Egg donation is a practice which is fast becoming global. All over the world, eggs are solicited from young women for fertility treatment purposes, especially in vitro fertilization (IVF), and for embryonic stem cell research. But recently Altrui, a fertility company based in North Yorkshire, has been criticized of taking advantage of young Cambridge University students to donate their eggs.
On leaflets delivered to students, an anonymous Cambridge couple asked young women to assist them in becoming parents. The couple were clients of Altrui.
“These leaflets were placed by one of our clients as part of their effort to find an altruistic donor” said Alison Bagshawe, the Managing Director of Altrui, “This was a personal appeal from them, which was officially approved by the University.
According to critics, Altrui is exploiting young students who are financially vulnerable and know nothing about the risks that may be involved in donating their eggs.
In a BBC report, Thomas Matthew, a spokesman for Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic in Cambridge said: “If the students are mature at 18 and they know the risk that is fine, but if they have not had children themselves and they have not had a family themselves, they do not know what they’re letting themselves into at that age and they do not know what the risk may be.
Bagshawe refuted the allegation that Altrui has been offering money to entice students to donate their eggs. She said “only matured and final year students were asked if they could help”.
In countries like the USA, many young women go through the laborious process of egg donation because financial incentives of up to $100,000 per cycle but in UK, donors only receive a set compensation of £750 per cycle.
There have been concerns on whether egg donation are done for financial or altruistic purpose and whether donors are fully informed about the risks of donating their eggs.
“The process of obtaining eggs from women bodies and process of IVF and medical procedure are largely shaped by commercial interest,” says Lisa Ikemoto, a law professor of University of California. “The financial model behind this comes from the fact that the clinic success is measured in terms of live births.”
Ikemoto adds that “many women are not receiving sufficient information about the risk of egg procedure process.”
I talked to Catty Sidaway, a multiple egg donor to find out her experiences about the processes, whether she was given sufficient information about the process beforehand and if she had experienced any side effects.
Whether egg donation is for financial or altruistic purposes, donors should be informed and warned about the risks involved.
Image credit: by Natalie A. Cekleniak, Video produced by Funmi Olateju and Yuki Xue
Mothers’ obesity can affect babies in the womb
A recent report warns women of childbearing age to pay more attention to their weight before they become pregnant in order to have a healthy baby.
In the study, scientists compared the placentas of obese rats and obesity-resistant rats. All were fed a healthy diet throughout their pregnancies. Results showed that despite not gaining much weight, the “obesogenic” environment already established inside the overweight mothers remained and caused unhealthy effects on the foetus.
Offspring were up to 17 percent smaller than they should have been and, according to the authors, this was due to changes on the surface of the placenta which influenced nutrient transport to the baby.
“We can see fat sequestered in the placentas of obese mothers when it should be going to the baby to support its growth,” said co-author Dr Yuan-Xiang Pan from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. “The nutrient supply region in the placenta of an obese mother is half the size of that of a normal-weight mother, even when both are eating the same healthy diet.”
Obesity during pregnancy is now a common condition affecting approximately one in five pregnant women. Reporting in the Journal Biology of Reproduction, the authors analysed placentas for fat accumulation and expression of the DKK1 gene, a protein involved in embryonic development. By monitoring the levels of DKK1, scientists were also able to demonstrate, for the first time, that DKK1 controls certain aspects of lipid metabolism in the placenta. They hope monitoring the protein could provide markers for healthy pregnancy.
“Obesity creates unhealthful conditions in the mother’s body that take time to correct,” said Dr Pan. “Understanding this process should help us identify some biomarkers that would allow a potential mother’s doctor to say ‘yes, you’ve lost weight, the chemical conditions that were created by your excess weight are gone, and this is a good time for you to become pregnant’.”
This report adds to the body of knowledge from previous studies into the health risks posed by maternal obesity, both for the mother and child during and after pregnancy.
For instance, according to a 2001 study from Imperial College, maternal obesity carries significant risks for the mother and foetus, likely to be related to the altered metabolic state associated with morbid obesity.
Image credit: Tobyotter on flickr
Malaria is still a problem
On a sunny day in Nigeria, I woke up with headache, joint pains and fever, then I realised I had been infected by malaria parasite again.
My family and friends have also suffered from malaria on several occasions and I have seen children die of this deadly disease for as long as I can remember.
Malaria is spread by a parasite called plasmodium which gets into the bloodstream after a bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
It causes symptoms such as headache, fever, joint pains and vomiting; and can often be very debilitating for sufferers. Mosquitoes need pools of stagnant water to breed in so the disease is often most widely spread during the rainy season.
