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Ireland is one of 5 European countries which currently lacks specific legislation on Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR). Draft legislation was introduced in 2017 and revised in 2022 with a view to enacting legislation this year (2022). This study sought to ascertain the views of healthcare professionals to proposed AHR legislation, prior to the implementation of that legislation.A survey questionnaire based on all clinically relevant aspects of the Irish draft AHR Bill 2017 was distributed to relevant healthcare professionals using an online platform.Over 200 healthcare personnel indicated strong support for the availability of AHR techniques, access to treatment for all patient populations regardless of relationship or gender status, and appropriate legislation and regulation in the field. Views of respondents are at variance with several proposals surrounding surrogacy, with 84 % favouring a pre-birth order to assign parentage from birth, rather than the proposed birth order 6 weeks after birth. The majority also support legislation around international surrogacy. Contrary to the draft Bill, respondents believe that men, as well as women, should be able to use posthumously any stored gametes or embryos belonging to the deceased partner or the couple. While the majority favour altruistic gamete donation, respondents support more generous compensation for donors, such as compensation for time lost at work.This study has uniquely ascertained the views of healthcare professionals to imminent AHR legislation. It is hoped that the results will help inform the national legislation as it nears completion. Similar studies could help other countries, and policy bodies such as ESHRE to frame good legislation in this extremely specialised and complex field.

“Oh, home of tears, but let her bear this blazoned to the end of time: No nation rose so white and fair, none fell so pure of crime.” So reads the stanza from a poem popular in the South during the Civil War engraved on a Confederate soldier statue unveiled in 1911 on the lawn of the Cooke County courthouse in Gainesville, Texas (Figure 1). It is one of two Confederate statues long on display in the city of some 16,000 some ninety miles north of Dallas. This larger-than-life soldier, standing high upon a column, towers over an important public space. It is among many Confederate monuments that long occupied public spaces across the United States, often with little local debate, despite their often white-supremacist inscriptions.

Study question To investigate the perceptions of health care practitioners in Ireland to a draft Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) Bill, currently being assess by government. Summary answer There is strong support for AHR and for national legislation in this field among healthcare professionals working in Ireland. What is known already AHR legislation is essential to protect the rights of those accessing, born from and providing AHR services. Ireland is one of the only countries in the EU which lacks specific AHR legislation. The General Scheme of an AHR Bill was published in 2017 and is currently awaiting review and approval by government. Study design, size, duration An anonymous 25-item questionnaire was distributed via secure email link. This was a detailed 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire based on clinically relevant aspects of the Irish draft AHR Bill. Consultants and trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology were identified through The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. A snow balling approach was used to recruit General Practitioners and all Fertility Clinics in Ireland were asked to distribute the questionnaire to their staff. The study remained open for 28days. Participants/materials, setting, methods Participants included Consultant and trainee Obstetrician Gynaecologists, general practitioners and multidisciplinary staff at Irish fertility clinics. The questionnaire focused on six key factors; a national AHR regulatory authority, AHR treatment type and availability, age limits for AHR treatment, counselling prior to ART, posthumous use of gametes and embryos and legislations surrounding surrogacy. Main results and the role of chance In total 245 responses were received. The majority of respondents were female aged 31-59years. 42.2% (n = 103/244) are currently working or had previous experience working with ART. 93% (n = 215/231) of respondents believe that Ireland should have a national authority to regulate AHR – similar to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the UK. Over 80% of participants strongly agreed with access to IVF and gamete and embryo vitrification being available in Ireland. The majority of participants also supported oocyte and sperm donation (69% and 71% respectively). Support for more recent technologies in AHR was variable. Over 50% of respondents strongly disagreed with sex selection for non-medical reasons and less than half of participants strongly agreed with ART for single men and transgender males/females. 80.5% (n = 170/211) of respondents felt that there should be an upper age limit for women receiving access to ART and 64.5% (n = 136/211) felt there should be an upper age limit for men. Those who had experience working in an AHR clinic felt more strongly that sperm / egg donors should be paid a modest fee for donation (p = 0.04; p = 0.03 respectively) and that counselling should be mandatory for every person considering gamete donation (p = 0.0233). Limitations, reasons for caution Due to reliance on third parties in distribution of the survey to target groups, a response rate could not be calculated, a limitation of the study. A further limitation is the high detail of the survey questions, which seemed to lead to participant fatigue with later questions. Wider implications of the findings National legislation on AHR is both needed and desired by health care professionals working in Ireland. It is hoped that results of this study will help inform the proposed national AHR legislation as it nears completion and in turn, elevate Irelands low position in the European Atlas of Fertility Policies. Trial registration number not applicable

