varoblog

(sz) Poland’s new health minister, Ewa Kopacz, is in favour of in-vitro fertilisation being reimbursed from the country’s budget. As many as one million Polish couples suffer from infertility, but only 3,500 a year are able to afford the artificial fertilisation procedure.
According to Ms Kopacz, in the initial stage, reimbursement would cover the cost of medical treatment for the poorest Poles. It is estimated that if in-vitro fertilisation were reimbursed, between 25,000 and 28,000 procedures could be performed each year. more…

From: »PMR – Polish Market«

(cz) Inevitably, whenever the words “lifestyle” and “designer babies” are used in a report on genetic screening or embryo testing, free rein is given to speculation on the more repulsive fantasies of Aldous Huxley’s hatcheries and Nazi eugenics. The ethics of human reproduction and scientific intervention in this delicate area are a moral minefield, provoking strong emotions and a cacophony of opinions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the decision by the Government’s fertility watchdog to allow a couple to test their embryos for a gene that causes high cholesterol levels is as controversial as it is misunderstood. It appears, at first glance, to open the way to designing children who will never grow fat or to speeding the acceptance of bioengineering to produce superbabies. It is no such thing.
The procedure that has been allowed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is designed to detect a rare version of a disease called familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which often kills children before puberty. The condition occurs in two forms � a relatively mild one, caused by a single mutated copy of a gene, that nevertheless raises cholesterol levels to dangerous levels, causing heart disease, hardened arteries and strokes; and a far more deadly version, when the sufferer inherits two defective copies that cause high levels of cholesterol from the age of 5, angina and likely early death.
The principle of screening embryos to avoid such suffering has already been accepted for such conditions as Huntington’s disease and cystic fibrosis. Other diseases, caused by genetic defects, have recently been added to the list. This pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, using embryos obtained by IVF, screened and then re-introduced to the womb, is costly, invasive and must be regulated by clear guidelines. more…

From: »The Times« (Editorial)

(wz) Roman Catholic clerics in Poland on Tuesday condemned in vitro fertilization (IVF) as “inadmissible and undignified” in a public letter from the Polish Episcopate to parliamentarians.
Clergymen protested the method on the grounds that “many embryos perish” with each trial and termed it a “type of refined abortion”.
“A baby is not a thing and even future parents cannot say that they have a right to the child, especially as this ‘right’ is always bought with the death of his or her brothers and sisters,” the letter said.
With more than 90 per cent of Poles identifying themselves as Roman Catholics, the clergy remains extremely influential in Poland.
However, numerous laboratories specialising in IVF, or so-called “test-tube babies”, have sprung up across Poland.
Highly valued by couples unable to conceive, the treatment is not refunded by public health services in Poland as in some other European states. more…

From: »MedIndia«

(sz) A £5m INVESTMENT will transform Liverpool Women’s hospital into one of Europe’s biggest IVF centres. The hospital’s Hewitt Centre already has the biggest IVF unit in the country.
The expansion will enable experts to treat even more women desperate to have children.
The money will be spent on building a new two-storey extension reinforcing the hospital’s position at the forefront of fertility care.
The move follows a growing demand for the centre’s services because of an increase in infertility and more people being referred.
The extension is being funded by NHS cash and patients paying for their own treatment. The unit will continue to see both private and NHS patients.
The centre not only offers IVF but other fertility treatments as well. It currently sees 1,500 couples a year but this is set to double.
Charles Kingsland, clinical director of the unit and chairman of North West Fertility Ltd (the private-branch of the facility), said: “This will ensure that we are at the forefront of future developments in assisted conception. more…

From: »The Liverpool Echo«

(cz) Victorian families will have easier access to IVF after a major overseas bank bought control of Monash IVF.
Monash University sold its controlling share of the infertility clinics to Dutch global investment bank ABN AMRO.
The sale could also see the service, which is subsidised by the Federal Government under Medicare, publicly floated on the stock exchange.
The stake is believed to have cost the bank $200 million.
The deal, which was brokered over several weeks, was coincidentally sealed on the day the Brumby Government announced plans to change IVF laws.
There would be no change to how patients were treated, ABN AMRO executive director of capital Michael Taranto said.
“We will be investing further in facilities and we’ll be looking at adding further satellite clinics in areas outside of Melbourne,” he added. more…

