TGIF to all!  Back from the ASRM conference in Atlanta, and I am just catching up.  Very exciting conference for all.  In fact, we have new guidelines listed below for embryo transfers.  Enjoy!

National USA – The ASRM revised their guidelines in August, which was published this past week in Fertility and Sterility.   These guidelines are a further attempt to multifetal pregnancies and certainly another step in the right direction while permitting individual treatment plans based on each patient’s unique circumstances.

California – The Governor signed into law on October 11, 2009, Assembly Bill No. 1317, which requires those advertising for egg donors to include the following language in their advertisements:

“Egg donation involves a screening process. Not all potential egg
donors are selected. Not all selected egg donors receive the
monetary amounts or compensation advertised. As with any medical
procedure, there may be risks associated with human egg donation.
Before an egg donor agrees to begin the egg donation process, and
signs a legally binding contract, she is required to receive specific
information on the known risks of egg donation. Consultation with
your doctor prior to entering into a donor contract is advised.”

National Debate - Is having a uterus a “pre-existing” condition?  Some apparently think so.  “Across health insurance markets, discriminatory industry practices put fair and affordable coverage out of reach for far too many women,” Greenberger testified on Oct. 15. “We have heard repeatedly from predominately female businesses that have learned that their health insurance premiums are higher because of the gender of their employees.”

Fortunately, Over the weekend, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new state law that bans gender rating, which is the practice of charging women higher insurance rates than men for the same services.

France - A woman is denied her dead husband’s sperm for the purposes of creating a child by the French courts.  A French court on Thursday turned down a bid by a 39-year-old widow to retrieve her late husband’s frozen sperm in order to have his child by insemination.

Fabienne Justel wants a sperm bank in the western city of Rennes to hand over samples from her husband Dominique, who died of cancer three months after their marriage in June 2008.

Justel hopes to use the sperm to undergo insemination in a foreign country, since it is illegal to carry out the procedure in France after the death of one of the partners, or in cases of divorce or separation.

Have a great weekend!

But the court turned down her request, ruling that she was “seeking to circumvent the application of French law prohibiting post-mortem insemination.”

Justel said she was “saddened” but not surprised by the decision and that she planned to appeal.

“It doesn’t surprise me, I was under no illusions,” she told AFP. “But I want my husband’s sperm given back to me. I have no time to lose.”

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