cause increased weight gain, heavy stretch marks, fatigue, anxiety and depression. In people with Cushing’s disease, the pituitary gland, which is situated at the base of the brain, produces excessive and often dangerous amounts of the hormone cortisol, which regulates metabolism.
The pituitary gland is about the size of a pea and is situated behind the nose.
Joanne, who now has a daughter Cerys after undergoing IVF treatment, said: “I was so relieved that someone believed I was ill, I wasn’t upset about the illness.
“Tests found 10 times the normal amount of cortisol in my system. If the condition had been left unchecked. I could have had a stroke or a heart attack.”
Joanne was later admitted to the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, for further tests to determine whether the excess cortisol was being caused by a tumour on the pituitary gland. They revealed a non-cancerous tumour and decided to operate.
The mother-of-two, who now lives near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, was in theatre for three hours and was kept in hospital for three weeks. Despite feeling “very poorly” for the first week after surgery, her flushed face began to calm down and steadily she recovered.
“Three months later I was feeling far more lively. I went back to work part-time and I could at least give Thomas the attention he needed.
“Part of my pituitary gland had been cut away so I then had to take replacement hormones.
“If only someone had recognised the symptoms earlier before my self-confidence took such a battering.”
Pituitary gland The pituitary gland is in the bony hollow beneath the brain and behind the bridge of the nose.
The pea-sized gland is also known as the master gland as it controls all the body’s hormones.
The world’s tallest man, Ukrainian vet Leonid Stadnik who is 2.57m tall, reportedly started growing at the age of 14, after undergoing brain surgery, which stimulated his pituitary gland.
But most pituitary disorders are caused by a benign tumour on the gland and can cause a vast range of symptoms, including infertility, raging thirst, growth of hands, feet and facial bones, abnormal weight gain and even fragile skin and visual problems.
But because pituitary disorders are relatively rare and many of their symptoms are non-specific, such as constant headaches and weight gain, diagnosis can be slow and many patients can find themselves isolated and distressed as their quality of life diminishes.
Once diagnosed, treatment often involves surgery and radiotherapy and patients may have to take hormone replacement drugs for the rest of their lives.
The Pituitary Foundation has found that the hormonal changes can also cause psychological and psychiatric problems.
And because many patients know no one else with the same problem, it can be traumatic to cope with.

Shrinking Economy Puts Baby on Hold

The Last Four U.S. Recessions Have Been Followed by Declines in the Country's Fertility Rate. Maternity wards may get a bit quieter in about nine months.

That's because recessions and babies apparently don't mix. It's been true for the last four recessions, and experts are predicting a similar downturn now. There's plenty of bad economic news out there: the crisis on Wall Street, record foreclosures, high prices for gas and food. A recent study by the American Psychological Association showed that 80% of Americans are stressed about the economy.

At times like this, demographers say, Americans postpone starting a family and think twice about adding a baby to a family that is already struggling.

Tony Marks, a mortgage broker in Florida, and his wife, a schoolteacher, have been married for just over two years. "We honestly thought we'd have kids by now, but have put it on hold because of financial issues," says Marks, who is 31.

His industry has been hit hard, and the couple have lost a lot in their retirement accounts because of the stock market slide. Also, they are helping his wife's sister, who is struggling to pay her mortgage and can't sell her home because she owes more than it is worth.

"The economy has definitely affected our plans for starting a family," he says.

It's no surprise couples may be thinking twice: The annual cost of raising a child is between $10,930 and $12,030, according to the most recent estimates from the United States Department of Agriculture. These estimates are for a child living in a middle-income family with two kids and two adults.

In current times, many couples also must evaluate the cost of fertility treatments. In vitro fertilization costs on average more than $12,000.

Although some doctors say they haven't yet seen a change in patient load, demographers stress that the results won't be apparent for a while -- pregnancy after all lasts on average 38 weeks. Couples report that money concerns are an increasingly big part of family planning discussions.

