Shanna Swan | |
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Born | Helen Wittenberg May 1936 (age 88) Ohio, United States |
Other names | Helen Wittenberg |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Environmental and Reproductive Epidemiology |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Limiting Distributions of Random Sums of Independent Random Variables (1963) |
Doctoral advisor | Lucien Marie Le Cam |
Shanna Helen Swan (born May 1936) [1] is an American environmental and reproductive epidemiologist who is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she has taught since April 2011. [2] She is known for her research on environmental contributions to sperm count and the male infertility crisis.
Swan was born in Pennsylvania, United States. [1] Her father, Rudolph Wittenberg, was German Jewish, and her mother, Goldie Ray Polturak, was American. [1] She studied mathematics with a minor in logic at the City College of New York. She studied for her master's degree at Columbia University, working with Polish biostatistician Agnes Berger. She completed her doctorate in statistics, directed by Jerzy Newman at the University of California, Berkeley. [1]
After completing her doctorate, Swan worked for insurance company Kaiser Permanente investigating links between the contraceptive pill and conditions such as cervical cancer. She later worked for the California Department of Public Health, studying unexplained miscarriages in Santa Clara County. Swan joined a National Academy of Sciences committee in 1995 to research the impact of "hormonally active agents in the environment" sperm counts between 1938 and 1991. She later worked at the University of Missouri and the University of Rochester. [1]
She is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she has worked since April 2011. [2]
In 2017, a paper on which Swan was senior author on environmental contributions to sperm count and the male infertility crisis [3] received significant attention in both the popular media and scholarly literature, becoming the world's 26th most referenced scientific paper published that year. She has also researched the effects of environmental chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs on the development of the human reproductive tract. [4] [5]
In 2021, with journalist Stacey Colino, Swan co-authored the book Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, Threatening Sperm Counts, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race, which discusses declining sperm counts in men and attributes this decline to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. [6]
Swan was the first wife of David A. Freedman, with whom she had two children: Joshua Freedman and Deborah Freedman Lustig. [7] [8] She had a third child, Christo Swan, after marrying Henry Swan III. She later married Steven R. Brown. [ citation needed ]
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro. The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova from their ovaries and letting a man's sperm fertilise them in a culture medium in a laboratory. After the fertilised egg (zygote) undergoes embryo culture for 2–6 days, it is transferred by catheter into the uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.
Reproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology (ART), contraception and others. It is also termed Assisted Reproductive Technology, where it entails an array of appliances and procedures that enable the realization of safe, improved and healthier reproduction. While this is not true of all people, for an array of married couples, the ability to have children is vital. But through the technology, infertile couples have been provided with options that would allow them to conceive children.
Infertility is the inability of an animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species. It is the normal state of a human child or other young offspring, because they have not undergone puberty, which is the body's start of reproductive capacity.
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility. This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cryopreservation of gametes or embryos, and/or the use of fertility medication. When used to address infertility, ART may also be referred to as fertility treatment. ART mainly belongs to the field of reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Some forms of ART may be used with regard to fertile couples for genetic purpose. ART may also be used in surrogacy arrangements, although not all surrogacy arrangements involve ART. The existence of sterility will not always require ART to be the first option to consider, as there are occasions when its cause is a mild disorder that can be solved with more conventional treatments or with behaviors based on promoting health and reproductive habits.
Anogenital distance (AGD) is the distance from the midpoint of the anus to the genitalia, the underside of the vagina, the clitoris or the scrotum. It is considered medically significant for a number of reasons, in both humans and other animals, including sex determination and as a marker of endocrine disruptor exposure. It is regulated by dihydrotestosterone, which can be disrupted by phthalates common in plastics.
Azoospermia is the medical condition of a man whose semen contains no sperm. It is associated with male infertility, but many forms are amenable to medical treatment. In humans, azoospermia affects about 1% of the male population and may be seen in up to 20% of male infertility situations in Canada.
Male infertility refers to a sexually mature male's inability to impregnate a fertile female. In humans, it accounts for 40–50% of infertility. It affects approximately 7% of all men. Male infertility is commonly due to deficiencies in the semen, and semen quality is used as a surrogate measure of male fecundity. More recently, advance sperm analyses that examine intracellular sperm components are being developed.
