varoblog

(wz) The cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States is anywhere from 10 to 15 thousand dollars — for just one cycle. The price tag including donor eggs can jump up to around 30 thousand dollars. In the Czech Republic, the cost of IVF is around four thousand dollars. The average success rate for IVF in the U.S. is about 25 percent. That number can be higher or lower depending on the clinic you go to.
GOING OVERSEAS: Craig and Marcela Fite founded IVF Vacation with the hopes of bringing affordable alternative IVF options to Americans by taking them to Marcela’s native country — the Czech Republic. The cost of an IVF vacation is about seven thousand dollars or 85 hundred with an egg donor. This price includes airfare, hotel accommodations for 21 days, medication, procedures and lab fees. The clinic the Fites use is The Clinic of Reproductive Medicine and Gynecology in Zlin. The clinic’s success rate is about 45.8 percent over all for a single IVF cycle. more…

From: »WPTV« (press release)

(sz) Research at Fertility Center of Las Vegas Finds Innovative Breakthrough for Increasing IVF Pregnancy Rates – Getting the Embryo “in sync” With the Endometrium
The January 2008 issue of the nations preeminent journal of reproductive medicine, Fertility & Sterility, featured a research article by Dr. Bruce Shapiro and Dr. Said Daneshmand of the Fertility Center of Las Vegas. That article, titled “Contrasting patterns in in vitro fertilization pregnancy rates among fresh autologous, fresh oocyte donor, and cryopreserved cycles using day 5 or day 6 blastocysts may reflect differences in embryo-endometrium synchrony”, points out how pregnancy rates in IVF cycles can be strongly influenced by endometrial receptivity.
Specifically, the research finds that many slowly developing embryos fail to implant because they tend to miss the endometrium’s receptive phase because the endometrium is advanced by ovarian stimulation. Heretofore, it was commonly assumed that slow embryos were less viable. Now it seems they are only out of synchrony with the endometrium.
The salient point of this research was to show that the reduced pregnancy rate with slow embryos, specifically day 6 blastocysts, only appeared in fresh non-donor cycles. The effect disappeared in cycles using thawed embryos and in cycles of egg donation. Interestingly, it only appeared in cycles where the woman receiving the transferred embryos had just undergone ovarian stimulation. more…

From: »NewsReleaseWire« (press release)

(cz) Embryo research has pitted scientists against bishops, caused a cabinet split and divided the country. Religion, politics, medicine and ethics all collide in a debate that boils down to the question above
Is a bunch of cells just that: a bunch of cells, as scientists would have it, or is it, as the Catholic Church insists, a human being with a soul?
It is the dispute that lies at the heart of the controversy over the Embryo Bill and it is as fundamental a difference of opinion as it is possible to imagine.
Gordon Brown performed a political climbdown yesterday and promised Labour MPs a free vote on the most emotive measures in the Bill, in effect throwing open the debate to the entire country. It is a piece of legislation that challenges our deepest notion of what it is to be human and what it is right to sanction in the interests of scientific progress.
MPs, in deciding how to cast their votes, will be taking soundings in their constituencies at the same time as consulting their consciences. In doing so, they are certain to be harangued with views from both sides in the acrimonious debate. The mammoth Bill is designed to update the 1990 regulatory framework for fertility treatment and embryo research in line with scientific advances and changes in public attitudes during the past 18 years. more…

From: »The Independent / Science«

(wz) Website matches sperm, egg donors with offspring
The listing reads like a personal ad: “Brown straight hair. Dark brown eyes. Light brown complexion.” But the writer isn’t looking for a date — he’s searching for his half-siblings and their common sperm donor.
Since 2000, when the Donor Sibling Registry was established, 18,604 people have posted their personal information. Some are children born through in vitro fertilization — others are parents or donors. More than 4,700 matches have been facilitated.
Wendy Kramer of Colorado created the registry with her son Ryan, who was curious about his genetic origins, yet knew little about his sperm donor.
When people go to the site, they often start out with mixed feelings about searching for a half-sibling or donor.
“They go into it thinking, ‘It would be great to find out I have a brother,’ ” she said. “Then they discover, ‘Oh my gosh, I have 22.’ ”
The registry is full of donors. In the early days, men — many of them medical students — often donated their sperm. more…

From: »Calgary Herald«

(sz) As due to changing lifestyles and stress in life and other biological factors decreasing male sperm count has become a serious concern worldwide, experts from all parts of the country and abroad at the 13th ISAR (Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction) here started their deliberations on how to bring smiles to childless couples.
The ‘National Congress on Assisted Reproductive Technology and Advances in Infertility Management’, as part of ISAR is first such meet to be held in the State.
Organised by pioneers in assisted reproduction technology (ART) in Orissa, Prof. Purna Chandra Mohapatra, Dr. Monu Pattnaik and Dr Sujata Kar, the event received a huge gathering of more than 500 delegates.
On the first day of the three-day event, two workshops were conducted, i.e. one at Kar Clinic and Hospital (KCH) here and another at Prachee Clinic Cuttack.
According to organising secretary Dr Sujata Kar, while the workshop at KCH was about in vitro fertilisation (IVF), intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and vitrification, in Cuttack it was about intra-uterine insemination (IUI) and hysteroscopy at Prachee Clinic. more…

From: »newindpress«