Jacqueline Gold: I'm just so lucky to be pregnant at 48

Jacqueline Gold likes to joke that she has lived her whole life "backwards". At 48, at the peak of an enormously successful career – she is CEO of Gold Group International (which owns Ann Summers) and one of the most powerful women in British retailing – she is about to fulfil a dream that she put on hold as a young woman. Finally, at an age when most women are approaching menopause, Jacqueline is settling into her first pregnancy.
"I left home when I was 18, got married when I was 20 and started the business when I was 21 – all things that people tend to do later in life. I did the partying that most people do in their 20s in my 30s after my marriage broke down and of course here I am at 48 – five months pregnant and engaged to be married," she says, placing a small, manicured hand on the bump that already dominates her 5ft 2in frame.
Delicately pretty and softly spoken, it is difficult to believe that this woman is responsible for turning the male-dominated business started by her father David into a female-friendly preserve with a £115 million annual gross turnover. She attributes her business success to a combination of hard work, determination and creativity; qualities, she admits with a rueful smile, that she has also had to draw on in her quest to start a family.
Because, like a great many other ambitious women of her generation, Jacqueline always felt that she would have children "when the time felt right". But when it finally did – seven years ago when she met her banker fiancé Dan Cunningham, 31 – she was in her forties and infertility had become a major issue.
"I feel that evolution hasn't kept up with women," she says. "We live longer, we are healthier, we have careers and we are just not ready to have babies at the age of 20. I think it's such a shame that our bodies haven't evolved with us so that we can be fertile longer"
Jacqueline and Dan embarked on their first round of IVF in 2002 at a private clinic near the home they share in Kent. It was not a happy experience and when it failed they went to Britain's leading private IVF unit at the Lister Hospital in London where they had two more unsuccessful attempts. "The strain that IVF puts on your relationship is just incredible," she says. "It is a hard process and the disappointment when it fails is so overwhelming that a lot of couples have problems, and in 2006 it affected Dan and I so badly that we parted for a while."
When they got back together they decided to try IVF once more but this time they would go to America where the process is more advanced. "We had all the appointments over the phone here in the UK and all the medical checks and blood tests were done here and the results faxed over to the clinic in San Francisco. It wasn't until the end of three months that we finally flew out to the States late last August for the IVF."
They flew home shortly after the procedure unaware of whether or not they had been successful. Ten days later Jacqueline went for the blood test that would – when the results had been faxed through to America – reveal if she was pregnant.
"I remember driving to the hospital to have that test and being so nervous and so tense that I couldn't see properly, it was as if my sight had been impaired. I had the test at 8.30 in the morning but because of the time delay I had to wait until the evening for the result to come through. Dan and I sat by my computer in my office in absolute agony and it was just incredible when that email came through and it said 'Congratulations you are pregnant'."
Jacqueline admits that for the first few weeks of her pregnancy her elation was tempered by the fear that she might miscarry. But at 12 weeks – at the point at which she was beginning to feel safe – doctors discovered a problem.
"I am carrying twins but sadly one of them will not make it," she says. "When we found out it was devastating because even at that early stage you are very attached. I know people will say 'Yes but you have still got one healthy baby' but it doesn't work like that. It took me a while to come to terms with it. I took a few days off work and then I pulled myself together and thought 'OK, now I have got to concentrate on the healthy baby, that is my priority'."
The rare complication in Jacqueline's pregnancy means that she has to be very closely monitored, and scanned every two weeks.
"When we found out we were given the choice to have a selective termination immediately but because that would put the other baby at risk we decided to leave things as they were. At the moment they are planning on leaving me until I am 32 weeks, and then doing a selective reduction. But I may have to go to full term, which could be quite an emotional and traumatic experience."
It is a measure of Jacqueline's courage that she is prepared to talk openly about the problems she faces in her first pregnancy. She hopes that her story will inspire other women who may have had a negative IVF experience to pursue their dream. The fact that her own successful IVF outcome has brought with it new anxieties doesn't, she insists, make it any less exciting. She is absolutely determined to enjoy the experience of pregnancy.
"It's really strange but I just have this very good feeling. I know I face lots of challenges along the way but I am very positive. At first when I used to talk about the baby to Dan he would stop me and say 'let's not get ahead of ourselves'. We got to the point where I said [to Dan] 'I think if things go wrong we will be really devastated but I don't want to get to the end of my pregnancy and think all I did was worry when I should have been relishing every moment of being pregnant'."
Jacqueline is still nervous about thinking too far in the future – she and Dan decided not to know the sex of their healthy baby because they think the surprise will add excitement and ease the pain of what could be a difficult birth –- but she longs to be a mother. She will continue as CEO of the company but with the right help – and an office at home – she wants to be "totally" involved in raising her child.
She will have reached the age of 60 by the time her child is 12, but says that she is not concerned by the fact that she will be a pensioner while her child is an adolescent – or about society's unease about older mothers. "I think I will be a good mother," she says. "I don't want that to sound big-headed or arrogant. Some people might be concerned about my age but I believe I have much more to give a child now than I would have done when I was 20. The biggest part of me wants to give my child love, warmth and the security of a happy childhood. I will just be so lucky to have the chance to do that.

