A government survey has revealed that U.S. fertility clinics routinely use donated eggs for stem cell research without consent, despite researchers for the journal Fertility and Sterility finding that a third of American’s are opposed to it. However, experts say that the survey does not make clear whether disclosing the information would have an effect on women’s choice to donate.

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Biologists in America have been the first to perform the recording of electrical currents that pulse through human sperm cells. The study is thought to be a fundamental step in understanding sperm biology by recording the molecules that control male fertility, demonstrating a vital process of fertilisation. The San Francisco researchers are aiming for their work to provide hope to infertile couples and in addition, help develop a male birth control pill.

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It has been found that over 100 multiple pregnancies were aborted last year, with experts claiming the rise of ‘selective reductions,’ the termination of a foetus and continuation of the pregnancy to bear another child, are due to the increase of multiple pregnancies following IVF treatment. The figures, released by the Department of Health, are likely to renew the debate over the practice in which IVF clinics increase couple’s chances of conceiving by implanting multiple embryos.

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An American entrepreneur, CEO Stephen Bollinger, claims he’s invented a device to help couples conceive, based on a technique called ‘intracervical insemination.’

The product has received $4 million in investment, although it has yet to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bollinger aims to market the product to healthy couples having trouble conceiving, as opposed to those with diagnosed fertility problems. ‘The Stork’ will retail at around $79 and will require a prescription.

A poll has revealed that thousands of women in the UK unable to conceive naturally have been forced into debt, going as far as to remortgage their homes in order to meet the costs of ‘rip off IVF.’ The results coincide with comments made by Britain’s leading fertility doctor, who criticises the exploitative IVF clinics for regularly charging couples double the cost of treatment, which ranges between £4000 and £8000 per cycle.

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A Californian man, Trent Arsenault, 36, has been providing sperm, free of charge, to up to 75 families, fathering 14 children since 2005, claiming his sperm is in high demand due to its ‘organic’ quality and fresh donation.

Yet he has been ordered to ‘cease and desist’ his free sperm bank and is now in danger of facing a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison, as the Food and Drug Administration, a regulator of sperm banks, state that Arsenault is guilty of ‘making human cells’ and has failed to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of disease.

Scientists in Argentina and the US have been carrying out preliminary research to discover whether there is a significant link between the hours spent using Wi-Fi on laptops and sperm damage. The study, published in the Fertility and Sterility journal has deduced that ejaculated sperm exposed to a wireless internet connection over a period of four hours showed significant damage.

An American fertility clinic is being sued after a 36 year old man discovered that his former partner had swiped his sperm without his knowledge or consent and used it to inseminate herself, three months after the relationship ended.

China is currently in the midst of suffering from a huge shortage of sperm donors, with the 5-10% who do donate having low quality sperm or being altogether infertile, often caused by pollution and radiation exposure and stressful lifestyles.

It is thought that potential sperm donors are prevented from donating by the lengthy screening process, the ever increasing mobile population and the adoption of traditional values.

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After 18 hours in labour with her first baby, Sarah Sergeant was exhausted and decided she needed an epidural to relieve the ­agonising pain.

An epidural is a form of anaesthetic administered through a tiny tube in the small of your back — it works by ­numbing the nerves so you no longer feel the pain of labour contractions. ­
Epidurals are given to around a third of women during childbirth and are a standard procedure.

But when Sarah’s anaesthetist arrived, it took him at least four attempts to get the needle in the right place in her spine.