Aims The expedited development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines has raised concerns for some, with vaccine hesitancy described in many populations. A U.S. study assessing fertility patients attitudes towards the COVID -19 vaccine revealed that over half were unsure, or would not accept the vaccine if offered. Only 7.4% of participants in this study were male. We therefore sought to assess the perspective of male fertility patients towards COVID-19 vaccination. Methods Men with a fertility appointment were invited to complete an anonymous 21-item questionnaire. Results Willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccination was influenced by stage of fertility journey. Overall, 76% (n=102) of participants were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Men with a pregnant partner were most likely to accept or have already accepted the vaccine (97%, 30/31). Conclusion Although concerns around COVID-19 vaccines persist, this study demonstrates the growing rate of acceptance and engagement among the male fertility population.

Study question Is it safe for young women to delay hysterectomy for endometrial carcinoma or complex hyperplasia, have fertility treatment and carry a pregnancy to term? Summary answer Fertility treatment and livebirth are possible after a diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma or complex hyperplasia but close co-operation between fertility and gynae-oncology services is key. What is known already While predominantly a disease of postmenopausal women, 7% of cases of endometrial adenocarcinoma or complex hyperplasia occur in women under 40 years. The standard surgical treatment is hysterectomy, which is curative in the majority of cases. In younger women wishing to preserve fertility, conservative treatment may be considered. The fertility outcomes in this population are not well reported, possibly because fertility preservation is not always discussed or considered when faced with the devastating diagnosis of cancer or pre-cancer in the younger woman or because of concerns regarding the impact of pregnancy or ovarian stimulation on a predominantly oestrogen sensitive tumour. Study design, size, duration This case series retrospectively evaluated the outcomes of 6 women with endometrial adenocarcinoma or complex hyperplasia who attended Merrion Fertility Clinic, Dublin from 2013 to 2020 and who were managed conservatively. These women initially presented with a history of infertility for which they underwent routine ultrasonography, which then led to hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy. The histopathology of all 6 women showed an incidental finding of endometrial adenocarcinoma or complex hyperplasia. Participants/materials, setting, methods Patient files and a fertility clinic online database were reviewed to identify those with a diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma or complex hyperplasia. Their treatment course and reproductive outcomes were followed up, as was there eventual definitive surgical treatment. Main results and the role of chance Six women attending our service over a 7 year period were found to have endometrial adenocarcinoma or hyperplasia. They ranged in age from 34 to 46(mean 39). All were nulliparous. Four of the women had adenocarcinoma and 2 had complex hyperplasia. One woman, aged 41, with grade II endometrial adencocarcinoma was deemed unsuitable for conservative management by the gynaecological oncology team. She underwent urgent total abdominal hysterectomy and is well. The remaining 5 women proceeded with conservative management with oral or local progesterone therapy for 6 to 12 months. This resulted in an inactive endometrium on follow-up endometrial biopsy. Once disease regression was achieved, assisted reproduction in the form of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was advised to ensure minimal time to pregnancy. Two of the women conceived using own egg IVF and two with donor eggs. All were successful in achieving at least one live birth. One had twins and one had 2 singletons, from a fresh and a frozen embryo transfer. The 6th woman has embryos frozen but has not yet had embryo transfer. Two of the 6 women ultimately had a hysterectomy, while 4 continue to be followed up with 6 monthly endometrial biopsies and progesterone therapy. Limitations, reasons for caution This study is limited by the small sample size. However, this paper reports on a niche subset of the population and finding larger sample sizes would be difficult to obtain. Wider implications of the findings: This case series illustrates the favourable outcome of pregnancy with IVF after either systemic or local progesterone therapy in early stage endometrial adenocarcinoma or complex hyperplasia. Early involvement of a fertility specialist may prove highly valuable in cases of fertility sparing treatment to increase each patient’s potential for pregnancy. Trial registration number Not applicable

So read some of the subheadings in a 14 June 1920 article in the Wiener Montags-Presse, analyzing prostitution in post-imperial Vienna. Many journalists—sometimes, even the same journalists—continued to employ the very vocabulary, “contagion,” “contamination,” and “filth,” in their postwar exposés that they had used in their prewar and wartime reports on prostitution in the Habsburg monarchy. Viennese officials in the newly founded German-Austria (Deutschösterreich) continued to consider tolerated prostitutes a “necessary evil,” arrest women they found engaging in clandestine prostitution, subject them to pelvic examinations for venereal disease (VD), and treat these women as operating outside the bounds of society. In fact, women who practiced prostitution were a long-entrenched part of the female working class. In matters of commercial sex, Austria-Hungary's defeat in the First World War did not constitute a decisive break with the past, but rather a juncture in long-term historical processes, as this analysis of post-imperial Vienna through 1923, when postwar inflation had been tamed, reveals.