Mother of baby born free of breast cancer gene hails 'priceless' procedure

The mother of Britain's first baby selected genetically to be free of a breast cancer gene has hailed the prodecure as "priceless".
She likened the disease to a sword of Damocles hanging over her family and hoped her daughter's birth would help other families. Her baby, born last week, grew from an embryo screened to ensure it did not contain the faulty BRCA1 gene, which passes the risk of breast cancer down generations. Any daughter born with the gene has a 50 per cent to 85 per cent chance of developing breast cancer. The birth has sparked debate about the ethics of embryo screening.
The 26-year-old mother, who refused to be named, said she decided to undergo the screening process after seeing all her husband's female relatives have the disease. Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: "To be able to look at our daughter and to know that she doesn't have the gene is a massive sigh of relief for us.
"We have eliminated that risk and that is priceless.
"Having watched my husband's family go through what they have been through, knowing that my daughter doesn't need to go through that, makes it all worthwhile.
"I hope this encourages others to do the same."
The baby's 28-year-old father said: "A massive amount of credit has to go to my wife for undergoing what was effectively an invasive procedure of IVF for a problem which wasn't her own but was from my side of the family.
"Talking about how we felt about it probably brought us closer together.
"There are many pitfalls my children may go through in life that I cannot predict for them.
"We do know about this one and that is why we felt a duty to do something about it."
Doctors at the University College London hospital, where the mother received IVF treatment, said they were on Friday that he was "absolutely delighted" at the breakthrough. Medical director at the Assisted Conception Unit Paul Serhal said: "This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life.
"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter.
"The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations."
The technique, known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has already been used in the UK to free babies of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease. But breast cancer is different because it does not inevitably affect a child from birth and may or may not develop later in life. There is also a chance it can be cured, if caught early enough.
Permission to carry out PGD for breast cancer had to be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority by the London clinic which performed the procedure. The body, which licenses IVF clinics and embryo research, gave the go-ahead after holding a public consultation. Doctors at the private clinic housed at University College Hospital conducted tests on 11 embryos by removing just one cell from each when they were three days old. Six embryos were found to carry the defective BRCA1 gene. Two embryos which were free of the gene were implanted, resulting in a single pregnancy.
Faulty genes are responsible for between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the 44,000 cases of breast cancer that occur in the UK each year. BRCA1 and its sister gene BRCA2 are the two most commonly involved. Women with a defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than those without the mutations.

Puppy

Password, Yet

The Frog & Golf

THIS IS HILARIOUS!


A man takes the day off work and
Decides to go out golfing.


He is on the second hole when he
Notices a frog sitting next to the green.


He thinks nothing of it and is
About to shoot when he Hears,



Ribbit 9 Iron.'



The man looks around and doesn't
See anyone.


Again, he hears, 'Ribbit 9 Iron.'


