Auntie and Uncle
This weekend we went to see my wife's friend who last week gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
We weren't entirely sure how we'd cope, and to be honest, I haven't been that enamoured with other people's babies in the past (I was also scared of breaking the baby!)
Well, I can say that she is such a beautiful, peaceful little baby. The house was noisy with friends, family and the TV, but this little girl just lay there, looking quite content. She even had a couple of little naps whilst we were visiting, and not one peep. It sounds crazy, but I got freaked at one point and had to check that she was breathing, she was that quiet!
Her parents seemed absolutely chuffed to bits, and it was nice to see that mum wasn't being too protective. I hope she grows up to be a well-rounded lady, and I'm looking forward to seeing her grow. Maybe one day we will have our own little lady to be her friend.
On the front page of the Independent on Sunday on 30th July 2006, this headline caught my eye.
There is a current shortage in the number of active sperm donors in the UK, which is blamed in part on the change in the law last year, which means that children born from donated sperm are entitled, at age 18, to contact their biological father. Apparently as few as 10 sperm donors a month are being recruited in the UK, with sperm banks becoming so empty that couples are having to wait up to 5 years for a suitable sperm match.
Although it's not 'game over' yet for retrieving sperm from my testes, sperm donation is one of the routes available to us in our situation. But given my ethnic background, and the lack of donors, it would probably be a question of buying in sperm from donors abroad - which is a weird proposition.
As it stands, I'm still waiting to hear from the consultant re. my blood tests. I hate waiting.
Driving home from work yesterday evening, an item caught my ear on the PM programme on Radio 4.
A team, led by Professor Karim Nayernia at the Georg-August University in Gottingen, Germany, using stem cells taken from a mouse embryo, managed to isolate some stem cells that had begun to develop as sperm. They encouraged these spermatological stem cells to grow into adult sperm cells, injected some of these into female mouse eggs, took the successfully fertilised eggs, and implanted them into a female mouse. Seven baby mice were successfully produced.
I think they took about 600 or so attempts to successfully fertilise and implant eggs, and the baby mice that were produced had some abnormalities - some were very large, some very small, and some developed tumours. (Read the abstract from the research paper).
Professor Nayernia claims that this and additional research will help us to understand how men produce sperm, and why some men are unable to do this.
Moving from this kind of mouse stem cell research to working with and 'creating' human spermatological stem cells is going to take some time and work, and there are a number of ethical, technical and safety barriers to be overcome. Also, some researchers suggest that using adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood consistently produces more promising results than using embryonic stem cells.
I'll let the scientists figure this one out, but I don't reckon any kind of treatment will be available for a while yet.
Consultant
I had my appointment with the specialist at my local BUPA hospital yesterday morning.
Having never been to a BUPA hospital before, I was quite impressed with it. Very nice and clean, modern appearance. I can understand why private healthcare in the UK is becoming more popular; compare this environment to your average provincial hospital, with its 'temporary' portable cabins, tired looking decor and furnishings.
Anyway, the consulant asked me very similar questions to those the GP asked. Of course, he was able to feel that I had two testes (hallelujah!), but told me that they were small. He told me much that I had already found out myself - that there was a possibility that the testes were producing sperm, that there is about a 20% success rate for extraction of sperm etc. etc. I don't know why it makes it better when you're told this by a specialist, I guess that's the 'authority power' (hey, my Psych degree is proving to be useful after all!)
The consultant ordered blood to be taken, so that my white blood cells can be cultured in order to conduct a genetic examination of my chromosomes. I'm not entirely sure what he'll be looking for - maybe I haven't got a well-formed Y chromosome or something. There's a possibility that there may be a genetic defect, and I think that that may be looked at as well. Anyhow, I'll find out about that all in a couple of month's time.
He seemed pleasant enough, and was surprised at our lightheartedness about the whole affair. My wife and I agree, there's no point in worrying too much about something that you can't control - but let's see what we can do about it.
