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(cz) The Government must take action to ensure infertile women are given three cycles of IVF on the NHS, nurses have said.
They called for an end to the postcode lottery which sees some women able to access free fertility treatment while others are forced to pay for care.
Four years ago, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) said women should be given three cycles of IVF on the NHS in England.
Then health secretary John Reid promised one cycle each but stopped short of setting out a timetable for when the NHS would implement the full guideline to give women three chances.
A Department of Health survey of primary care trusts (PCTs) released last year showed that few trusts have implemented the Nice guideline in full.
Nurses voted nine to one to lobby the Government to ensure NHS trusts implemented the guidance.
Jane Denton, from the Royal College of Nursing’s fertility group, told the annual conference in Bournemouth: “It discourages me that even now when people go forward for treatment it’s an enormous battle every step of the way. It adds to the pain and what many see as the stigma of infertility. The importance of the Nice guidance is essential.” more…

From: »The Press Association«

(wz) Australia is facing an infertility crisis as increasing numbers of infertile and “sub-fertile” couples are having children using IVF and other therapies.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has revealed a 30 per cent rise in fertility therapies means infertile couples are passing on their defective genes and infertility is being embedded in the national DNA.
Figures going back to 2006 show up to one in 20 babies in Victoria is conceived through IVF or with the help of fertility treatment.
A survey of Melbourne IVF clinics has found a boom in treatments in the past 12 months - a trend confirmed by the Infertility Treatment Authority.
Experts believe the current figure may be as high as one in 15 and will increase.
One in six Victorian couples suffers fertility problems.
A new international study has found sperm counts and birth rates are declining in developed countries, including Australia.
Professors Jens Bonde, of Denmark’s Aarhus University Hospital, and Jorn Olsen, of the University of California, say sperm counts and birth rates are declining in developed countries.
The researchers say infertility now affects about 15 per cent of couples trying to conceive, though not all seek medical help.
Sub-fertility is the term given to couples who have lower than normal fertility but may still be able to conceive naturally. Infertile couples cannot conceive without medical help.
The researchers raise the alarm about the possible effect of environmental pollution with gender-bending chemicals. They say that may explain the fertility problems. more…

From: »Sunday Herald Sun«

(wz) Chicago fertility laboratory claims to have developed a test to measure how many fertile eggs a woman has.
The test kit costs $350. The company marketing the kit, Repromedix, said its target are women who are deciding if they want to have offsprings and want to know their biological limitations.
Dr. Benjamin Leader, chief medical officer of Repromedix, said the device could be likened to a gasoline gauge for motorists who want to know how much fuel is in the tank.
The launch of the Plan Ahead kit sparked debate on its value. Dr. Ralph Kaizer, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the launch of the kit was premature given the state of reproductive science. more…

From: »AHN«

(sz) Women in Chicago hoping to have an Asian baby through in vitro fertilization may find the road to motherhood longer than they expected. Some local egg donor agencies advertise for donors of Asian heritage, but finding those donors proves to be difficult.
“There is much more demand for Asian donors than there is availability of Asian donors,” said Dr. Richard Sherbahn, founder of the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago. “Our list of available egg donors will generally include many Caucasian and Hispanic women, a few African American women, and sometimes one Asian.”
Asian couples, like every other ethnic group, typically seek an ethnic match when considering in vitro fertilization. This makes it even more difficult for a couple to find a donor agency that can provide them with eggs.
“Quite often the Asian couples have a strong preference to use an Asian donor of the same ethnicity as their own,” Sherbahn said. “For example, when we had both a Japanese and a Korean woman on our egg donor list we had a Chinese couple that ended up using an egg donor agency in Los Angeles to find a Chinese donor for them.”
“We look for donors [by] nationalities,” said Mary Fowler, in vitro fertilization coordinator at the Center for Human Reproduction in Oakbrook Terrace. “We don’t have as many Asian egg donors, so when they come along we try to grab them as we can. We have a lot of Asian recipients who have been waiting a long time.” more…

From: »Medill Reports«

(sz) Early stage follicles which provide a woman’s life-time stock of immature eggs can be grown and matured in the laboratory, scientists have shown for the first time.
The British breakthrough, which is still being studied, has the potential to revolutionise fertility preservation for women in the next five to 10 years.
A key application would be safeguarding the fertility of women about to undergo chemotherapy for cancer, whose follicles could be removed before the start of treatment.
Powerful anti-cancer drugs can destroy follicles in the ovaries, wiping out any possibility of a woman having children.
Another possibility is that the technique could help women wanting to side-step the menopause, or delay motherhood for the sake of their careers. It could also provide a potentially rich source of eggs for scientists, including those studying stem cells.
A team led by Dr Evelyn Telfer, from the University of Edinburgh, succeeded in growing primordial follicles to a late stage of maturation in the laboratory. more…