Although a number of factors, including demographic and social trends, contribute to the fertility rate (the number of babies born per year per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44), the economy also appears to affect the numbers.

The last four recessions in the United States have been followed by a dip in the fertility rate, according to economic data from the National Bureau of Economic Research and fertility data from the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the CDC.

In the early 1970s, a recession lasted from November 1973 until March 1975. The fertility rate, 68.8 in 1973, fell for the next three years, bottoming out at 65 in 1976, the year after the recession ended. It climbed again the next year.
The early '80s brought more tough times. The economy was officially in a recession from January 1980 to July 1980 and again from July 1981 until November 1982. The fertility rate was 68.4 in 1980 and fell for the next four years to 65.5 in 1984. It increased again in 1985.

In July 1990, the country fell into a recession that lasted until March 1991. The fertility rate, which had been climbing throughout the late '80s, hit 70.9 in 1990, the highest rate in nearly two decades. However, the next year, following the recession, it started falling again and declined to 63.6 in 1997. After the dot-com bust, the country was in a recession from March 2001 until November 2001. Again, fertility rates dipped the next year, falling from 65.3 in 2001 to 64.8 in 2002.
Recession and Babies: The Current Economic Crisis

The NCHS data cannot provide any insight into the current economy's effect on the fertility rate. In addition to the length of pregnancy, it takes a while for the NCHS to compile data. The most recent birth rate information available is from 2005.

But using history as a lesson, Carl Haub, demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, says he expects to see a slight drop in the fertility rate in the United States. If the economy gets worse -- and people become as scared as they were in the mid-'70s amid the oil crisis -- the drop may be more dramatic, he says.

The shifts typically are not sudden -- in either direction. "There is a certain amount of lag time," Haub says. "When the economy improves, it is not like people rush out and say, 'Let's have a baby.'"

Khalil Tabsh, chief of obstetrics at UCLA, says he expects to see fewer families having third and fourth children, especially among the middle class. "If you have two kids and you aren't sure if you are going to lose your job, you are going to think twice about having another baby," he says. He has not yet seen a decrease in his patient load.

Hilton Kort, a fertility doctor and the founder of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, also says he has not seen a shift so far. Since he began practicing in vitro fertilization in 1983, he has not seen his business fluctuate with economy.

After Sept. 11, he even saw an increase as people worried less about material things and more "about what is really important, and that's having a family," he says.

In good and bad times, most of his patients are concerned about finances because many insurance companies do not cover fertility treatments. His firm puts patients in touch with companies that offer low-interest loans, and so far, those companies have not tightened requirements for credit.

The only economic impact he's seen so far? More patients are saying they'd like to have twins, a relatively common result of fertility treatments. Though he and other doctors have worked to reduce multiple births because of potential pregnancy complications, some couples want twins because they can only afford to complete the process once and they want two children, Kort says.

Jennifer Gniadecki, 33, and her husband also reconsidered their plans. Already the parents of two young girls, the couple wanted to try for a boy. Gniadecki, who does freelance writing for companies including Wal-Mart, is busy with work now but never knows how much she will have a few months down the road. If the economy gets worse, she fears she might lose her income.

Her husband works in online advertising, "but we can't trust he will keep that full-time job if there is a recession," she says.

The Chicago-area couple ultimately decided to cut back on spending but still try to conceive another baby. "It is knowing what's important," she says.

With a laugh, she adds: "The more children we have, the more likely it is that one of them will take care of us when we're old."

Couple Celebrate Their Miracle Baby

A mother has become the first in Britain to have a successful pregnancy after receiving a double organ transplant.

Emma Smith, 37, from Little Wymondley gave birth to healthy 6lb baby Oliver at the end of last month despite having a donor pancreas and kidney.

It is extremely rare because anti-rejection drugs, which must be taken for life, can cause infertility or complications during pregnancy.

Ms Smith, who lives with her boyfriend Steve, said: "After my transplants I did wonder if I would ever be able to have kids. When I found out it was a complete surprise. The suppressants lower fertility and it is very rare to get pregnant and to go on to have a birth without complications.