Human reproduction is sexual reproduction that results in human fertilization to produce a human offspring. It typically involves sexual intercourse between a sexually mature human male and female. During sexual intercourse, the interaction between the male and female reproductive systems results in fertilization of the ovum by the sperm to form a zygote. While normal cells contain 46 chromosomes, gamete cells only contain 23 single chromosomes, and it is when these two cells merge into one zygote cell that genetic recombination occurs and the new zygote contains 23 chromosomes from each parent, giving it 46 chromosomes. The zygote then undergoes a defined development process that is known as human embryogenesis, and this starts the typical 9-month gestation period that is followed by childbirth. The fertilization of the ovum may be achieved by artificial insemination methods, which do not involve sexual intercourse. Assisted reproductive technology also exists.
Reproductive medicine is a branch of medicine concerning the male and female reproductive systems. It encompasses a variety of reproductive conditions, their prevention and assessment, as well as their subsequent treatment and prognosis.
Semen quality is a measure of male fertility, a measure of the ability of sperm in semen to accomplish fertilization. Semen quality involves both sperm quantity and quality. Semen quality is a major factor for fertility.
Reproductive toxicity refers to the potential risk from a given chemical, physical or biologic agent to adversely affect both male and female fertility as well as offspring development. Reproductive toxicants may adversely affect sexual function, ovarian failure, fertility as well as causing developmental toxicity in the offspring. Lowered effective fertility related to reproductive toxicity relates to both male and female effects alike and is reflected in decreased sperm counts, semen quality and ovarian failure.
Dr. Paul J Turek is an American physician and surgeon, men's reproductive health specialist, and businessman. Turek is a recent recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for research designed to help infertile men become fathers using stem cells.
Ashok Agarwal is the Director of the Andrology Center, and also the Director of Research at the American Center for Reproductive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, USA. He is Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, USA. Ashok is a Senior Staff in the Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. He has published extensive translational research in human infertility and assisted reproduction.
Peter C. Klatsky is a Doctor of Medicine specialized in reproductive endocrinology and infertility and an assistant professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Klatsky who is board certified in his specialty as well as in obstetrics and gynaecology, is also the Founder and CEO of Spring Fertility Management Llc, a San Francisco Bay Area fertility company. Klatsky is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs.
Testicular dysgenesis syndrome is a male reproduction-related condition characterized by the presence of symptoms and disorders such as hypospadias, cryptorchidism, poor semen quality, and testicular cancer. The concept was first introduced by N.E. Skakkaebaek in a research paper along with the department of Growth and Reproduction in Copenhagen University. The paper suggests the origin and underlying cause of TDS can be detected as early as in fetal life, where environmental and genomic factors could affect the development of the male reproductive system.
Robert John Aitken is a British reproductive biologist, widely known for identifying oxidative stress as a significant contribution to infertility and its actions on human sperm function. He also made substantial contributions to clinical practice translation in male reproductive health, notably the development of new contraceptive vaccine.
The male infertility crisis is an increase in male infertility since the mid-1970s. The issue attracted media attention after a 2017 meta-analysis found that sperm counts had declined by 52.4 percent between 1973 and 2011. The decline is particularly prevalent in Western countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and North America. A 2022 meta-analysis reported that this decline extends to non-Western countries, namely those in Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America. This meta-analysis also suggests that the decline in sperm counts may be accelerating.
Sarah Martins da SilvaFRCOG is a British gynaecologist and researcher specialising in male infertility. Martins da Silva is a Clinical Reader in reproductive medicine at the University of Dundee. She also works as an honorary consultant gynaecologist at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, specialising in fertility problems and assisted conception. She was named one of the BBC's "100 Women of 2019" for her contribution to fertility science.
Angela Diaz is an American doctor. She is the Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Hagai Levine is an Israeli public health physician and epidemiologist. Until 2021, Levine was the chairman of Israel's association of Public Health Physicians. He left to help Moshe Ya'alon and Telem "bring 'security and hope' to Israel" again". The Association announced Nadav Davidovitch would serve as interim chairman. Levine explained his reasons for leaving in a letter to Chezy Levy, the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, and Nachman Ash, who was the country's Coronavirus Commissioner, was due to his concerns over their lack of leadership in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel.