First clinical report of 179 surrogacy cases in the UK: Implications for policy and practice

Surrogacy continues to rise in popularity in the UK despite the inability of those supporting safe and professional practice to advertise to recruit surrogates. In our HFEA-regulated IVF centres, both the number of surrogacy treatments and the proportion of those undertaken on behalf of same-sex male intended parents (IPs) increased year on year in the period studied. From our cohort of 108 surrogates, 71 babies were born to 61 surrogates (with 5 pregnancies ongoing) by February 2022. No statistically significant difference in live birth rates (LBR) was observed between the heterosexual couples and same-sex male couples. Sample sizes of single IPs and transgender IPs were too small (n<5) to compare. The use of vitrified oocytes in surrogacy treatments has increased year on year, whilst fresh oocyte use has declined since peaking in 2019. There was no significant difference in LBR between fresh and vitrified oocyte usage across the cohort. Conclusions: The number of surrogacy treatments in our clinics is steadily increasing, with clear evidence that the proportion of same sex male couples accessing surrogacy is a major contributor to this growth. Vitrified/warmed oocyte use now outstrips the use of fresh oocytes in our surrogacy treatment cycles. The results represent a strong basis for supporting liberalising regulatory reform expected to be introduced in the UK later this yea

Oxytocin: Crossing the Bridge between Basic Science and Pharmacotherapy

Is oxytocin the hormone of happiness? Probably not. However, this small nine amino acid peptide is involved in a wide variety of physiological and pathological functions such as sexual activity, penile erection, ejaculation, pregnancy, uterus contraction, milk ejection, maternal behavior, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, social bonding, and stress, which makes oxytocin and its receptor potential candidates as targets for drug therapy. In this review, we address the issues of drug design and specificity and focus our discussion on recent findings on oxytocin and its heterotrimeric G protein-coupled receptor OTR. In this regard, we will highlight the following topics: (i) the role of oxytocin in behavior and affectivity, (ii) the relationship between oxytocin and stress with emphasis on the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal axis, (iii) the involvement of oxytocin in pain regulation and nociception, (iv) the specific action mechanisms of oxytocin on intracellular Ca2+ in the hypothalamo neurohypophysial system (HNS) cell bodies, (v) newly generated transgenic rats tagged by a visible fluorescent protein to study the physiology of vasopressin and oxytocin, and (vi) the action of the neurohypophysial hormone outside the central nervous system, including the myometrium, heart and peripheral nervous system. As a short nine amino acid peptide, closely related to its partner peptide vasopressin, oxytocin appears to be ideal for the design of agonists and antagonists of its receptor. In addition, not only the hormone itself and its binding to OTR, but also its synthesis, storage and release can be endogenously and exogenously regulated to counteract pathophysiological states. Understanding the fundamental physiopharmacology of the effects of oxytocin is an important and necessary approach for developing a potential pharmacotherapy

Transmuscular migration of solid silicone band [17]

10.1038/sj.eye.6702824Eye2171013-101