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(wz) Bringing cheer to the numerous childless couples in the country, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi has become the first government hospital to launch a state-of-the-art in-vitro fertility (IVF) clinic.
“The IVF clinic was on the anvil for a long time. But we have finally set it up. It is the only government hospital in the country that is offering such a costly treatment,” Sunita Mittal, Head of Department of the Gynecology at AIIMS, said.
The setting-up of the clinic, which was given a go-ahead by the Health Ministry, last year, took time because of lack of space and other facilities.
The clinic was finally carved out after the doctors took initiative and used the space they could do without in the existing Gyne ward.
“We didn’t want to take any chance with the equipment. We waited, but we didn’t compromise. Today, we have state-of- the-art machinery,” said Mittal, who took a keen interest in setting up the clinic and would head it. more…

From: »The Hindustan Times«

(wz) Vindana, the Reproductive Health Centre that has passed many milestones, including its 101st baby being born on Friday, has advanced steadily in what it has to offer since its inception in 1998.
In a cosy home many miles from Colombo, while a family prepares to celebrate the sixth birthday of a little girl on July 1 with a “small party”, in Colombo on Friday, a young mother experiences the joy of childbirth.
What is the link between the bubbly nearly-six girl and Friday’s newborn……both are inextricably linked to Vindana, which helps “mimic nature”. The six-year-old is Vindana’s very first baby and the newborn the 101st. Both of them and all the others in between have been born through the process called in-vitro fertilization or in lay terms known as “test tube” babies.
A fine record within six years and though Vindana has the atmosphere of a family gathering in its waiting room than that of a clinic and the walls are plastered with photographs of smiling babies, some alone and two together, this Reproductive Health Centre has passed many milestones, including many firsts in the country, since its inception in 1998.
“She’s a tall girl,” says Prof. Harsha Seneviratne, smilingly recalling a visit paid by the couple who are the proud parents of the first Vindana baby, along with their daughter. Harking back to the centre’s beginnings he says that although Sri Lanka was into in-vitro fertilization (IVF) technology with the expertise of foreign doctors, the technology was not being retained in the country.
“The need was to keep the technology within and when the time was right and our embryologist was confident that she could handle the process, we started it at Vindana,” he says. The pregnancy and birth on July 1, 2002 of the first such baby were managed by a totally Sri Lankan team. more…

From: »The Sunday Times« (Sri Lanka)

(wz) As MPs prepare to debate a Bill updating the law on embryo research, Science Editor Roger Highfield examines the complex issues at stake
What do we mean by being human? At what point does a life wink into being? What choices can be exercised at that moment, and by whom?
Should we allow DNA from more than one person to be used to create a child? Should we allow a deaf couple to take action to ensure their son is also deaf?
These are profound issues in terms of science, law and morality - and this is why the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, due to be debated this month in Parliament, is among the most divisive to have come before MPs.
Indeed, it is so controversial that the Prime Minister has been forced to allow a free vote on the most contentious elements.
The Bill deals with experiments on the human embryo, and the way in which infertility treatments are regulated. Rationalists may claim it is simply a way for legislation to catch up with the latest scientific developments.
But where these fundamental issues are concerned, nothing is that simple. The Bill’s opponents, mostly from the pro-life community, say it will lead to the creation of “monsters”, and even sanctions “the ultimate incest” - the creation of eggs and sperm from the same stem cells, which are then used to produce an embryo.
Scientists and patient groups see only the hope these technologies offer to the ill and infertile.
As ever with legislation, the devil is in the detail. So, with the help of James Lawford Davies, a lawyer at the London-based firm Clifford Chance and lecturer in law and medicine at the Institute for Human Genetics at Newcastle University, I have taken a closer look at what exactly is proposed. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph«

(cz) New York company agrees to 25-year management pact
A Mount Pleasant company responsible for the first birth in South Carolina using in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, has partnered with a New York-based specialty management company that helps run a network of more than 100 fertility centers nationwide.
Southeastern Fertility Center, which achieved the state’s first IVF pregnancy 24 years ago, has joined with Purchase, N.Y.-based IntegraMed America Inc. in a 25-year deal.
Under the terms of the agreement, IntegraMed bought the assets of Southeastern and will provide a variety of services, including marketing, treatment programs for women who wish to get pregnant, and a sophisticated electronic medical records system.
In turn, IntegraMed will be reimbursed for the cost of its services and will receive a fixed percentage of the center’s revenue and a fixed amount of its earnings. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal was effective April 24.
Southeastern’s founder, Dr. Grant Patton, will continue his work with the practice. He said Monday that the arrangement is a partnership and will help provide for the center’s future.
IntegraMed became a managing partner but does not own the practice, Patton said.
“I really didn’t feel I was giving it up,” he said. “The business is expanding and this will help us continue to grow.”
Southeastern began its IVF program in 1984. Its first pregnancy was achieved that year and the child was born Feb. 20, 1985 — the first “test tube baby,” as the treatment was called at the time, born in South Carolina. more…

