Are two a family? Older single mothers assisted by sperm donation and their children revisited.

This study follows 40 older single-mother families created with the aid of sperm donation using either insemination or in vitro fertilization. The study is based on qualitative data obtained from the mothers 3 years after a previous study with these families. The mean age of the mothers at this time was about 47 years and of the children 7 years. The findings provide insights into the mothers' and children's current sociodemographic characteristics, physical health, socioemotional development and the children's reactions to the absence of a father at follow-up time. The majority of the children raised by these older single mothers have good health. The salient result is that at follow-up, 45% of these older single-mother families comprise a family unit with more than 1 child, clearly demonstrating these families' desire for a larger family than a mother-child unit. The desire and attempts of the mothers in the sample to give birth to additional children using assisted conception demonstrate the divergence in the fertility patterns of Israeli society from other developed countries.

Disclosure of donor conception in single-mother families: views and concerns.

BACKGROUND: Despite the prevalence of donor conception and the worldwide trend towards openness, there has been little research on whether parents do disclose the nature of the conception to their donor-conceived children. This analysis focuses on whether and how older Israeli single mothers disclose to their children that were conceived using a donor and whether the donor conception causes concern for them. METHODS: Sixty-two single mothers of donor-conceived children in Israel were asked whether they would like to know the identity of the sperm donor; whether they would like their children to know the identity of the sperm donor when reaching the age of 18, whether they disclosed the circumstances of conception to their children or intend to do so in the future; and whether the sperm donation causes concern to them. RESULTS: The mothers were divided on whether they wanted to know the identity of the sperm donor. However, less than one-fifth of them did not want their children to have identifying information about the genetic father at the age of 18. About two-thirds of the mothers had not yet disclosed the donor conception to their children but intended to do so in the future. A total of 77.4% of the mothers reported being concerned about the donor conception: for the psychosocial development of the child, fear of genetic disorders, fear of incest and lack of certainty of access to genetic information when needed. CONCLUSIONS: The tendency to postpone the disclosure reveals the difficulty of these mothers in finding the appropriate way of sharing the information about the conception with their children. Given the importance attached to the age of disclosure and the mothers' concern for the psychosocial development of their children, more professional counselling in this area is warranted.

A child of "hers": older single mothers and their children conceived through IVF with both egg and sperm donation.

OBJECTIVE: To study the decision to have a child alone, the experience of gamete donation, the issue of disclosure of the donor link to the child, conception-related health and sociodemographic characteristics of the mothers, children's socioemotional development, and mother-child relationships. DESIGN: Qualitative study. SETTING: Prior clients of a sperm bank. PARTICIPANT(S): Eleven single women in their late forties who gave birth to children aided by IVF involving both egg and sperm donation, i.e., the children are not genetically related to the mothers. RESULT(S): Not only were there differences among the participants, but they also differed from the only previous study focusing on single women becoming mothers by choice and using advanced reproductive technologies. CONCLUSION(S): Similarly to previous studies, we generally found that the impact of assisted conception on parenting and child development gives no undue cause for concern while the children are still young. However, the young age of the children in our sample prevented us from answering many questions about the children's socioemotional development and about disclosure of donor conception to children born to older single women using double gamete donation and IVF.

Is sperm donor karyotype analysis necessary?

A case study involving four female patients inseminated with sperm samples from the same donor is reported. Routine amniocentesis of one of the patients revealed that the fetus is a carrier of a balanced reciprocal translocation, 46,XY,t(1;10)(q12;q11.2), which was subsequently detected in the donor. Counselled amniocentesis in the three remaining patients led to the detection of an additional translocation carrier fetus. All four pregnancies resulted in live births. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization was applied to identify normal, balanced or imbalanced sperm cells of the donor. Accordingly, routine karyotype analysis of sperm donors was introduced, and is now recommended in the authors' unit.

Posthumous sperm retrieval: analysis of time interval to harvest sperm.

