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(sz) Conference Secretariat at Gulf Medical College, Ajman in association with Gunasheela IVF Centre, Bangalore will be organizing a ‘Conference on Recent Advances in Infertility’ at Gulf Medical College, Ajman on the Saturday January 26. Over 150 doctors from all over UAE are expected to attend the conference.
Dr Mariam Matar, assistant under-secretary, ministry of health, UAE will inaugurate the conference. A team of experts led by renowned infertility expert Dr Sulochana Gunasheela from India will deliver talks at the conference.
Announcing the details Thumbay Moideen, president of the college mentioned that this is the first joint event with a prestigious centre from India and and that the college is looking forward to hold more such events to address important health issues pertaining to the region. ‘We are planning to set up a fertility centre at our hospital and in the near future, we propose to start an IVF Institute in Ajman. We are in the process of seeking necessary approvals from the ministry of higher education and ministry of health, UAE,’ he added. more…

From: »Daijiworld«

(sz) A groundbreaking IVF test that could improve the chances of pregnancy while almost eliminating the risk of twins or triplets is to be offered to couples in Britain for the first time.
A new genetics clinic plans to recruit between 50 and 100 women for the first trial of the procedure, which aims to identify the best embryo produced by young IVF patients with a good prognosis.
The goal of the pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) test is to enhance success rates when only a single embryo is transplanted into the womb, to prevent multiple pregnancies that are by far the greatest hazard of infertility treatment. A different form of PGS is already licensed for detecting chromosomal abnormalities that cause embryos to fail, but only for older patients or those with a history of miscarriage or IVF failure.
It is also controversial because there is little evidence that it helps these women to conceive. The Times revealed this month that the British Fertility Society has recommended that its members stop using it.
A more advanced version of PGS, however, is now being pioneered in Britain by Dagan Wells, of the Reprogenetics UK clinic and the University of Oxford. He is seeking permission from the fertility regulator to test it on women aged under 35 who have a good prognosis. If the trial is successful, it could persuade many more infertile couples to opt for single embryos, in line with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s strategy to cut IVF twin and triplet births from one in four to one in ten. more…

From: »The Times«

(wz) New world-class IVF laboratories in Manchester are being opened by a test-tube baby pioneer.
The labs at St Mary’s Hospital will be among a handful used for pioneering embryonic stem cell research. Professor Robert Edwards, who helped create the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, of Oldham, 30 years ago, was opening the labs today ahead of a two-day conference tomorrow and Friday to celebrate the 30th anniversary.
The laboratories were designed by the IVF team at St Mary’s to meet the EU conditions for IVF treatment and for producing human embryonic stem cells.
St Mary’s will be one of only six IVF centres in Britain funded by Medical Research Council to reach these quality standards. The new clean-room facilities will provide much higher air quality than previously available, which will help to improve conditions for IVF and embryo development for patients. It will also mean that any stem cells made will be free of contamination and potentially suitable for transplantation into patients in the future to cure disease.
A range of sophisticated laboratory equipment has also been incorporated, including new technology such as electronic tracking of embryos using radio frequency ID tags.
The 30 years of IVF conference has been organised by the Association of Clinical Embryologists for leading experts to discuss the history of IVF, the patient perspective of IVF and the future of embryology. more…

From: »The Manchester Evening News«

(wz) It seems the stuff of science fiction when professor Robert Edwards enthuses about humans being able to regenerate their own damaged tissue and, potentially, double their life span.
But then you remember that this is the man who, with gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, did what many said couldn’t, indeed shouldn’t, be done in 1978 with the first baby born by in vitro fertilisation. Thirty years on, eight million lives have been created using the science they pioneered.
Not content to rest on such illustrious laurels even at the age of 82, Edwards’ quicksilver mind now applies itself to how the axolotl, a salamander, is able to grow back lost appendages, and the intriguing discovery of the MRL mouse. This mouse also has remarkable regenerative powers, as American scientist Prof Ellen Heber-Katz accidentally discovered when holes punched in lab animals’ ears healed, growing new cartilage and even hair follicles.
Similar powers of regeneration are seen if a fingertip is lost by a very early human foetus. What if such power could be tapped by adults to “repair from within”, as Edwards describes it.
“What I am telling you is equally important as IVF because it means you might live to 150,” he says. more…

From: »The Manchester Evening News«

(cz) Fertility clinics should stop recommending a £2,000 embryo quality test because there is no evidence that it works and it could damage patients’ chances of pregnancy, an influential group of medical professionals says.
The British Fertility Society (BFS) is to advise its members not to offer the pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) test, which is approved for women who are over 35 or who have a history of IVF failure and miscarriage, The Times has learnt.
The procedure is designed to choose embryos with the best chance of developing normally, by screening for genetic abnormalities. Eight British clinics are licensed to perform preimplantation genetic screening. It costs typically about £2,000, and is not available on the NHS. A review by the British Fertility Society of published research, however, has found no evidence that it improves pregnancy rates and some indications that it might actually harm infertile couples’ chances of having a baby. more…

From: »The Times«

Introduction
(wz) The first attempts at IVF used natural cycles. It was soon surmised that in order to attain acceptable pregnancy rates, a sufficient quantity of eggs for insemination was necessary to enable choice in numbers and quality of embryos for transfer. But, this is undoubtably wasteful and costly. While natural cycle IVF with results running at 7% still does not appear to be the answer1 such a situation should not continue unquestioned.

Medical and psycho-social problems with multiple embryo transfer have led to increasing calls for single embryo transfer.2 Additionally, many frozen embryos surplus to the initial fresh cycle transfer requirements remain in storage. While this can have considerable advantages for the future, some may remain cryopreserved unused and unwanted. This may be due to breakdown in a relationship. It can also occur following previous success when a family is deemed complete. Both situations can lead to difficulty as to what to do.3

This study looks at our practice to estimate what survival rates are likely to be when the various stages of development from egg through to birth are reached. Calculating these will give insight into where the greatest waste occurs to see the optimal direction towards which future cost-effective improvements should be aimed.

Methods
The study data involves 2,927 IVF cycles, both fresh and frozen, carried out from 2001-4 inclusively at the Rotunda Hospital Human Assisted Reproduction Ireland Unit [HARI]. All these were then followed through to the end of the first week of life. All information was retrieved retrospectively from the computerised data set and manual log kept on all patients.There was a 100% pregnancy follow up attained by correspondence backed up by personal communication as not all pregnancies were managed at the Hospital. more…

From: »Irish Medical Journal«

(cz) More than 1m embryos created for fertility treatment in British clinics have been destroyed over the past 14 years, government figures have shown.
The Department of Health data show that 2,137,924 embryos were created using IVF between 1991 and 2005, but about 1.2m were never used.
Extra embryos are created to maximise the chance of a viable one being identified for implantation in the prospective mother.
The scale of the wastage has sparked calls from politicians and infertility groups to find ways to avoid so many being created for treatment. An alternative suggestion is that it should be made easier for couples to “adopt” viable embryos unwanted by their natural parents so they have a chance of life.
Most of the surplus embryos created in clinics were destroyed within days of being created, while others were frozen. Those that survive the freezing process are destroyed if they are not used within 10 years.
Lord Alton, the independent peer who obtained the figures after tabling a parliamentary question, said embryos were being destroyed “at an incredible rate”. more…

From: »The Times«