Eggs from skin cells

It's hard not to get excited about stories like today's news of Japanese scientists successfully creating embryos from skin cells which led to the birth of fertile offspring.  The reality is that this is a technique still in the very early stages which is not going to be available in your local fertility clinic in the foreseeable future, but it's still an amazing development.

The Japanese team had already managed to create sperm from stem cells, and this is their latest advance. They performed a very complex experiment, creating eggs from skin cells, building an ovary-like structure to support the eggs when they transplanted them into the mice, and then using IVF techniques to fertilise the eggs.  Not only did the embryos implant and lead to pregnancies, but the babies themselves have been shown to be fertile and able to reproduce.

There is still a very long way to go to find out whether this could work with human skin cells and eggs, but it does offer hope for the future.  Fertility treatments have become more successful in recent years, but cannot reverse the effects of the biological clock on female eggs - and women who don't have viable eggs of their own currently need to use donor eggs.  Today's news raises the possibility that perhaps one day in the future, there will be other options available.

I may not be a mother, but I'm still a person

If you didn't see it, take a look at this article from yesterday's Observer. It's the story of a woman in her forties who doesn't have children, and explains how marginalised she often feels as a result of her childlessness. She discusses how all-consuming the role of motherhood has become in our society, and how it can leave those who don't have children feeling ostracised and isolated.

It may surprise you to know that one in five of the female population in the UK will not have children, as it doesn't always feel that common when you are the lone childless woman in a room full of mothers. Many of us will recognise the feelings of separation from other women who have children, and the awkwardness that can arise at certain social situations. I often suggest that women who are actively trying to get pregnant should simply avoid events which are likely to be particularly difficult, but this isn't a long-term solution if you have accepted a child-free future.

If all this sounds very familiar, you may be interested in a group called Gateway Women set up by the woman featured in the Observer piece which aims to offer support to those in this situation.

Starving worms...

Well, I am not sure what it means for humans, but scientists in the States have apparently found that fasting can turn back the reproductive clock in worms!

A research team found that when adult worms were not given any food, they stopped ovulating and part of their reproductive system simply died off. When they were then given food again, the stem cells that had been left behind started producing new, fertile eggs. The old worms in the survey were able to produce healthy babies at a time when normally they would have been dead.

The researchers have made it very clear that there is no suggestion that going on a fast, or severely restricting calories, would lead to humans producing new eggs, but they hope that their findings might be used to help understand the mechanisms that control fertility. They are particularly interested to find out whether their research could have any relevance for women who are recovering from cancer treatments that can destroy the immature eggs in the ovaries might in fact be able to regain their fertility.

You can read more about the research here