The current situation
Despite malaria being preventable and fully treatable, it killed more than 600,000 people in 2010 according to the World Malaria report in 2011.
“Around half of the world population is vulnerable to malaria,” said Sarah Kline. Kline is executive director of Malaria No More, a non-governmental organisation committed to help reach millenium development goal 6, which is to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015.
Malaria affects millions of people worldwide and is the most common disease in sub Saharan Africa. Kline said: “91 percent of malaria comes from Africa”.
Recent studies have shown which groups are most at risk of developing malaria. A report published in the British Medical Journal reported that malaria is “more common and more severe in children and pregnant women”. Another study published in PLoS ONE showed that “malaria lowers birthweight whether or not maternal symptoms are present”. This explains why malaria is the most common cause of death in newborn babies in developing countries. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) say that “every minute a child dies of malaria.”
Prevention is better than cure
Various measures have been put in place by governmental bodies and international organisations to tackle malaria in African countries. These have included education in the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and insecticide spray.
The World Malaria Report 2011 from WHO states that “the number of long-lasting insecticidal nets delivered to African malaria-endemic countries increased from 88.5 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010, raising the percentage of African households with at least one mosquito net from 41% to 50% during the same period”. Kline said: “In some countries, there has been a policy to make sure everybody has access to bednets and where possible to donate it for free”.
With the condition being so common, some people exploit the situation by selling substandard drugs for the treatment of malaria, particularly common in sub Saharan countries. Kline said: “Very unscrupulous people who make fake drugs and sell them are responsible for countless suffering and potentially death from malaria”.
She added, “There are number of different processes in different countries to track fake drugs. In Nigeria you can scan a packet of drug box by using your mobile phone and if it returned back failed, you would know whether that packet is the real thing or not”.
Collaboration and contribution
Kline said education is very important, particularly if the millenium development goals are to be met. This involves treatments; encouraging the use of preventive measures; and understanding that children under 5 and pregnant women are most at risk of developing malaria. Availability of money to purchase the drug is vital, and the African leaders, governments, political bodies and international donors together play an important role.
Image credit : flickr
Brain reward explains overeating
A new study suggests obese individuals’ brains generate signals that promote eating even when the body is not hungry.
Although obesity is a result of high intake of energy, it is currently unclear why some people are so prone to overeating and weight gain.
Researchers at University of Turku and Aalto in Finland investigated brain connectivity, to see if there was a link between brain activity and obesity. Different imaging techniques were used to compare the brain activity of obese and lean individuals in different situations.
Functional MRI brain scans were used to monitor brain activity in response to seeing pictures of food. The Finnish team found that obese subjects’ reward systems were more activated and responded more vigorously to food pictures, for both “appetising” high sugar foods like cake and bland food. The responses in the opposing frontal cortical regions responsible for personality expression and controls decision decision making,were reduced in these subjects too. By contrast, the healthy individuals showed a significant difference in brain activity between appetizing and bland food, and showed a normal amount of activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Obese individuals also showed higher glucose metabolism in brain reward areas than lean individuals. Along with fMRI, PET scans were used to measure this effect in participants during conditions when their bodies were not physically hungry.
More so, obese individuals even showed high brain response to pictures of food and less activity in areas that control appetite and encourage satiety.
According to Professor Lauri Nummenmaa, adjunct professor at University of Turku said “the result suggest that obese individuals’ brain might constantly generate signals that promote eating even when the body would not require additional energy intake.”
“It highlights the role of brain in obesity and weight gaining.The results have major implications on the current models of obesity,but also on development of pharmacological and psychological treatments of obesity,” she added.
Defects in brain activity have been linked to obesity in past studies. Functional imaging studies have shown sub-components of the brain’s reward circuit contribute to processing of food pictures, and dysfunction of this circuit can be associated with both obesity and drug addiction.
However, more studies are needed to be done to find out which factors influence overeating.
Image by Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose on Flickr
Baby led weaning promotes healthy food preference
Image by Liz Marie
Baby-led weaning has a positive impact on children’s likeness for foods that influences healthy nutrition and may protect against childhood obesity, a study suggests.
The study examined the difference between children who had baby-led and spoon-fed weaning on food preference, body mass index and being a picky eater. It also took into account the social economic status of children because of its influence on the eating behaviour.
“Although numerous studies have focused on when to introduce solid foods into an infant’s diet there is a dearth of evidence concerning the impact of different weaning methods on food preferences and health prospect,”said Dr Ellen Townsend one of the authors of the study.