"They didn't have any data about being pregnant on the drugs I was on, but they didn't want to take the risk of changing them and damaging my organs so they kept me on the same drugs and monitored me very carefully.

"I'm thinking of having another baby now. This one has gone so well, I'm quite reassured about it.

"I hope it shows other people who have had a transplant that they can have children - if it gives them hope then that's great."

Emma was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 11 and had to have daily injections of insulin. Because of the disease her organs deteriorated until it was necessary to have the transplants five years ago.

She gave birth at St Mary's Hospital, London, under the care of leading surgeon Professor Nadey Hakim.

Prof Hakim said: "It's special because the fact of having had a transplant you need to be on anti-rejection therapy. Any medication could be detrimental to the foetus and these are very potent drugs.

"With this little small baby we had to be very careful to have just enough medication on board so the baby doesn't get damaged.

"It should encourage patients who've had transplants to have a normal life - people will not say 'I've had a transplant I can't get pregnant'.

2 Brothers from Sperm Donor traced

They were born 1,000 miles apart, in Britain and Finland. Now two four-year-old boys have discovered they share a sperm-donor father.

When Sally, 43, gave birth to her son Alex, she knew only that his father was Danish and was a good footballer with blue eyes and a talent for jazz piano.

He was identified by the alias “Jens” and by his sperm sample number, 3001, from the Cryos clinic in Denmark.
Alex has become the first British child to be put in touch with a half-brother or half- sister by a US-based website, the Donor Sibling Registry.

After posting details on the site, Sally was contacted by Riikka Turunen, a graphic designer from Helsinki, Finland. Turunen had used sperm from the same donor to conceive her baby boy, Kasper, who was born in August 2004, just six weeks after Alex.

The mothers now regularly chat by email and swap photographs of the boys, and they are planning to meet.
The case raises questions in Britain about whether children should have the right from birth to know they have been conceived with donor eggs or sperm and to be told the identity of their genetic parents. Children born since April 1, 2005, are entitled to be told the identities of their genetic parents when they reach the age of 18, although without the consent of those bringing them up, it is hard to insist on. The rule also applies to foreign sperm used in British clinics.

Alex was born in Warwick before the law came into force, and recipients of donated sperm such as Sally have no right to know who the donor is.

Sally, a marketing manager who does not wish to disclose her surname, set out to trace her son’s brothers and sisters through the Donor Sibling Registry website because she wanted Alex to know more about his genetic background. Fourteen British children conceived via donors have so far contacted each other through the registry and 111 British families are using it to look for relations.

Sally, who has dual British and Australian nationality and has moved to Melbourne, said: “Out of the blue, I got an email from this person in Finland saying ‘I have just noticed your information on the website. Are
you absolutely sure your donor was number 3001 from Cryos because we have a son born from the same donor?’”

Sally underwent IVF treatment, using donated sperm, at the private Midland Fertility Services clinic at the age of 38. Gillian Lockwood, medical director of the Midland clinic, believes the rules in Britain should change so children can be told the identity of their donor parent before they are 18.

Although Sally was living in Britain, she bought the sperm through the US office of the Danish sperm bank, because more details of the donor could be disclosed in America. “If my son became a good pianist, I could
say: ‘You don’t get that from me; you get that from your donor father.’ I wanted to be forearmed,” she said.

Sally has examined photos of her son’s half-brother for traits inherited from their father. “I think there are similarities in the mouth and chin,” she said. She insists it will be up to the boys how much contact they have with their half-brothers. “Alex is interested in football and I told him his donor father was good at it,” she said. sunday times, london

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Retirement or Bust?