He looks at the frog and decides to
Prove the frog wrong, puts the
Club away, and grabs a 9 iron.



Boom!
He hits it 10 inches from the cup.


He is shocked.


He says to the frog,


'Wow that's amazing.


You must be a lucky frog, eh?


The frog replies,



'Ribbit Lucky frog.'




The man decides to take the frog
with him to the next hole.

'What do you think frog?'



The man asks.



'Ribbit 3 wood.'


The guy takes out a 3 wood and,
Boom! Hole in one.



The man is befuddled and doesn't know
What to say.


By the end of the day, the man golfed the
Best game of golf in his life and
asks the frog,



'OK where to next?'
The frog replies,


'Ribbit Las Vegas .


' They go to Las Vegas
and the guy says,


'OK frog, now What?'


The frog says, 'Ribbit Roulette.'


Upon approaching the roulette table,


The man asks,


'What do you think I should Bet?'


The frog replies,


'Ribbit $3000, black 6.'

Now, this is a
million-to-one shot to win, but
after the golf game the man
Figures what the heck.

Boom!


Tons of cash comes sliding back across the table.

The man takes his winnings and
buys the best room in the Hotel.


He sits the frog down and Says,


'Frog, I don't know how to repay you.
You've won me all this money and
I am forever grateful.'

The frog replies,

'Ribbit KissMe.'
He figures why not,

Since after all the frog did for Him,


He deserves it.



With a kiss, the frog turns into a
gorgeous 15-year-old girl.


'And that,

your honor, is how the girl
ended up in my room.



So help me God
Or my name is not William Jefferson Clinton.'

Peanuts again!

Genetic screening fails women trying for IVF birth

Genetic screening, often seen as the best hope for older women undergoing IVF treatment to have a child, is ineffective and actually reduces rates of pregnancies, scientists said on Wednesday.

The surprise finding from a controlled clinical trial involving 408 women is a major setback for a technology that is used increasingly in fertility clinics worldwide.

Couples aiming for a test-tube baby can pay between $3,000 (INR 150,000) and $5,000 (INR 250,000) for a preimplantation genetic screening test. The idea is to study the genetic make-up of embryos before transfer to the womb to make sure they are healthy and likely to survive.

But while the concept is very plausible, Dutch researchers found screening in women aged 35 to 41 years actually made matters worse.

After 12 weeks, only 25 percent of women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) whose embryos had been screened were pregnant, against 37 percent in the control group. Eventual live birth rates were also lower, at 24 versus 35 percent.

Just why screening cuts the chance of a viable pregnancy is unclear but Sebastiaan Mastenbroek from the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam said the test itself might be to blame.

"It is possible that the biopsy of a cell from an early embryo on day three after conception hampers the potential of an embryo to successfully implant, though the effect of biopsy alone on pregnancy rates has not been studied," he said in a statement.
Usually, embryos will have reached the eight-cell stage of development by day three but sometimes there may be as few as four cells, which could in theory make the procedure riskier.

Other factors may be the limited number of chromosomes that can be analysed, which may lead to the transfer of embryos that appear normal but in fact contain faults, and the fact many embryos are "mosaic", where a single cell does not properly reflect the genetic make-up of the whole.

Mastenbroek and colleagues presented their work at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Lyon, France.

The research was also published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, alongside a recommendation from the team that preimplantation should no longer be performed routinely in older women undergoing IVF therapy.

Fertility experts said the findings were a wake-up call for clinicians and showed the need for more research into the benefits, if any, of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Peter Braude, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Kings College London, said the work showed screening did not work in older mothers-to-be and similar studies were needed on whether it helped younger women with repeated IVF failure.

"Vulnerable patients should no longer be exploited financially under the impression that it works," he said.

Joep Geraedts, ESHRE’s chairman elect and a genetics expert at the Dutch-Belgian University Limburg, told Reuters in a telephone interview the new study would come as a shock, particularly in the United States, where PGD is widely used.

"No other medical procedure with such profound medical and ethical consequences has been so poorly studied," Kathy Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, said.