Clay Aiken gay dad

After Ricky Martin became dad with the help of a surrogate mom, yet another gay celebrity Clay Aiken has also become a dad. Yes, he also used a surrogate, but unlike in typical cases like this one, when you have to pay the surrogate mother, his platonic friend Jaymes Foster decided to carry the child for him and she became pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The two will also raise the child together and the son's name will reflect both parents and is being called Parker Foster Aiken.

By the way, he is one of those Evangelical Christians and plans on following his faith despite strong hatred for gays among Born Again Christians and strong opposition to their becoming parents or adopting children, despite overwhelming data that they are excellent parents.

How did Nicole Kidman get pregnant?

It is widely speculated that one reason for the divorce of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise was her inability to give birth to a child - she had a miscarriage. The couple had adopted children. Once she got married to Keith Urban, and without any fertility treatment, she got pregnant and gave birth to a healthy child (daughter Sunday Rose). So even though Nicole was at an advanced age for motherhood, she got pregnant naturally.

How did it happen?

According to her, while shooting the movie "Australia," she went swimming in an Australian Outback waterfall near Kununurra, a small town in far northern part of Western Australia state.

"Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now," she says.

Now before you start planning a trip to Australia, remember that there is no such thing as a fertility waterfall. It is just superstition and a result of coincidence. Yes, fertility diet and lifestyle changes can alter a woman's fertility and improve the sperm quality of a man.

And to improve the chances of pregnancy further, one of the things that experts now recommend is a procreation vacation. The idea is to be in a beautiful place where you are both relaxed and as you track your ovulation, you can make love at that perfect moment because both of you are available and ready. If that is the only reason you want to travel to Australia, go right ahead, but do not expect anything more.

Single moms by choice

When Ricky Martin fathered twins with the help of a surrogate, we were all surprised by his decision. It turns out that very few men try to take on the role of a single dad. On the other hand, it is a growing trend among women who are rapidly adopting what is know as "single motherhood by choice."

Why single moms?

As women have become more economically independent, they have realized that they do not need men to either support themselves or to become moms. In any case, with 50% divorce rate, the faith in the institution of marriage is already at an all time low among the educated women. With so many single parents out there, women are already seeing that not only it is more likely, it is also possible.

Another major reason for the trend is that many career-minded women put dating and marriage on hold while they build their careers. As they reach their late 30s, they realize that it is increasingly harder to find a man. Since compromising who they want to marry is not on their priority list, they simply do not want to miss their biological clocks and go ahead with pregnancy while still pursuing their dream man.

Another major change is the availability of IUI and IVF to lesbians and single women. While it was somewhat difficult to do so in the past, many single women can now easily find a sperm donor and fertility clinic to help them in the process.

Mobile phone dangers for sperm

I had reported earlier that men who use cell phones may experience lower sperm quality. It appears that more evidence is coming that cell phone radiation may do a lot of harm to the reproductive organs.

In another study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic, they have found that simply keeping a mobile phone turned on and kept in your pants pocket may lead to excessive damage to sperm production.

Obviously, the cell phone companies are not even discussing this because it will hurt their business, but till the debate is settled, here is a word of advice for all those couples trying to get pregnant: keep your cell phone away from your body. You can always put it in your handbag or on your desk while you are working but definitely several feet away from your body to the extent possible. It is also possible to use one of those bluetooth headsets that minimize radiation.

Naomi Campbell pregnancy

One of the biggest challenges that college-educated, ambitious women face is that they have to balance work and life and have to make choices that can come to haunt them later. While the best time to get married (the right age to get married, according to several studies, is late 20s) and have children is in your late twenties to early thirties, career-minded women do not have that freedom.

And with all the commitment phobia among men, long-term relationships and marriages ending up in divorce 50% of the time, is not rare to see a woman end up close to 40 with no child.

And we all know that pregnancy after 40 is nearly impossible without IUI or IVF or some other kind of fertility treatment, and even if that happens, there are higher possibilities of genetic disorders.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is one such woman who is now 38 and realizes that she does not have children. It turns out that while she was not actively trying to get pregnant, though, the Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin will definitely prove to be a rich father the way Salma Hayek landed a rich father Francois-Henri Pinault for her daughter. What she learned recently that she was technically infertile until a surgery corrected it. Now she is saying that she is ready to start a family.

The message here is that if you are not getting pregnant after trying for 12 months, it is time to seek fertility treatment.

How did Sarah Palin get pregnant?

While it is great news that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin got pregnant at the age of 44 (when it is nearly impossible for a woman to get pregnant) and had a child (Trig) but the bad news is that the child suffers from Down's Syndrome (it is widely known that children of parents of advanced age suffer from a variety of diseases if there is no miscarriage).

So how did she become pregnant?

It was a mistake. Many women stop their birth control around this age (Palin has some pretty extremist beliefs and it is not clear if she believes in birth control) and are often surprised that they become pregnant. Most women will lose the baby in a miscarriage.

Planned pregnancy. Many couples do not realize the risks that they are taking when they try to become pregnant in their 40s. Considering how clueless this woman is (her own daughter is a teenage mom and her speeches and statements make it obvious that she is simple an airhead; there was a widespread rumor that Trig was actually her grandchild that she adopted by faking a pregnancy so that she could shield her daughter but after her daughter was visibly pregnant that rumor died), it would not be a surprise that she genuinely believes that she could have yet another child at the ripe age of 44 (like Michelle Duggar).

Possible use of artificial reproductive therapy (ART). Palin already had four children, and though she had expressed a desire for a lot of children, there is no information available if that was the case.

Older fathers responsible for bipolar disorder in children

If you recall, previously I wrote about poor sperm quality and infertility in men, in many cases due to advanced age. Many couples wrongly assume that it is difficult for a woman to get pregnant after 40 but men can continue to procreate well into their 60s and 70s without any consequences.

New research from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm says that "Children whose father was 55 years old or more (at the time of conception) run about a 37-percent greater risk of suffering from (bipolar disorder) than children whose fathers were in their 20s," according to lead researcher Emma Frans. In case you do not know what bipolar disorder is, it is enough to understand that these individuals go through severe mood changes that can make them severely depressed to the point of becoming maniacs and committing suicide. They are also more likely to suffer from schizophrenia and autism.

The reason is the same as it is for women: degradation of DNA in sperms.

So what does it mean?

A couple with any partner being of advanced age really has to think if they want to bring a child into the world. Of course, genetic testing is helpful, but if one partner is really old, it is best to consider adoption.