From: »Herald Sun«

(sz) Doctors aim to develop a low-cost version of “test-tube” baby technology, which helps tens of thousands of infertile couples each year in rich countries but is far too costly for the developing world.
More than 80 million couples suffer from infertility worldwide and the vast majority live in poor countries, where the issue is a crisis for millions.
The problem is particularly acute in Africa, where infections are a common cause of tubal blockages in women, leading to high rates of infertility and social isolation.
“The stigma of infertility in Africa is great - much more so than in the Western world,” Ian Cooke, emeritus professor at the University of Sheffield, told Reuters.
“It is often extreme because a woman may be divorced and then rejected by the community with no livelihood, and there are well-documented cases of suicide as a consequence.”
Africa as a region has the world’s highest fertility rate, which is often viewed as a problem, yet it also has the highest infertility rate, Cooke said. more…

From: »IOL« (South Africa)

(wz) Bei Paaren mit unerfülltem Kinderwunsch haben rauchende Männer schlechtere Chancen, Kinder zu zeugen, als Nichtraucher.
Wenn der Mann raucht, ist die Schwangerschaftsrate geringer - sowohl bei Paaren, die die klassische In-vitro-Fertilisation (IVF) nutzen als auch bei denen, die die intrazytoplasmatische Spermatozoeninjektion (ICSI) wählen, berichtete Professor Sabine Kliesch vom Universitätsklinikum Münster beim Kongress des Dachverbands Reproduktionsbiologie und Reproduktionsmedizin (DVR) in Bonn.
Rauchen von Männern sei ein signifikant schädlicher Faktor für Paare mit unerfülltem Kinderwunsch. Nutzten die Partner beide Verfahren, lag die Schwangerschaftsrate bei Paaren mit nichtrauchenden Männern bei 38 Prozent, sank aber deutlich auf 22 Prozent, wenn die Männer den Nikotinkonsum beibehielten. more…

From: »Ärztezeitung Online«

(sz) Last week (changed – ed.) the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said that we needed to reduce the number of hazardous multiple births caused by IVF.
Only 1 or 2 in every 100 natural conceptions results in twins; with IVF, the figure is 23 in every 100. The HFEA estimates that the deaths of 126 IVF twins could have been avoided had they been born singly. It is now consulting on the issue.
Multiple embryo transfer has always been justified on the ground that it maximises the chances of pregnancy. But research in 2004, involving 660 women in Scandinavian countries, began what was to become a torrent of evidence demonstrating that using one good-quality embryo can be as successful in assuring pregnancy as using two.
Some people claim these findings apply only to younger mothers, and insist that a single-embryo policy would be disastrous for older women. But last year a Finnish study showed that a similar rate of women over 36 and under 36 became pregnant with single replacement embryos – as long as they were carefully selected.
Significantly, this research comes from countries where adequate publicly funded IVF is available. And here lies the root of the reason why multiple embryo transfer has become so commonplace.
There is a tendency among some people to blame those who need IVF; they say it’s their fault for having children so late. But the truth is that many women have babies later because their plans didn’t work out as they thought. more…

From: »The Times«

(wz) ABN AMRO Capital, the private equity arm of ABN AMRO, bought a controlling stake in Monash IVF, as part of a deal valuing the Australian group that pioneered test-tube babies at A$200 million ($175 million).
Monash IVF has research labs and treatment clinics in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and China.
All the Monash IVF doctors and specialists are staying with the group, with 12 doctors remaining as stakeholders alongside new chief executive Lou Panaccio, who came from Melbourne Pathology. They did not disclose their exact stakes.
Michael Taranto, executive director of ABN AMRO Capital, said the fund was likely to hold its stake in Monash IVF for three to five years before cashing out of the investment, possibly through a share market listing.
He sees growth opportunities for the business based on the increasing number of couples putting off child birth and the growing acceptance of IVF treatment. more…

From: »Reuters«

(wz) Britain’s most controversial fertility doctor has also been named its most successful, by the IVF watchdog that wants to ban him from running his clinic.
Mohammed Taranissi’s Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London has the highest success rate of any British centre offering IVF, according to figures released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Almost two thirds of Mr Taranissi’s IVF patients who were aged under 35 and used their own eggs had a baby in 2005, his best result and one of the highest success rates of any clinic in the world. His clinic’s birth rate of 60.7 per cent was twice the national average of 29.6 per cent, and easily outstripped the next best performer, the Lister Fertility Clinic in London, which achieved a rate of 43.1 per cent for the same patient group.
The doctor’s second clinic, the Reproductive Genetics Institute, was fourth in the league table. His position will embarrass the HFEA, which decided in July to strip him of his right to be “person responsible” for the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre after saying that he treated patients at the Reproductive Genetics Institute without a licence. more…

From: »The Times«