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'.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
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
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
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
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.
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