'Fertility Fraud’s' Surprising Legacy

PLUS: Costs To Family Members Of Helping A Loved One Die At Home

Leah Klafczynski for NPR Feeling Betrayed, Yet Dependent On IVF Decades ago, some doctors who treated infertility used their own sperm for artificial inseminations, without telling their patients. That’s meant young adults scattered around the U.S. are only just now learning through DNA-based ancestry searches that they have dozens or more “half-siblings” -- complete strangers. Could that still happen today? Yes, in most states, Lauren Bavis and Jake Harper, from Side Effects Public Media, discovered in their recent reporting on the multibillion dollar fertility treatment industry. There’s no national law forbidding “fertility fraud,” and critics say that though rules are now tighter, regulation of the industry remains too weak. Read on to learn the story of Heather Woock.   Maria Fabrizio for WPLN Home Hospice Can Be Tough On Families Most Americans polled say they would like to die at home, not in a hospital, and the $19 billion hospice industry has arisen partly to make that choice easier. But Joy Johnston, a writer from Atlanta, says helping her mom achieve “a good death” at home turned out to be much more exhausting than she expected. Johnston was surprised to find that hospice care in the U.S. leaves most of the physical work to family members. “During the final weeks of her mother's life, she felt more like a tired nurse than a devoted daughter,” Blake Farmer reports. It’s a sentiment Farmer heard often from the caregivers and hospice specialists he interviewed. "We really have to expand — in general — our approach to supporting caregivers," says Katherine Ornstein, an associate professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Some countries outside the U.S. pay for a wider range and longer duration of home health services, Ornstein notes. Read on to learn to learn how some families are getting the extra support they need. BONUS: How To Say Yes To Help   Kayla Dear/EyeEm/Getty Images How Super Sniffer Dogs Help Humans Heal Physician and NPR contributor John Schumann recently spoke with author Maria Goodavage about the surprising things she learned in researching her new book Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine. “Humans have 6 million olfactory receptors and dogs have up to 300 million,” Goodavage says. “They can detect a tablespoon of a substance -- like a packet of sugar -- in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.” Scientists have built on those strengths – training some dogs, for example, to detect and warn patients who have diabetes about a risky rise or dip in their blood sugar. “The dogs are somehow able to put it together and tell the person 15 or maybe 20 minutes before the person's devices even say, 'Hey, you're going into the low range!' because the dogs detect this in real time,” Goodavage says. Read on to learn how some dogs detect ovarian cancer before symptoms arise. BONUS: Hugging A Dog Could Cut Your Risk Of Heart Attack   More of this week's health stories from NPR Lonely? Maybe It's Your Workplace Culture Despite Competition From Generics, This Drug’s Cost Is Still High. Why? Wuhan Coronovirus 101: What You Need To Know Right Now We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth. Your Shots editor, Deborah Franklin   What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: shots@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Goats & Soda, Daily News, Best of NPR and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Health emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy