varoblog

(sz) Women in the north of England are being offered half-price fertility treatment if they donate some of their eggs to medical research.
The controversial “egg-sharing” scheme is being run by the Newcastle Fertility Centre and is being funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC). It offers women £1,500 towards the costs of In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) if they donate half their eggs.
But opponents claim the project would take advantage of vulnerable women.
The MRC is giving the Newcastle University project £150,000.
Priority will be given to couples living in the region between Teesside to the Scottish Borders having treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre.
The team at the North East England Stem Cell Institute plan to use them for nuclear re-programming, or therapeutic cloning to make human embryonic stem cells. more…

From: »BBC News«

(cz) About 12,000 lives-in-waiting are stored at Australia’s fertility clinics. A snapshot of the fertility industry shows 118,709 fertilised eggs are kept frozen at the nation’s 57 fertility clinics, most intended for future use by IVF patients.
With current IVF success rates, the stored embryos could produce an estimated 12,000 babies. More than 30,000 couples have embryos stored across Australia, with nine out of 10 intended for use in current or future IVF cycles.
The study was prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Perinatal Statistics Unit and presented at a Fertility Society of Australia congress in Hobart yesterday. The survey is the first to record the intended uses of stored frozen embryos in Australia, according to lead researcher Elizabeth Sullivan.
“It’s reassuring to see embryos being created are essentially for patient use, and that it is only where there is completion of people’s treatment of families that they available for donation to research or disposal,” Dr Sullivan said. more…

From: »Herald Sun« (Australia)

(sz) Australian couples are too quick to regard IVF as a right rather than consider how weight loss, fewer cigarettes or more sex could improve their chances of having a baby, a leading fertility expert has warned.
Reproductive specialist Professor Rob Norman will tell a national fertility conference on Monday that while assisted reproduction is the only option for some couples, more than 50 per cent of those who seek it are overlooking simple lifestyle changes that could help lead to a natural pregnancy.
“People assume that if they can’t have a baby then they’re going to have IVF, without even considering that if they smoke or if they’re overweight, they’re massively limiting their chance of getting pregnant,” says Prof Norman, director of the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Reproductive Health.
“Some couples who seek help are only having sex once a month, but IVF is not a substitute for intercourse. more…

From: »The Sydney Morning Herald«

(sz) Fertility experts in Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Cyprus and Israel have cooperated with a New York reproductive endocrinologist to publish what is reportedly the first-ever collaborative study on in-vitro fertilization services in the Middle East.
The unusual scientific paper that brings together countries, some of which are officially at war or have no diplomatic relations with Israel, has just been published in London’s Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction. The full manuscript may be freely downloaded from the journal’s home page at www.jexpclinassistreprod.com.
Among the similarities in IVF found in the participating countries are more male infertility, low prices or even free treatment for help with the problem, and deliveries of babies by the doctors who performed the IVF procedures.
The paper, coordinated by Dr. Eric Scott Sills of RMA-Vassar Brothers Medical Center, summarizes fertility services available throughout the region after information on diagnosis and treatment was collected. more…

From: »The Jerusalem Post«

(cz) Official documents have revealed the existence of a “postcode lottery” in the provision of fertility treatment to women seeking help to have a baby in England.
Details provided by 151 primary care trusts (PCTs) in response to a Department of Health survey show that some impose a range of different lifestyle, health and age tests to restrict provision of NHS fertility treatment.
And the amount of help offered varies widely in different parts of the country, with some trusts funding three cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to try to create a “test-tube baby” while others fund none.
A majority of the 151 trusts (98) will pay for one cycle of IVF, according to the survey carried out in February this year, but 32 said they would fund up to two and seven would go as far as three cycles. Fourteen either did not fund IVF or did not provide details of the number of cycles they would pay for.
Similar variations were found for the intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedure in which a single sperm is injected into a woman’s egg, with 90 PCTs saying they would fund a single cycle for a couple, 29 up to two and six up to three. One PCT said it was ready to pay for as many as six attempts by a couple to conceive by ICSI. more…

From: »Channel 4 News« (UK)

(wz) On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first successful “test-tube” baby was born in Great Britain. The technology that made her conception possible, heralded as a triumph in medicine and science, has since revolutionized the management of infertility and impacted contraception, menopause, sexual dysfunction and other related disciplines.
In this connection, the World Congress on In Vitro Fertilization has been a major event in the scientific calendar of physicians and scientists in the field of reproductive health for the past two and a half decades. As the main international meeting focusing essentially on the fields of IVF and ART, and with the rapid advances that continue to be achieved in these fields, this Congress has become an important and unique multidisciplinary forum that brings together clinicians, scientists, embryologists, and support staff.
Driven by a strong international desire to continue with the World Congresses on IVF, the newly created International Society for In Vitro Fertilization (ISIVF) is pleased to invite you to attend the 14th World Congress on IVF, to be jointly held with the 3rd World Congress on IVM, in Montreal, Canada, from September 15 to 19, 2007. Part of the proceeds will be dedicated to create the Robert Edwards Chair in Assisted Reproduction Technologies at McGill University.
Why Montreal? What better location for this international exchange of ideas, than this vibrant and cosmopolitan city! Montreal, where Europe and North America converge, resonates with a rich past, mingling with an architecturally stunning present. With a venue in the heart of downtown, this conference offers ample opportunity to visit our famous museums, experience exquisite dining, shop in our exclusive boutiques or relax in the ambience of our sidewalk cafes. We look forward to welcoming you to Montreal and providing you with an exciting and unforgettable scientific and cultural experience. (Introduction and overview of the committee)

Information

(sz) Offering a new ray of hope to infertile couples, researchers have now coaxed stem cells, from a mouse embryo, to produce both eggs and sperm in the same dish.
This method brings researchers closer to their ultimate aim: producing human eggs and sperm from adult body cells so that infertile men and women can have their own children.
Applying the technique to humans would be controversial, not least because it raises the possibility that men might be able to produce eggs, and women sperm. But researchers point out that any human application would be decades away, which would allow time for ethical debate over the technology.
In the meantime, they hope that lab-produced eggs and sperm will help them to learn exactly how these cells are created in the body, something that is crucial to understanding fertility disorders and embryo development.
The achievement builds on previous work using mouse embryonic stem cells to grow eggs and sperm. In 2003, Hans Schöler of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his colleagues reported that after such cells had been cultured for around 40 days, some of them spontaneously produced eggs. more…

From: »Spirit India«

(sz) An operation to reverse sterilisation of women over 40 who want another baby is significantly more successful and tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than IVF, an Australian study has found.
The study, published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia, called for the Federal Government to reinstate Medicare cover for surgical reversal of sterilisation of women, which was withdrawn in 1997.
Live births after tubal reanastomosis were successful in 40 per cent of women aged between 40 and 47, compared with an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) success rate of just 5 per cent for women aged 40 to 42 and 2 per cent for older women.
The direct cost of a reversal is $4850 per treatment, and $11,317 per live birth, compared with about $6940 per cycle of IVF treatment, and $97,884 per live birth for women aged 40 to 42, increasing to $182,794 for older women.
Of the 47 previously fertile women in the study by the University of Adelaide, seven had a first trimester miscarriage and 21 (44 per cent) failed to conceive. more…

From:»The Sydney Morning Herald«

(cz) More than a third of all couples in Britain today who try to conceive experience fertility problems, according to the latest figures.
In their quest to have a baby couples are spending £1.7 billion. This includes £1.07 billion on IVF alone as only 23% receive completely free treatment on the NHS. On average couples spend £4,782 on fertility treatments.
Only 47% of women go on to have a baby. The National Fertility Survey, commissioned by RED magazine, also revealed women think they are “leaving it too late for motherhood”.
The average woman does not start trying to have a baby until the year of her 30th birthday. A woman’s fertility peaks in her mid-20s and declines sharply after the age of 35.
Sam Baker, editor of RED magazine, said: “Infertility is the issue of our age and, incredibly, we have entered the billion-pound baby era. more…

From: »Metro« (UK)

(wz) Karachi. The Sindh Institute of Reproductive Medicine (SIRM) for infertile couples was launched on Tuesday in the city to provide “exceptional quality at an affordable price” to produce children through “In-Vitro Fertilisation” (IVF). Children born through such a process are commonly referred to as test tube babies and doctors claim, the technique is in consonance with Islamic ethics.
This is the 10th such institute in the country and fourth in the provincial capital, which is attached to Atia General Hospital, Kala Board, near airport, said Dr Nighat Shah at an impressive inaugural ceremony. more…

From: The News (International)« Pakistan