Baby after whole ovary transplant

A 39-year old woman has become the first to give birth following a whole ovary transplant. Susanne Butscher received an intact ovary from her fertile twin sister last year, during a landmark operation carried out by Dr Sherman Silber of the Infertility Centre of St Louis, Missouri US. Mrs Butscher became infertile after her ovaries failed at the age of 15. To date, eight
women have given birth subsequent to receiving small sections of ovarian tissue. Yet this - the ninth case - has been lauded as a pioneering achievement in infertility treatment.
The birth of baby Maja last week should be celebrated, according to Dr Silber, during what he has labelled an 'infertility epidemic' that in the UK alone is affecting upwards of 100,000 women. Although a complicated procedure (the operation involves the reattachment of arteries one third of a millimetre in diameter), the transplant renews the ability to conceive
naturally. It also restores hormone levels to those necessary for driving the menstrual cycle. Such hormones, like oestrogen and progesterone, also protect against osteoporosis.
Nonetheless, the majority of women affected by an early menopause are unlikely to have a fertile twin sister capable of donating an ovary. This would be necessary in order to avoid donor-rejection of foreign tissue, and to circumvent the need for immuno-suppressive drugs. But Dr Silber claims that, from a social perspective, it will be an attractive option for women
wishing to extend fertility into their forties and fifties, perhaps to favour a career. However the British Fertility Society (BFS) is opposed to what it calls an 'unethical application' of the operation, suggesting current methods, like egg storage, are less problematic. Laurence Shaw, consultant in reproductive medicine at the London Bridge Fertility Centre, London, and spokesperson for the BFS, said: 'I would have thought that the long-term freeze-storing of an ovary would cause as much harm as the deterioration due to age itself'.
The BFS instead endorses a more practical application of the operation. Women that face invasive cancer therapies like radiotherapy and chemotherapy (both of which reduce fertility) could have an ovary frozen pending an improvement in their condition. In such cases, ovary storage could be more suitable than egg extraction, as egg follicles must first be matured through a lengthy hormone treatment, causing unwanted delays to chemotherapy.

The First Male Pregnancy

A Blog Posted by Singapore 's Youngest Millionaire

Some of you may already know that I travel around the region pretty frequently, having to visit and conduct seminars at my offices in Malaysia,Indonesia, Thailand and Suzhou (China). I am in the airport almost every other week so I get to bump into many people who have attended my seminars or have read my books.

Recently, someone came up to me on a plane to KL and looked rather shocked. He asked, 'How come a millionaire like you is travelling economy?' My reply was, 'That's why I am a millionaire.' He still looked pretty confused. This again confirms that greatest lie ever told about wealth (which I wrote about in my latest book 'Secrets of Self Made Millionaires'). Many people have been brainwashed to think that millionaires have to wear Gucci, Hugo Boss, Rolex, and sit on first class in air travel. This is why so many people never become rich because the moment that earn more money, they think that it is only natural that they spend more, putting them back to square one.

The truth is that most self-made millionaires are frugal and only spend on what is necessary and of value. That is why they are able to accumulate and multiply their wealth so much faster. Over the last 7 years, I have saved about 80% of my income while today I save only about 60% (because I have my wife, mother in law, 2 maids, 2 kids, etc. to support). Still, it is way above most people who save 10% of their income (if they are lucky). I refuse to buy a first class ticket or to buy a $300 shirt because I think that it is a complete waste of money. However, I happily pay $1,300 to send my 2-year old daughter to Julia Gabriel Speech and Drama without thinking twice.

When I joined the YEO (Young Entrepreneur's Organization) a few years back (YEO is an exclusive club open to those who are under 40 and make over $1m a year in their own business) I discovered that those who were self-made thought like me. Many of them with net worths well over $5m, travelledeconomy class and some even drove Toyota's and Nissans (not Audis, Mercs, BMWs).

I noticed that it was only those who never had to work hard to build their own wealth (there were also a few ministers' and tycoons' sons in the club) who spent like there was no tomorrow. Somehow, when you did not have to build everything from scratch, you do not really value money. This is precisely the reason why a family's wealth (no matter how much) rarely lasts past the third generation. Thank God my rich dad (oh no! I sound like Kiyosaki) foresaw this terrible possibility and refused to give me a cent to start my business.

