27 February, 2013

Indian women opt to freeze their eggs

Deepika Gupta, 35, a lawyer in a Delhi court, has been into a few relationships but has not been able to narrow down to Mr Right.  With her biological clock ticking fast and her wish to have her own children in the near future, she has now chosen to have her eggs frozen and have babies when she finds her companion.

Though a new concept in India, there is an increasing trend of working women - both single and married - who want to delay pregnancy to focus on their careers, going in for freezing eggs. It's scientifically called "oocyte freezing".

According to experts, with women getting more career-oriented and opting for late marriages, fertility could decline and their chances of having babies later too become difficult. But egg freezing offers them an option to have their biological children whenever they want.

"Many women are coming forward to preserve their fertility as either they don't want to have a child now or haven't found the right person. Every month we get four-five queries about egg freezing and one or two of them come in for the procedure," Shivani Sachdev Gour, director, Surrogacy Centre India (SCI) Healthcare, in Kailash Colony in south Delhi, said.

The right age for a woman to have children is before 30, after which the ovum quality slowly reduces. After the age of 37, it becomes really difficult for women to conceive naturally. Ovum is a mature egg ready for fertilization.

"Women aged between 30 and 35 years face problems in conceiving. Most of my customers are above the age of 35 and are generally single women or married women who are not ready to take a maternity break while their career is at its peak," Gour said.

The technique of egg freezing - where the ovum from a healthy woman is taken and stored for future use - was popular among higher income groups but career-oriented women are now becoming aware of it and coming forward for the procedure.

"Initially egg freezing was used for medical reasons where women suffering from diseases like cancer used to freeze their eggs before going in for chemotherapy, which affects the ovulation process. However, this technique is now being used for lifestyle reasons too," Gour said.

The process takes two-four weeks from injecting hormones to stimulate ovulation, egg retrieval and preservation at minus 196 degree Celsius for future use. Doctors said after egg freezing, a woman has also to go through the entire process of egg retrieval, banking and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in future.

The procedure costs around Rs.140,000-Rs.160,000 (about 2,500-3,000 USD). Gour said her clinic charges Rs. 30,000 (about 600 USD) annually for egg banking. The process is available only at a few places in the capital, including Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.02.2013

Fast food linked to asthma, eczema

Eating fast food thrice a week or more elevates the risk of asthma and eczema, while eating fruit with the same frequency provides a protective effect, says a study.

The findings of the research led by professor Innes Asher and Philippa Ellwood from the University of Auckland's department of paediatrics could have huge implications for public health.

Data was collected on more than 319,000 teenagers (13-14 years of age) from 107 centres in 51 countries, and more than 181,000 children (6-7 year-olds) from 64 centres in 31 countries, the respiratory journal Thorax reports.

All the participants were involved in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), a collaborative research project which has been led by Auckland for more than 20 years and now involves more than 100 countries and nearly two million children, making it the largest study of its kind, according to an Auckland statement.

The teenagers and their parents were quizzed about the prevalence of symptoms of asthma (wheeze), rhinoconjunctivitis (runny or blocked nose accompanied by itchy and watery eyes) and eczema, and about their weekly diet.

These included meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, pulses, cereals, bread and pasta, rice, butter, margarine, nuts, potatoes, milk, eggs, and fast food/burgers.

Participants were asked to assign their consumption of each of these foods to one of the following categories: never; occasionally; once or twice a week; three or more times a week.

After taking account of factors likely to influence results, the analysis showed that fast food was the only food type to show the same associations across both age groups, prompting the authors to suggest that "such consistency adds some weight to the possible causality of the relationship".

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.02.2013

One gift creates appreciation, many gifts create expectation

Tony Bright