From: »The Press Association«

(wz) Gary Culliton speaks to a top Harvard scientist who claims a legal ‘black hole’ means Ireland is missing out on a huge research opportunity.
The Irish Council for Bioethics this week launched its report on stem cell research, which has increased pressure on the government to clarify the legal situation in this area and in relation to in vitro fertilisation.
The central question is not ‘when is the embryo alive or human?’, Dr Stephen Sullivan, an Irish-born Fellow at Harvard University, told Irish Medical Times. “It is clearly both. But then again, so is liver tissue used for transplants. Rather the question is ‘is this embryo a person?’. My personal opinion is an embryo that is made by fusing an egg and sperm in a dish is not a person. Without access to a womb, it can never develop into a pregnancy or a foetus, which I do consider to be human when the central nervous system develops, and there is pain perception and early consciousness.”
Previous publishings of the Council have made a distinction between pre-implantation and post-implantation embryos (only the latter should have the legal status of ‘unborn’, the Council believes). “Decisions about embryonic research now facing Ireland were made in most European countries twenty years ago. This step is long overdue,” Dr Sullivan said.
Prof Frank Barry, of University College Galway’s Remedi Institute, says all of Irish society must decide on the issue, not just a small group. Prof Barry believes that embryonic stem cell research is likely to be more effective than adult stem cell research, in relation to neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and diseases of the pancreas, because of the developmental biology of these cells.
There needs to be clear legal guidelines for IVF, with a view to securing the rights of the women involved, Dr Sullivan believes. “The hoax bombs sent to IVF clinics and death threats to Ministers have left people quite scared.” more…

From: »The Irish Medical Times«

(wz) IVF pregnancy rates could double and the incidence of serious complications, such as miscarriage and pre-eclampsia, could be halved after a technological breakthrough in fertility research.
Scientists at the University of Adelaide have created a new type of culture which they say will help embryos better survive their five days out of the womb, and help the foetus and placenta develop more normally.
The head of the research team, Claire Roberts, said yesterday the culture, used successfully to grow mice embryos, was “absolutely fantastic” and could change the face of fertility treatments.
“Until now, the culture most commonly used has not been particularly conducive to the survival of embryos, which is one of the main reasons we don’t have a very high success rate in IVF,” she said.
Women in their 20s have about a 40 per cent chance of falling pregnant through IVF with that dropping to about 15 per cent for women in their late 30s.
But the new culture contains three molecules which exist in the birth tract fluids of all mammals, making it easier for embryos to grow and implant successfully in the uterus.
“It has long been thought that the culture used in IVF alters the way the embryo develops and affects the interaction between the embryo and the mother, which compromises the development of the placenta,” Associate Professor Roberts said. more…

From: »The Sydney Morning Herald«

(sz) Doctors Say Hormone Gauge Gives an Accurate Egg Count; Still Awaiting FDA Clearance
At 36 and single, Monica Taneja is a New York anesthesiologist who is increasingly anxious about the ticking of her biological clock. So she recently underwent tests to gauge her egg count, one key indicator of fertility. The results brought welcome news: a healthy supply of eggs. “I feel like I have a window,” Dr. Taneja says.
When it comes to a woman’s biological clock, it’s all about the eggs: How many does she have, and are they healthy enough for conception? A hormone test gaining wider use in the U.S. may offer women a more precise way to assess their ovarian inventory, compared with the tests in common use for years.
This test — one of several used on Dr. Taneja — measures a chemical produced in the body called anti-mullerian hormone, or AMH, which has been shown to provide an accurate snapshot of a woman’s egg count. Over the past few years, the test, which reads AMH levels from a blood sample, has been routinely available in Europe, where much of the research on AMH as an ovarian-reserve marker has been done.
But the lack of uniform measurement standards has slowed its adoption in the U.S., where such tests come under Food and Drug Administration oversight. AMH-detection systems haven’t yet satisfied FDA criteria for clinical use. Even though it awaits clearance, there has been no move to restrict use of the test in doctors’ offices. more…

From: »The Wallstreet Journal«

(sz) A new approach to fertility treatment that could allow women to have a cheaper form of IVF in their lunch hour is being developed by a company that hopes to introduce it in Britain this year.
The Invocell device is designed to enable IVF to be performed without complex laboratory equipment and could make the procedure faster, more convenient and less expensive.
In standard IVF, eggs are fertilised with sperm outside the body, and any resulting embryos are then left to develop in culture for three to five days before the best ones are transferred to the womb.
The Invocell device is a sealed capsule that allows fertilisation to take place inside the body, in the vaginal cavity. A woman would first be given mild drugs to stimulate her ovaries, and then eggs would be removed from them while she is under sedation. Up to seven eggs are then put into the Invocell capsule, along with washed sperm. The capsule is then placed inside the vagina. After three days the patient would return for a second appointment, in which the capsule is removed and any fertilised embryos are examined for quality. The best one or two would then be transferred to the womb.
The first appointment would take about 90 minutes and the second half an hour, according to Claude Ranoux, of BioXcell, the Massachusetts-based company that developed the device. more…

From: »The Times«

(cz) Scientists say it is highly unlikely same-sex couples would be able to use lab-created egg and sperm as a way to create their own biological child.
And despite advances, it could be 20 years before the science can routinely create human pregnancies, a global team of researchers and ethicists has said.
There are high hopes so-called artificial gametes could be used by those who find themselves infertile.
But the ethical debate is far ahead of the science, the Hinxton Group warns.
The consortium of scientists, academics and lawyers from 14 countries say it is nonetheless vital that the public and policy makers engage with a field which has the power to spark such controversy.
Artificial gametes are sperm and eggs created from stem cells. There are a variety of potential sources, including early embryos left-over from IVF to cells taken from the skin or bone marrow of a would-be parent.
In the UK, legislation currently allows artificial gametes in research, but bans it for creating a human pregnancy.
However, amendments which would lift this ban - if and when the science was ready - have been tabled to a major fertility bill which is about to go before parliament. more…

From: »BBC News«