Then some people ask me, 'What is the point in making so much money if you don't enjoy it?' The thing is that I don't really find happiness in buying branded clothes, jewellery or sitting first class. Even if buying something makes me happy it is only for a while, it does not last. Material happiness never lasts, it just give you a quick fix. After a while you feel lousy again and have to buy the next thing which you think will make you happy. I always think that if you need material things to make you happy, then you live a pretty sad and unfulfilled life.

Instead, what make ME happy is when I see my children laughing and playing and learning so fast. What makes me happy is when I see by companies and trainers reaching more and more people every year in so many more countries. What makes me really happy is when I read all the emails about how my books and seminars have touched and inspired someone's life. What makes me really happy is reading all your wonderful posts about how this BLOG is inspiring you. This happiness makes me feel really good for a long time, much much more than what a Rolex would do for me.

I think the point I want to put across is that happiness must come from doing your life's work (be in teaching, building homes, designing, trading, winning tournaments etc.) and the money that comes is only a by-product. If you hate what you are doing and rely on the money you earn to make you happy by buying stuff, then I think that you are living a life that is meaningless.

Credit Crunch May Make Couples Delay Trying To Start A Family, Which May Lead To More Fertility Problems

Leading UK fertility expert Professor Brian Lieberman has warned of an increased risk of fertility problems as more couples delay starting a family due to the credit crunch.

With the cost of food, petrol and household bills rising at an alarming rate, IVF specialist Professor Lieberman says the added financial burden of having a baby may prove too much for potential parents. He is concerned that the credit squeeze will lead many couples to postpone starting a family - either naturally or with the help of IVF - well into their late thirties and early forties.

The cost of raising a child is now estimated at more than £100,000 over 21 years.* Would-be-parents have named money worries and the need to remain in the job market as the main reasons for putting off trying for a baby.

Professor Lieberman - credited with the establishment of the UK's first NHS IVF centre and founder of Manchester Fertility Services - predicts a sharp rise in the number of older women requiring IVF treatment after choosing to wait until they're financially secure before trying to conceive. Couples are being faced with the dilemma of bearing the financial weight of trying for a child now - or spending even more money on fertility treatment in a couple of years.

He said: "Fertility falls dramatically for women as they grow older. Women in their early twenties are generally twice as fertile as women in their late thirties, with the most significant decline in fertility beginning during the mid-thirties.

"We are predicting a steep rise in the number of women requiring IVF and other forms of fertility treatment, as women delay conception to further their careers.

"Having a baby can be costly, but I would urge women not to wait too long as their chances of conceiving will drastically reduce with age. Living on a tight budget can be stressful but missing out on the chance to have a family is even more traumatic. The effects of the credit crunch are already being felt, with an increasing number of would-be parents paying for fertility treatment on credit."

To date, more than 3,000 babies have been born thanks to the skill and dedication of Professor Brian Lieberman and his team at Manchester Fertility Services, which is based at Bridgewater Hospital in South Manchester.

Yonatan, Omer & Evyatar

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Israeli_gay_couple_gets_a_son/articleshow/3724754.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Israeli_gay_couple_gets_a_son_in_India/articleshow/msid-3724754,curpg-2.cms
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=4856004b-ee00-419b-93ef-59d7e5b0f674
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1207409
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1207405

Coffee and Getting Pregnant: Can Coffee Keep You From Getting Pregnant?

Does caffeine affect fertility? ) When we're feeling tired and stressed at work, a cup of coffee packed with caffeine can help get us over the afternoon (or morning) hump. That cup o' joy is great for our co-workers -- we'll snap at them less! But what about our dreams of getting pregnant?

A recent study implies that too much coffee can have a negative effect on your fertility, especially if you already are dealing with fertility issues. The study looked at couples who went through IVF treatment, but later went on to try to conceive naturally. The study showed that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day reduced a couple's chance of conceiving by 26%.