Before Alys X. George ever mentions his name, both her book’s title and the image on the dust jacket—or, if the reader has missed that, a photograph of modernist author Hermann Barr standing next t...

The contributors to this volume, many of them younger scholars, analyze the relationships among the civil administration, military authorities, and home-front society to demonstrate the fluidity of...

The method of Hartman et al. for recovering stressed coliform bacteria was evaluated in a group study. The experimental medium, VRB-2, was more productive than VRB medium by 31% for raw milk, 70% for ice cream and 61% for cottage cheese. Differences in colony counts of coliforms caused by incubating for 48 vs. 24 h and by boiling vs. autoclaving were not statistically significant. Among 40 samples tested in two laboratories, counts obtained at 30 vs. 32 C were not significantly different.

Demands for vice police reform resulted in an Austrian-wide re-examination of regulation. This chapter analyzes Viennese debates over prostitution to demonstrate that the regulationists in the police headquarters and the Lower Austrian provincial government dominated the conversation about prostitution in Vienna, and thus policy in Austria until the end of the Monarchy, despite ongoing, scattered calls for more thoroughgoing reform. While government officials sought to protect public health and morals, police officials’ main concern initially was preventing a repetition of the Riehl scandal. Proposals involving increased police surveillance of brothels and prostitutes, which reflected the state’s ongoing scrutiny of a particular class of female citizens long categorized as “idle” or “criminal,” were quickly instituted. Other proposed changes were made more slowly or not at all.

Austria-Hungary’s defeat in the war was a juncture in long-term historical processes rather than a decisive break with the past in matters of morality. Bureaucratic transition did not necessarily parallel political transition, so there was no dramatic change in the regulation of prostitution in the states of the defunct Monarchy. Most legislation changed regulation only piecemeal in the first months and years after the war, incorporating various forms of control, which reflected attitudes about sexuality, particularly, women’s. Public attention to prostitution continued—anxiety about venereal disease and public hygiene, trafficking, public morals—yet with a modern inflection. Middle class, often female, reformers had more political power in the interwar “democracies” and accomplished change they could only dream about at the turn of the century. Finally, the scientific turn in understanding race and nation infected professional thinking about both the regulation of commercial sex and the women who engaged in it.

Clandestine prostitutes, who constituted the greatest number of prostitutes in large cities, were also part of the social fabric in less urban areas, where they sometimes caused insufficient nuisance to warrant sustained police attention. The term “clandestine,” which Austrian vice police, reformers, and other commentators used as if it were self-evident, was broadly employed. In addition to women who regularly walked the streets, the term encompassed women who occasionally or temporarily engaged in commercial sex to augment their low-paid employment, did not necessarily consider themselves prostitutes, and did not want to attract police attention. They were part of a wider working-class community, into which they disappeared when not engaged in clandestine prostitution. The relative ease with which these women could move in and out of social identities helps explain why few of them were willing to register with vice police and be stigmatized as a prostitutes.

The Ministry of Interior issued a decree on 21 November 1906 soliciting proposals for revision of regulation from all provincial governors on regulation in the large cities in their jurisdiction with large industrial installations or military garrisons. Respondents across Austria addressed four major issues: 1) the utility of regulating prostitution on the example of the tolerated brothels; 2) the danger prostitutes posed to public health; and less often, 3) the social origins of local prostitutes; and 4) the social profile of clients. Responses reveal varying attitudes toward, experiences with, and understandings of, regulation. They demonstrate an urban-rural division in attitudes toward the efficacy of regulated prostitution. The reactions underscore the difference between monitoring in many small-to-medium-sized municipalities, where police knew many of the actors personally, and the anonymity that prevailed in the Empire’s larger cities, where authorities often considered regulation the best of a series of bad solutions.

Tolerated prostitutes were part of the Monarchy’s large under classes, which they moved into and out of during their careers. This chapter analyzes the background of tolerated prostitutes, how they entered the trade, and their movement into and out of brothels to argue that regulated prostitution was both contingent and permeable, revealing that brothel life could be a temporary or a long-term undertaking. It also demonstrates that tolerated prostitution was a multi-confessional, multigenerational, multinational, trans-Austrian enterprise. Those who participated in brothel prostitution commerce, from the women who sold their bodies, through the brothel keepers for whom they worked, and the procurers who helped them move from establishment to establishment, to the officials who sanctioned tolerated brothels, even the military, were familiar with the rhetoric of tolerated brothels as the form of prostitution that best protected public health and public morals.