BACKGROUND: Current recommendations regarding posthumous sperm retrieval (PSR) are based on a small number of cases. Our purpose was to determine the time interval from death to a successful procedure. METHODS: Seventeen consecutive PSR procedures in 14 deceased and 3 neurologically brain-dead patients at two male infertility centres [Sheba Medical Center (SMC), Tel-Hashomer, Israel and University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA] were analysed. Main outcome measures were retrieval of vital sperm, pregnancies and births. RESULTS: PSR methods included resection of testis and epididymis (n = 8), en-block excision of testis, epididymis and proximal vas deferens with vasal irrigation (n = 6), electroejaculation (EEJ) (n = 2) and epididymectomy (n = 1). PSR was performed 7.5-36 h after death. Sperm was retrieved in all cases and was motile in 14 cases. In two cases, testicular and epididymal tissues were cryopreserved without sperm evaluation, and in one case, no motility was detected. IVF and ICSI were performed in two cases in which sperm had been retrieved 30 h after death, and both resulted in pregnancies and live births. CONCLUSIONS: Viable sperm is obtainable with PSR well after the currently recommended 24-h time interval. PSR should be considered up to 36 h after death, following appropriate evaluation. No correlation was found between cause of death and chance for successful sperm retrieval.

Effects of intravesical chemotherapy and immunotherapy on semen analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To study the effect of intravesical chemo-immunotherapy on the sperm parameters of young patients. METHODS: Twelve young male patients with superficial transitional cell carcinoma, all younger than 40 years old at surgery, were included in this prospective study. The mean patient age was 34.8 years (range 22 to 40). Of the 12 patients, 8 had superficial transitional cell carcinoma, grade 2-3, and 4 had proven invasion to the lamina propria; 1 patient had accompanying carcinoma in situ. Accordingly, adjuvant intravesical treatment with either bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG; 6 patients) or mitomycin C (6 patients) was indicated on the basis of the initial stage and grade. Sperm analysis was performed before bladder irrigation and subsequently 3 months after completion of intravesical therapy. RESULTS: All 12 patients had normal follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone levels after surgery. All 12 patients had normal-volume ejaculate, except for 1 who had undergone multiple prior transurethral tumor resections. Of the 6 patients who were treated with mitomycin C, only a few minor insignificant changes in the sperm quality were noted, and 2 of them later fathered healthy children. However, in 3 of the BCG-treated patients, remarkable changes in all sperm quality parameters were evident, with a statistically significant decrease in the sperm count (P = 0.0021). CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that potential adverse effects on spermatogenesis can be induced by intravesical therapy with BCG and that, consequently, routine pretreatment semen preservation should be considered as a precaution before instillation of intravesical BCG to prevent subsequent fertility difficulties in young men.

Prognostic value of the clinical and laboratory evaluation in patients with nonmosaic Klinefelter syndrome who are receiving assisted reproductive therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize clinical and laboratory findings in nonmosaic 47,XXY patients that may help to predict spermatogenetic activity in their testicles. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Assisted reproductive technology program. PATIENT(S): Twenty patients with nonmosaic Klinefelter syndrome who underwent testicular sperm retrieval for IVF. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The correlation between basal FSH, LH and testosterone levels, mean testicular volume, and results of the hCG test and presence or absence of sperm after testicular sperm extraction (TESE). RESULT(S): Sperm was found in nine patients (45%). The mean testicular volume was 7.8 +/- 2.5 mL in men with sperm after TESE and 5.6 +/- 1.2 mL in those without sperm after TESE; corresponding testosterone levels were 3.5 +/- 1.2 ng/mL and 1.7 +/- 0.8 ng/mL. Serum levels of FSH and LH did not significantly differ between groups. After the hCG test, the mean serum testosterone level was 16.0 +/- 6.3 ng/mL in men with sperm after TESE and 6.7 +/- 5.6 ng/mL in those without sperm. CONCLUSION(S): Testicular volume, testosterone levels, and results of the hCG test are important predictive factors of spermatogenesis in patients with nonmosaic Klinefelter syndrome.