Now, four cups is a lot of coffee. Most researchers say that if you stick to less than 300 mg of caffeine a day, you'll be safe. That's about two to three 5 oz. cups of coffee (depending on how strong the brew is).

Also, it's important to consider that previous studies failed to find a connection between caffeine and fertility. The topic is certainly up for debate.

Some studies have also found a possible link between miscarriage and coffee drinking. As with infertility, the studies that warn against caffeine say less than 300 mg a day should be OK.

You don't have to cut out coffee completely. Just don't drink too much.

Ovarian Test: False Hope for Aging Ladies?

Here's something that will put you off your omelet. A UK firm called Lifestyle Choices has started selling a fertility test called Plan Ahead which purports to tell women approximately how many eggs they have left in their ovaries. Though it won't provide you with an exact number, it measures 3 different hormones to give you an "assessment."

More and more women are putting off having children until their 30s and 40s. Yet a growing body of research shows that female fertility begins to decline rapidly in the mid-30s -- leaving some women with a difficult choice: bearing children earlier or risking infertility later on.

Lifestyle Choices, a firm based in Sheffield, U.K., has begun selling a consumer test that it claims will help women make this important decision. The test, which went on the market last month, assesses the number of eggs that a woman has left in her ovaries, by measuring three different hormones.

However, some experts say that the results of these kinds of tests can be unreliable -- and therefore give women a false sense of security about delaying childbearing.

Women are born with a set number of eggs -- a number that declines with age, first slowly, then rapidly after the mid-30s. The rate of decline varies from woman to woman -- some can easily get pregnant in their 40s, while for others it's difficult or even impossible.

"Some women start to go into menopause in their 30s," says Rogerio A. Lobo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University in New York City. "Without some kind of clinical testing, or a suggestive family history, that [life stage] is impossible to guess."

Women can go to their doctor for blood or ultrasound tests that will give a sense of their fertility status. But women in the U.K. may have a new option now: a mail-order test. For £179 (Rs 15,000), they can order the test kit, go to a doctor's office for a blood test, then send the sample to a lab for analysis. Their blood is analyzed for the levels of three different hormones, which predict the number of eggs a woman has available. To interpret the results further, hormone levels are compared with the average hormone levels for the woman's age group.

"As tests go, these are as close to the best things we have out there, but there are still a lot of questions and a lot of caveats," says Lobo, who regularly measures the same three hormones in his clinic. "It can give you some information -- but it's not 100 percent."

Kim Thornton, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, thinks "the issue with all ovarian reserve testing is that the test cannot necessarily tell you that it's okay to delay childbearing. There are a lot of false negatives." An abnormal result gives a good indication that a woman may have fertility problems; but a normal result does not guarantee that a woman has several years of fertile years ahead, Thornton says.

Indeed, experts say the only way to really gauge the accuracy of the U.K. test is with a long-term clinical trial showing that women who get a "normal" result from the test can get pregnant.

Stuart Gall, commercial director of BioFusion, the parent-company of Lifestyle Choices, says the company has run some clinical trials; however, for proprietary reasons, they are not releasing the results.

The problem is, many doctors think this will give women false hope that they can delay their childbearing years, when the rate of egg decline actually varies from woman to woman. The test isn't approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at this time, so if your wife/girlfriend is starting to pressure you for that bundle of joy, you won't have to deal with this kind of data just yet.

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What a shame! The red waters seen in the pictures is Blood. At this time of year, there is a brutal, grotesque, bloody slaughter in the Faroe Islands, which belong to Denmark. Denmark - A country supposedly 'civilized' & part of "THE EUROPEAN UNION ". Many people do not hear about this attack on life... so no real protests have been registered. This bloody slaughter to attend Moz to 'show' entering adulthood(!) Is absolutely incredible and no one in Denmark has moved a finger to prevent this barbarism that is committed against the Calderon - an intelligent dolphin who has the peculiarity of approaching people out of sheer curiosity. Please share this post to raise awareness against this senseless crime against defenseless dolphins!