This chapter analyses the widely publicized November 1906 trial of Regine Riehl, a Viennese brothel keeper of Jewish origin. Riehl faced charges of embezzlement, fraud, pandering, and other crimes associated with the operation of her establishment. The trial became a point of reference for discussions of the efficacy of regulated prostitution in Cisleithanian Austria. The proceedings generated a great deal of publicity because Riehl’s alleged gross maltreatment of the tolerated prostitutes she employed occurred in a bourgeois neighborhood near the center of the imperial capital. The chapter addresses both the trail itself and the varied ways the local and regional press reported it. In their one-dimensional descriptions and explanations, the prosecution and newspapers presented the prostitutes in this trial as simple, often passive, victims at the hands of Riehl, but closer examination of their behavior reveals that the women acted in a variety of ways.

This chapter explores a variety of issues central to the turn-of-the-century Austrian panic over trafficking. They include anti-Semitism, Jews as protagonists and victims, and mass migration in an urbanizing world, as well as why particular Austrian cities were associated with the trade in women. The chapter analyzes the government’s domestic and international efforts to combat trafficking, as well as the role bourgeois reform organizations played. It explores the relationship between the trafficker and the trafficked, arguing that these women and girls were not simply victims, but sometimes willing participants, or something in between, in order to sketch a more nuanced picture of turn-of-the-century “white slaving.” The term “trafficker” is employed to reflect the way sources (the state, journalists, reform groups) viewed the issue, not because it can be proved that the problem was as widespread as they claimed.

Few forms of socially deviant behavior received so much attention in the sexually saturated Austrian fin de siecle as Madchenhandel or trafficking in girls. Trafficking in women and girls, also known as “white-slave trafficking,” had also existed in preindustrial Cisleithania, but the discourse from the turn of the century focused above all on Bukovina and Galicia, two impoverished provinces in the eastern reaches of the Monarchy with large Jewish populations. This discussion reflected concerns about the need for social control in an increasingly anonymous, modernizing, urbanizing, and capitalist society. Certainly, Madchenhandel was in many ways a modern crime, a crime associated particularly with Jews, who were popularly believed to supply white, unwilling girls to serve as prostitutes in brothels worldwide. Modernizing communication and transportation networks, together with the anonymity of the growing metropolises in Habsburg Central Europe not only permitted largescale immigration and women to travel alone as never before, but also facilitated trafficking in women. Indeed, commercial sex was a flourishing enterprise in the expanding urban centers of the nineteenth-century Habsburg Monarchy where prostitution was tolerated and regulated by the police rather than the courts. Bukovinian and Galician newspapers regularly advertised the Austro-Americana, Cunard, and Hamburg-Amerika lines’ “newest, most comfortable, fastest, and least expensive” steamers from the port cities of Central Europe to New York, and elsewhere in North America, as well as to Buenos Aires, Africa, and East Asia.

During summer 1917, civilians using the city baths in Olmütz, Moravia, demanded that soldiers stationed at the local Emperor Francis Joseph infantry barracks cease swimming nude in the March River opposite the city baths, especially during the women's swimming hour. In addition to those of soldiers, the bathing habits of other culprits offended the good citizens of the city. One resident complained that children, adolescent boys and girls, and even some grown-ups, among them “buxom” prostitutes, were swimming nude in the March and thus offending the morals of others. “Flashers” also caught the attention of the public and the police, including the unknown man who made “immoral,” but unrecorded, remarks and exposed himself to the women who frequented the promenade under the Freundschaftshöhe in the western Bohemian spa town, Karlsbad, during the summer. The offended women provided the police with a good description of this man, said to be between forty-five and fifty years old, of average size, with gray, grizzled hair, a graying mustache, and a goatee. They described his clothing, a dark suit with knee-length pants, knee-high stockings, hiking boots, and a panama hat. (Records do not indicate whether police apprehended the suspect.) In the Bukovinian provincial capital Czernowitz, an eighteen-year-old electrical technician accused a forty-seven-year-old man from Saxony who allegedly propositioned him on the city's Ringplatz one late summer's evening in 1918 of “crimes against nature.” The most common “morals” problem to preoccupy the police and the military during the Great War, however, was neither flashers nor nude bathers; it was prostitution.

Sao Paulo State Univ UNESP, Ctr Human Reprod Prof Franco Jr, Paulista Ctr Diag Res & Training, Dept Gynecol & Obstet,Botucatu Med Sch, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil