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(sz) A mix-up at the Herzliya Medical Center involving three women whose ova were fertilized by the wrong donated sperm could have been prevented if the women had asked for supervision of the in-vitro fertilization by experts from Jerusalem’s Puah Institute.
A routine examination at the private hospital in Herzliya on Friday showed that fertilized ova were apparently exposed to sperm from another man. Last week, three women came to the center to have their ova fertilized via micromanipulation, in which individual sperm are inserted into ova in a tiny hole in the outside “crust” created by a chemical or physical process. This process is required if the sperm are not very motile.
The hospital staff themselves discovered the human error, in which the ova were placed in a Petri dish containing motile sperm from another donor. more…

From: »The Jerusalem Post« (health.jpost.com)

(sz) For many couples with infertility problems, twins sound like a great deal. Doctors who treat them often say their patients describe a multiples pregnancy as an “instant family” or “two for the price of one.”
But what looks like a bargain to patients is seen as a complication by fertility doctors, who know that multiples pregnancies are risky for mothers and their babies. Multiples come with increased chances of birth defects, lung damage and neurological disorders, among other health troubles.
“Most people come in wanting multiples,” said Dr. Joseph Hill, the medical director of Fertility Centers of New England, a practice with offices in Bedford and Portsmouth. “It’s expensive, they want to get it done with. They want to do it once and be done with it.”
New research shows that if patients are willing to choose a particular fertility procedure called single-embryo transfer, they can virtually eliminate their chance of bearing twins or triplets. But persuading patients to sign up has been a challenge, many local infertility doctors said.
On the surface, it’s easy to see why patients might favor multiples. Infertility treatment, especially the in vitro fertilization procedures that Hill’s practice offers, are expensive and time-consuming. In New Hampshire, where insurers are not required to pay for infertility treatment, almost all patients must pay out-of-pocket for IVF treatments at a cost of $7,000 to $12,000 a month. Patients want to increase their odds that each round of treatment will end in pregnancy. If they’re hoping for two children eventually, why not have them at once, for one price tag? more…
From: »Conord Monitor« (online)

(sz) The Irish Fertility Society, of which Dr John Water­stone is a committee mem­ber, has written to the De­partment of Health and the Irish Medicines Board highlighting its concerns at the interpretation and implementation of the EU human tissue directive.
Ireland and Denmark are the only two countries which have transposed the Directive into law, so Ireland, along with Denmark, are at the forefront of its implementation.
Dr Waterstone, who is Medical Director of the Cork Fertility Centre, told IMN that the regulatory bodies should consider a delay in implementing the regulations, before it finalises its own interpretation, in order to see how other countries go about introducing the legislation.
The Society’s two major issues relate to the air quality requirements for IVF clinics and the timing of screening for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV in patients. more…

From: »The Irish Medical News«

(sz) IVF is now commonplace. It needs to be regulated with a lighter touch
Doctors at the Hammersmith Hospital in west London have been carrying out in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for more than two decades. Lord Winston, Britain’s best-known fertility specialist, writes of the hand-to-mouth early days, when patients were counselled in a disused broom cupboard and research was done in derelict huts. The desperate pioneers willing to try anything to have a baby were treated free, subsidised by Lord Winston’s private surgical practice. All decisions were made by the patient and doctor alone.
Lord Winston is now retired, but the centre he founded flourishes, carrying out 1,000 IVF attempts each year and playing a part in the birth of around 300 babies. Half these treatments are paid for privately—the cost is £2,500, plus thousands more for drugs—and taxpayers finance the rest. Stuart Lavery, one of the two consultants at the clinic, talks with pride of its slick operation, the “earthquake-proof” table where sperm and eggs meet, and the joystick-controlled operating microscope, which permits single cells to be taken from embryos and tested for genetic ailments. All treatments and research are overseen by a national regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). more…

From: »The Economist«

(wz) David Batty explains the developments in embryo research proposed by the new bill
What is the bill about?
The draft bill will overhaul the law on fertility treatment, such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and embryo research, including human-animal embryos. It follows a government white paper, published last December, which proposed banning the creation of chimeras - an organism consisting of at least two genetically different kinds of tissue - and other kinds of interspecies embryos.

Will it allow the creation of human-animal embryos?
Yes. The draft bill reverses the position of the white paper and will allow scientists to create three different types of human-animal embryos. The first, known as a chimeric embryo, is made by injecting cells from an animal into a human embryo. The second, known as a human transgenic embryo, involves injecting animal DNA into a human embryo. The third, known as a cytoplasmic hybrid, is created by transferring the nuclei of human cells, such as skin cells, into animal eggs from which almost all the genetic material has been removed. more…

From: »The Guardian Unlimited (society.guardian)«

(sz) British Government U-Turns after Scientists’ Demands
After months of agitation by scientists, the British government is backing away from a promise to ban the creation of human/animal hybrid embryos for stem cell and other research. In February this year, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the British government had dropped all opposition in principle to allowing the creation of human/animal embryos for use in stem cell and other research.
Now the Blair government has tabled a draft bill that would allow the creation of mostly-human embryos that have been “physically mixed” with one or more animal cells. The 247-page document is an omnibus bill that revamps the existing law, adding provisions that would allow a number of activities previously considered unacceptable.
The government backed away from a ban after a group of 45 scientists, ethicists and politicians published an open letter in January saying that a ban would hold back the advancement of British science. Further, the legislation is what pro-life activists have sometimes called a “clone-and-kill bill” inasmuch as it prohibits the implantation of embryos in a surrogate and requires that they be killed after 14 days in vitro. more…

From: »LifeSite.net« (UK)

(sz) Hamilton Thorne Biosciences Announces Third-round FDA Marketing Clearance of its ZILOS-tk® Zona Laser Drill for Additional Clinical Applications of Blastomere Biopsy and Trophectoderm Biopsy.
Hamilton Thorne Biosciences reported [today – ed.] that it has received third-round FDA marketing clearance for additional clinical applications for its ZILOS-tk® zona laser drill. The ZILOS-tk® is now the only non-contact laser device to be awarded marketing clearance for zona-pellucida drilling for blastomere biopsy and trophectoderm biopsy of human embryos in clinical applications. The ZILOS-tk was the first laser granted clearance for laser-assisted hatching of human embryos.
Both blastomere biopsy and trophectoderm biopsy are used in the practice of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which determines the genetic composition of the embryo and ascertains whether it carries any disease-producing mutations. One or more embryos free of conditions that would cause serious disease may then be implanted in a woman’s uterus. more…

From: »Business Wire« (press release)

(wz) Single women and lesbian couples will have greater access to IVF treatment under proposed laws announced yesterday.
Doctors at present have to take into account “the need of the child for a father” when carrying out treatment. But under the draft Human Tissues and Embryos Bill, the requirement is scrapped. The move was welcomed by Ruth Yahel, 41, a television executive from north-west London, who had IVF treatment at a private clinic using the sperm of her gay best friend. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph« (UK)

(sz) [Competitor watch] Grant Instruments a world renowned manufacturer and supplier of custom and own-brand scientific, life sciences and data acquisition products, has introduced the Grant Asymptote EF600 controlled rate freezer designed specifically for use in human and animal In vitro fertilisation (IVF) applications for the cryopreservation of embryos, oocytes, stem cells and spermatozoa.
The Grant Asymptote EF600 uses an electronically powered Stirling Cycle Cryocooler as its cooling source and is the world’s first liquid nitrogen and refrigerant free controlled rate freezer. This removes the risk of samples being contaminated during freezing and means that unlike conventional refrigerant based cooling equipment used in IVF laboratories this product can be used where a high level of air quality is required. more…

From: »Laboratory Network« (UK)

(sz) Higher success rates for in-vitro fertilisation may result from a University PhD student’s research into measurements to assess the quality of eggs. Gabe Redding, who graduates with a Doctor of Philosophy in bioprocess engineering this afternoon, described his research as a novel integration of reproductive biology and engineering.
“The objective was to investigate tools and technologies that can be used to select the best eggs during IVF,” Dr Redding says. “The work focused on the oxygen levels in the follicle as a measure of egg quality.”
In addition to finding that current IVF techniques can expose the eggs to potentially detrimental temperature drops, Dr Redding investigated devices for measuring oxygen levels in the follicle. Such devices may enable the best eggs to be selected.
At present, most IVF clinics only use visual grading of the eggs after they are harvested and later similar checks on quality of the embryos. “But IVF could be dramatically changed if there was some measure of egg or embryos quality,” Dr Redding says. more…

From: »Treat Infertility« (blog)