The study was carried out by scientists from the Department of Psychology at the University of Nottingham and published in the British Medical Journal.
In the study, parents of 155 children aged 20 to 70 months were studied for three years.Baby led participants filled a questionnaire on the feeding preference of the their infants and the spoon fed participants were examined in the laboratory.
The results showed baby-led groups, which are babies that have been allowed to feed themselves from the beginning of weaning, preferred carbohydrates. In contrast, spoon led groups preferred sweet things. Spoon-led children were also more likely to be overweight than baby-led group. The study indicated that children with higher the social economic status had a greater fondness for vegetables.
Past studies have shown parent who use the baby-led weaning approach are more willing to hand control over to the child when introducing solid foods.
There is need for more research in this area to compare the impacts of other weaning methods on food preferences and the health of children. Dr Townsend noted in a video on the University of Nottingham website that there is a need for larger studies “to track children over a bit of time to see what happens to their food preferences, to see what happens with their health outcomes and so on.”
Where are they?
Image by Galbaiti group on flickr
Why do we still have so few women in science? This was one of the many questions that ran through my mind when I visited an organisation with 40 engineers in the engineering department, out of which only two are women.
Despite the fact that the number of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is increasing, they are still outnumbered by men. There are also fewer women in STEM compared to other fields like education, business, law and journalism.
There are a number of studies that have highlighted reasons why the number of men in STEM is more than that of women. One of these studies, by the America Association of University Women, said that ”social and environmental factors contribute to the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering”.
The study revealed that girls can develop interest in maths and science, if they are encouraged by their teachers and parents.
Julia Parker, a support scientist at Diamond Light Source (DLS) agrees: “When I was in secondary school I had an amazing chemistry teacher and that was what made me want to do chemistry”. Her job involves working with scientists coming to the DLS to use its high intensity light to study cells and proteins.
A further study by the American Sociological Association suggests that “women are less likely than men to stay in engineering majors and to become engineers because they want to have families and are more insecure about their math abilities, right? Not necessarily.”
The researchers found that women drop out of engineering because of family pressures and often develop a lack of self confidence.
I talked to three women and one man, all working in science, to hear their views on why there are few women in science and measures that could be taken to improve the number of women in science.
They have similar views on why there are so few women in science — they believe many women opt for other professions because of family pressures and some women believe that science is a male-dominated profession.
Steward Scott, an engineer at Diamond Light Source said: “It could be argued that engineering is a male dominated area so it does not attract women into it.”
These scientists believe the media should speak more about engineering and other science courses. Parents, teachers and women that are already in science should also reach out to secondary schools to encourage girls to take on science subjects. Institutions and organisations could also make their policies more family-friendly to attract more women into the field.
Patty Kostova, Head of the eHealth Research Centre at City University said: “Employers providing a family-friendly schemes is important.”
To listen to the four interviews.
Patty kostova, Head of the eHealth Research Centre at City University.
Steward Scott, engineer at Diamond Light Source
Julia Parker, a support scientist at Diamond Light Source
Caroll Seron, Professor department of criminology, law and society University of California
Image by Mckay Savage
Kenya is one of the African countries that has been committed to supporting women research and leadership skills.
Recently, the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) made available a third round of funds and called on women to take advantage of the research funding of US$33,900 for a period not exceeding two years.
According to NCST secretary, Shaukat Abulrazak, it is an “additional strategy to enhance women’s participation in science, technology and innovation”.
Abulrazak said there are other programmes like Research and Innovations grants, Post-Doctoral research grants and Postgraduate research grants, where women are also beneficiaries.
The NCST is committed to “gender mainstreaming in all its programmes and ensures that in the award of these grants, women get at least 30%,” he said.
Studies have shown that by strengthening the research skills of women in science, it will help to enhance their contribution to poverty alleviation and food security.
The support of Kenya to women’s participation in science was also seen in the 2010 award for African women in Agriculture Research and Development, where 11 out of 60 women agricultural scientists were Kenyans.
“This will also debunk the myth that qualified African women researchers aren’t there-an excuse that’s often used to justify why women are not hired or promoted equitably within research institutions, universities and corporations” said Vicki Wilde, Director of Gender and Diversity programme in Narobi, Kenya during the 2010 Agriculture Research and Development Award project.
African countries still have much to do in empowering and supporting their women’s research skills. To improve the economy system, food security, educational system and much more, women participation in science needs to be supported.
Olateju Funmi
