The Health News – 10 October 2016

Overview:
•  The results of prenatal testing for Down syndrome will be delivered differently, to ensure women are not swayed to terminate their pregnancies. Changes follow a complaint to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner around the use of negative language such as “risk” during a diagnosis.

• Half of all Australian employees will experience workplace bullying during their careers, new research finds. Researchers surveyed more than 1,500 workers as part of the study and literature review, which was commissioned by beyondblue.The results of the study, conducted in 2014, were being released for the first time, to coincide with Mental Health Week.

• Emelie Eriksson, who was born without a womb, received the organ from her mother and nearly two years ago, in a world first, gave birth to son Albin. Her operation was performed by pioneering Swedish doctor Mats Brannstrom, who is the only person in the world to deliver babies — five so far — from women with donated wombs.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the  10th of October 2016. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-09/national-change-in-down-syndrome-reporting-after-complaint/7915222

The results of prenatal testing for Down syndrome will be delivered differently, to ensure women are not swayed to terminate their pregnancies.

Changes follow a complaint to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner around the use of negative language such as “risk” during a diagnosis.

The complaint was lodged by Launceston woman Rebecca Kelly, whose four-year-old son Ryan has Down syndrome.

While she did not undergo testing during her pregnancy, she said she was worried about those who did.

“[Women] are often given the diagnosis in negative terms, so first of all talking about ‘a risk’ — ‘I’m sorry, I have some bad news, the results are back and there’s a high risk’,” Ms Kelly said.

“We don’t talk about the risk of winning Lotto, we talk about the risk of people dying of cancer. Risk is inherently associated with bad outcomes.”

Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner found the use of negative language in a Down syndrome diagnosis could breach the Anti-Discrimination Act.

It has prompted a change in the national guidelines for prenatal testing.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidelines now point to more neutral terminology like “chance” or “probability”.

Ms Kelly hoped the move would reduce the stigma around a Down syndrome diagnosis.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Michael Gannon welcomed the change, but admitted it might take some time for doctors to adapt.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-09/half-all-australians-experience-workplace-bullying-survey-finds/7916230

Half of all Australian employees will experience workplace bullying during their careers, new research finds.

Of those bullied, 40 per cent of people experienced workplace bullying early in their career and between 5 and 7 per cent had been bullied in the previous six months, a study, by the University of Wollongong found.

Young males, who had limited social support at work, and those who worked in stressful environments were found to be most at risk.

The report described workplace bullying as repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker that created a risk to health and safety.

Under the definition, it said this could include verbal abuse and humiliation, social isolation, withholding information and spreading rumours.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,500 workers as part of the study and literature review, which was commissioned by beyondblue.

The results of the study, conducted in 2014, were being released for the first time, to coincide with Mental Health Week.

The chief executive officer of beyondblue Georgie Harman said there was a strong link between workplace bullying and mental health.

In 2010, the Productivity Commission found that bullying at work costs Australian organisations between $6 billion and $36 billion a year in lost productivity.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-07/woman-gives-birth-using-mothers-womb/7913646

A woman has given birth to a baby from the same womb she was born from, after receiving a uterus from her mother.

Emelie Eriksson, who was born without a womb, received the organ from her mother and nearly two years ago, in a world first, gave birth to son Albin.

“It’s like science fiction,” the 30-year-old from a town near Stockholm said.

Her operation was performed by pioneering Swedish doctor Mats Brannstrom, who is the only person in the world to deliver babies — five so far — from women with donated wombs.

Ms Eriksson was 15 when she began wondering why she had not got her period and tests later revealed she had been born without a womb and doctors said she would never be able to carry her own children.

In her early 20s, Ms Eriksson began reading about scientists attempting to create organs from stem cells and was told about the womb transplant research being pursued by Dr Brannstrom.

She described the novel project to her mother one Sunday evening.

“I thought this was something that could only happen [far] in the future,” Marie Eriksson, 53, said.

“But then I said to Emelie, ‘I’m so old, I don’t need my womb and I don’t want any more children. This is your only chance to have a child and you should take it’.”

Ms Eriksson emailed Dr Brannstrom and after dozens of medical tests for both Ms Ericksson and her mother, they were accepted into his trial testing the pioneering transplant.

After a year, Ms Eriksson was finally ready to attempt to get pregnant and Dr Brannstrom’s team transferred a single embryo into her womb, which Ms Eriksson and Mr Chrysong had created during in-vitro fertilisation.

An initial pregnancy test returned a negative result, but another a week later revealed a baby had been conceived.

Dr Brannstom began researching whether uterus transplants were possible after a young Australian cervical cancer patient asked about them after she was told she had to lose her womb to survive.

After successful uterus transplants in mice in 1999 and tests in rats, sheep, pigs and monkeys, the surgery was first performed on humans in 2012.