From: »Charleston.Net (The Post & Courier)«

(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«

(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«

(wz) A glimmer of hope has been offered to women desperate for help conceiving a child, as North Yorkshire health bosses have pledged to reconsider swingeing IVF funding cuts.
The Press has learned North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) has decided to review its near-total suspension of IVF treatment for couples.
At the end of 2006, the debt-ridden PCT implemented urgent money-saving measures to balance its books. These included suspending IVF treatment - except in cases where the woman was aged 39 years and six months or older and egg collection could be achieved before she turned 40.
Prior to the cuts, women could join a waiting list of about 18-months for NHS treatment, before receiving one cycle of IVF. Many PCTs offer two, or even three, cycles of free treatment.
Since then the only alternative has been for couples to spend £3,500 per cycle on private treatment.
But in a letter to Selby MP John Grogan, PCT chief executive Dr Janet Soo-Chung has pledged to reconsider the funding cuts.
Dr Soo-Chung said: “I am able to confirm that the PCT is planning to make good the shortfall in those clinical areas which have been affected by the financial recovery plan, for example IVF services, and the PCT recognises that we need to move this position forward in 2000/09.
The plan is to address restrictions around the commissioning of IVF services within the financial year 2008/09. more…

From: »The Press«

(sz) Using oral contraceptives before attempting IVF can allow women and their physicians to better know the timing of ovulation. Cynthia Graber reports.
In vitro fertilization efforts can be helped by, oddly enough, oral contraceptives. That’s the finding from Tel Aviv University, site of the largest study on using birth control to help IVF.
One of the challenges to IVF is timing. Current hormone treatments to stimulate ovulation have to coincide with a particular moment in the woman’s cycle. Not knowing the exact timing for scheduling the egg retrieval and fertilization can be stressful, which can lower the odds of success. In the Tel Aviv study, researchers looked at women who underwent a 12 to 17 day treatment of oral contraception. The women were checked to make sure there was absolutely no activity in their ovaries or uterus. Then they began stimulation hormones to start the clock. Women who went through this protocol had similar numbers of pregnancies to a control group that didn’t use birth control. Which means that oral contraception didn’t harm their ability to conceive.
The researchers say that this treatment demands a slightly longer cycle and higher levels of ovulation-inducing hormones. But they also say it could allow couples to more accurately plan for procedures, which might be give couples more peace of mind. more…

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From: »Scientific American«

(wz) A generational and class divide over the suitability of single women and lesbians as IVF mothers has been exposed by the Times/Populus poll.
Public opinion as a whole is opposed to the proposal to change the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father before treating patients to a “need for supportive parenting”.
Extensive support for the move among young people, however, suggests that attitudes towards IVF for lesbians and single women are changing.
The over-55s are strongly against the plans, with 50 per cent saying the law should not be changed and 19 per in favour. Among young people, however, the findings are reversed: 44 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds back the reform and 26 per cent oppose it.
The poll also found significant differences in opinion between social groups: though all classes came out against the measure, opposition was strongest among manual workers.
Conservative voters are also much more likely to reject the reform, by a net 28 points, while Liberal Democrats support it by a 14-point margin. Labour voters are split, with 32 per cent in favour and 36 per cent against. more…

From: »The Times«

(sz) Mothers’ health may be put at risk in the quest for high pregnancy rates at British IVF clinics, warn experts
The UK has one of the worst fertility treatment safety records in Europe, according to new figures published by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.
The chances of developing serious complications are up to four times higher in the UK than in other countries carrying out similar numbers of fertility treatments. Experts warn that women’s lives are being jeopardised in order to improve the numbers of successful pregnancies.
Britain has the highest levels of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), the most serious and potentially fatal side-effect of IVF treatment, the figures show. At least two women with OHSS have died in the past three years, and there are fears of more cases going unrecorded.
Complications from IVF treatment from the use of drugs to stimulate the production of eggs can range from severe bloating and vomiting, to kidney failure, and even death in rare cases. Fertility experts say they fear many serious cases are not being recorded, because women go straight to casualty or end up in intensive care, the cause of their symptoms going unnoticed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Germany carried out in 2003 almost three times as many IVF cycles – implantations of fertilised embryos – as the UK, researchers found, but the UK had nearly three times more cases of OHSS. In 2004, France carried out nearly twice as many IVF cycles as Britain, but its OHSS rate was a quarter of that in UK clinics. more…

From: »The Independent«