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Source：http://www.celebrities-with-diseases.com/celebrities/padma-lakshmi%E2%80%99s-struggle-with-endometriosis-4558.html
Padma Lakshmi’s struggle with endometriosis
Published: April 10, 2010
Padma Lakshmi is an accomplished actress, author, jewelery designer and TV presenter. She is also a chronic sufferer of endometriosis – a condition whereby cells lining the womb grow outside of it potentially causing severe abdominal pain and fertility problems.
The condition is notorious for being misdiagnosed, as there is yet no easy non-invasive method to detect it, meaning many women end up suffering needlessly.
Following her own diagnosis, Padma Lakshmi found that many were not aware of the condition and made it her mission to speak out about endometriosis. She told People:
“It’s a very personal issue. It has to do with the most private aspect of a woman’s life, and when I had to have surgery, I had to miss work and explain why. I just found that in talking to people, not many people knew what it was.”
“I just thought,“ she continues, “I had a responsibility to let other young women know so they wouldn’t have to go through what I went though. If you get tested at an early age, it’s very simple to be treated for it and it will save you from a lifetime of pain and stress.”
Padma Lakshmi fell pregnant despite having endometriosis
The 39-year-old even went so far as to set up an organisation devoted to the cause. She co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America with Dr. Tamer Seckin, who told People that the condition is probably the most common reproductive health disease, but is also “the most misunderstood, misdiagnosed, mismanaged and mistreated. And women, because of that, end up being infertile and in chronic pain“.
It is thought that many women have endometriosis and do not suffer any symptoms. Later in life, they may find themselves unable to conceive. There are various treatments for the condition, including hormone therapy and pain killers, but often surgery to remove endometriosis cells is necessary to relieve symptoms and improve fertility. This is especially important for conception, as the cells often stray into neighbouring reproductive organs such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.
Padma Lakshmi was operated on and now claims to be fine, but says “it was a very trying ordeal“. The Top Chef host has managed to fall pregnant and gave birth to baby girl in February 2010. According to Popeater, a representative for the star described the pregnancy as “a medical miracle“.
However, Dr. Zhanna Fridel claims that although endometriosis can make conception more difficult, it does not cause competely infertility. NY Daily News interviewed the obstetrician and gynaecologist:
“If it is causing the fallopian tubes to be blocked, getting pregnant is a little more difficult than if it was in the ovaries,” she says. “Women who have endometriosis in the tubes may be advised to get pregnant using in vitro fertilization.”
“We are getting better at diagnosing it because we have a higher suspicion of it,” The specialist added.Other celebrities who have suffered fertility problems include Helena Bonham-Carter, Halle Berry, Courteney Cox-Arquette and Marcia Cross.
Images: Wikimedia Commons and PR Photos
Source：http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/13/family-planning-pregnancy-fertility-infertility-forbes-woman-health-older-moms.html
Well-Being
Why Women Are Freezing Their Eggs
Camilla Webster, 04.13.10, 05:15 PM EDT
Some career-minded women are freezing their eggs so they can continue their climb up the corporate ladder.


Some game-changing fertility technology is promising to let your baby-bearing clock tick well past the witching hour. Extend Fertility Centers, an egg-harvesting, freezing and storage company, can't put an infant in your crib, but it promises to keep your eggs safe until pregnancy becomes an option. An ambitious young businesswoman can now jockey for the corner suite while putting her future family on ice.


We spoke with a financial-services executive we'll call Hillary, to conceal her identity, about her decision two years ago, at 39, to have her eggs harvested and stored at an Extend Facility center. She learned about the egg-freezing technology through an obstetrician friend and used $20,000 of her Wall Street bonus to go through two cycles of the procedure. She now has more than 20 eggs at the ready for use when the time is right. "You're 23, and you look at the managing director who's 40 and has no kids," says Hillary. "And you're, like, oh, she's thrown it all away. Well, it's not the case, reproductive technology being what it is. Totally not the case."


In Pictures: Celebrities Who've Used IVF


In vitro fertilization is a hot topic on and off the silver screen in 2010. Just one cycle can cost around $15,000; wealthy celebrity females like Celine Dion and Courtney Cox-Arquette have latched onto fertility treatments in the quest for more offspring. Jennifer Lopez, who's rumored to have used IVF to conceive twins, has an upcoming movie, The Back Up Plan, about a single woman who uses in-vitro fertilization.


The following stars are not only reveling in the gifts of IVF motherhood, but they're also writing books about fertility, raising awareness of the challenges infertile couples face or are taking the public by surprise as the supermoms of multiples.


According to The Fertility Sourcebook, a woman's chance of conceiving drops with each passing decade. A healthy 20-something has an 87% chance of getting pregnant over the course of a year, compared to 52% for a 35-year-old. But in vitro fertilization now allows women to conceive more easily at older ages. According to data collected by the NYU fertility center, at 30, women who had IVF had a 62% delivery rate. At 40, with IVF, the rate drops to 28% and by age 42 it drops to 14%.


The rates in the study demonstrate the relative decline in fertility as a function of age, so egg freezing can provide some peace of mind for a a woman who is going to delay childbearing. "We've seen a progressive increase in the number of women choosing to freeze their eggs, and part of it because we now have data and an awareness of its relative success,” says Dr. Jamie Grifo, program director of the NYU Fertility Center.


The procedure is also appealing to women who want to focus on their career without sacrificing the option of having a child. “It's a disruptive technology that levels that playing field between men and women and it allows them to get on with their career. This is not a guarantee but an insurance policy. We can give you a better chance to have the family that you want,” he adds.


More than 1,000 babies have been born worldwide from implanted frozen eggs. Extend Fertility claims that 14 of those babies were born to women who had participated in the company's multi-clinic frozen egg study. Extend Fertility is the only company that offers egg freezing on a national basis through its affiliated clinics in New York City, Beverly Hills, Boston, Seattle and Austin. The company's medical advisory board recommends that women freeze their eggs before age 35, and not past the age of 40, although women over 40 are evaluated on an individual basis.


It's also important to note that in addition to age limits, there are pre-cycle tests required for any woman seeking IVF treatment, including Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) tests and transvaginal ultrasounds (this analyzes the health of the eggs in the ovaries and helps determines if the follicles are responding to the hormones).These tests help determine if a woman is a good candidate for IVF, regardless of her age. Sadly, some women aren't able to produce enough eggs to make the process worth the financial cost.


The treatment cycle to retrieve eggs for freezing is the same as that for in vitro fertilization: an orientation session, a birth control regimen, ultrasounds, self-administered injections, in-clinic monitoring that culminate in the egg-retrieval process.


In order to collect the eggs, doctors use a transvaginal ultrasound to locate the eggs and then remove them by inserting a needle in the ovaries through the vaginal wall. Women undergoing the procedure are sedated and usually experience little discomfort. The procedure lasts about 30 minutes and most women return to work the next day.


More than 350 women have frozen eggs in the partner facilities of Extend Fertility, which charges $400 a year for storage. However, it should be noted that there are no guarantees that these eggs will result in live births. The procedure is still considered experimental and is not covered by health insurance.


Now that Hillary's invested in her future babies, she might want to consider adding her new fertility status to her profile on Match.com
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Q1: One day if you are informed you are infertility and maybe being menopause, will you be sure you want to do IVF despite the low rate of pregnancy and high pay of the procedures?
Q2: Some career-minded women are freezing their eggs so they can continue their climb up the corporate ladder, what is your opinion about this concept?