March 6, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 4:23 am
Asda, the large supermarket chain, has announced that they will offer fertility drugs for sale without a profit, with the belief that it will cut costs for patients by hundreds of pounds. The grocer announced that their decision was based on a move to establish their pharmacy as one of the most competitive in the UK.
According to research conducted by Asda, around 63% of people are not aware that prices for private prescriptions vary depending upon which pharmacy they are filled at with an overwhelming amount of people, 76% to be exact, only using one pharmacy for every prescription.
The survey also revealed that a little over 90% of people had never taken the time to compare prices of prescriptions from different pharmacies.
Asda pharmacy has set its price of the fertility drugs at £1,171.41, which it claims will save most consumers around £820 compared to purchasing the drugs at a high street chemist.
At the moment, 71% of PCTs offer patients one or two free IVF treatments, after which most women choose to pay for one cycle or more out of their own pockets.
John Evans, the Asda superintendent pharmacist, stated that the IVF postcode lottery means that many women are forced to pay a high price if they need to continue on with IVF treatments. As over 80% of Asda’s customers are women, they felt it was only naturally to help reduce the high cost of IVF by offering the accompanying medication at a low cost.
January 19, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 6:28 am
An IVF clinic has raised many ethical questions after it offered treatment to a woman who is 59 years old. Susan, Tollefsen, set a record for the offer as being the oldest woman in the UK ever offered aid with conception.
Private clinics usually follow a general guideline that they will not offer treatment for any woman that is past the age of 50 and the NHS stops offering treatment at age 39.
However, Mrs. Tollefsen, may now be able to get help conceiving from the Women’s Clinic on Harley Street in London, which for her be much more convenient, given she conceived her first child at age 47 with the help of a Moscow fertility clinic.
Tollefsen stated that she is still incredibly healthy and filled with energy so there is no reason why she should not consider having another child. She continued to state that while others her age are looking forward to retirement she is looking forward to taking her children to school and being a mother.
However, many people are concerned about how other pensioner parents may react to the news and that the law should enact an age limit to prevent a large influx of pregnant retirees.
Life national charity member Michaela Aston stated that if she gets the go ahead she will be treated, but that there needs to be an accountability and responsibility factor involved when it comes to parenting. She went further to say that having children after 60 is irresponsible and focused on self-interest and not the child.
January 7, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 7:54 am
A new decision made by the NHS Sutton and Merton is raising controversy as it was decided that women that are in their late 30’s are no longer eligible for full IVF Treatment.
As of now the trust will now only offer a single cycle of IVF treatment to women that fall in the age range of 30 to 36 which is a vast difference from the two cycles that were offered to women between the ages of 23 to 29.
Even though the cut may be devastating for some women, it is better than the large initial cuts that were originally planned after patients and councillors raised accusations of ageism.
Health bosses said that the new cut had to be made in order for clinics to catch up with the waiting list of patients that is lengthy in the boroughs for those who need help conceiving. In the statement that announced the upcoming chance the NHS admitted that its plan only offer one cycle to women between the ages 25 to 34 was unfair.
Paul Burstow, Member of Parliament for Sutton and Chearn, stated that the issue is very emotional since IVF concerns women having the ability to conceive children.
He added that while decreasing the amount of cycles that can be offered to the women by one count may help the Trust save money but will be more damaging since it will reduce the amount of women that are able to help children.
Burstow continued to comment that only one in four women is able to conceive in just one cycle of treatment which makes the cut even crueller.
January 6, 2010
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:00 am
A new report shows that there are possibly many mistakes being made at IVF clinics, however, the report is inconclusive since there is no solid evidence.
Government inspectors issued a warning about IVF’s, in that patients are not protected against mistakes, which led the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to admit that there are ways that the clinics could improve.
However, the organization claims that they have made strides forward to fix the problems which will either be proved or discounted next week when the report concerning the embryo mix-up at the London Guys and St. Thomas Hospital is published.
The report will also test to see if clinics are regulated fairly by the HFEA which is another criticism that IVF clinics are facing from government inspectors.
The mix-up that led to the investigation occurred in February when three women had to have their embryos destroyed because they were fertilized with the sperm of the wrong men. The mistakes echoed the earlier mistakes of a clinic in Leeds which resulted in a white couple giving birth to a multi-race child.
The HFEA will not comment on either set of mistakes until the investigation report is released. A licence committee is due to meet on Monday to discuss what happened and where the mistake lay so that the same mistake can be prevented in the future.
Although the watchdog organization for IVF clinics claims that such incidents are still extremely rare a patient safety expert and a leading fertility lawyer warn that there could be more mistakes that are not reported.
December 22, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:55 am
A new embryo screening test called PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis) has been approved as safe for single pregnancy use, according to information compiled by Belgian researchers.
The researchers looked at a group of 581 children that were born at a Belgian birthing centre over the course of 15 years. Each of the children had been pre-screened with the PGD test. The results showed that the amount of deaths and birth defects were the same as children that were born using typical IVF methods.
The research comes in the midst of concerns that the process, which includes taking out some embryo cells at an early foetal stage, could result in problems during birth.
The Belgian researchers however, reported that when they compared their test subjects to 2,889 children that were born with IVF that did not include PGD, there was no difference in the amount of birth defect rates.
The study found that children who were born via PGD screening had a birth defect rate of about 2.1% while children that were born with other IVF methods had a defect rate of 3.4%.
There was a significant difference in the use of PGD for multiple births versus IVF however, with an 11.7% chance of death for those born with PGD and only 2.5% for IVF methods.
University Hospital Brussels Professor Inge Liebaers, stated that at the moment they are not sure why multiple pregnancies result in such a high death rate with PGD children, but that the numbers are not conclusive due to the small members of case studies.
December 16, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 6:50 am
The fertility watchdog, HEFA, is currently reviewing a new policy that may allow women to earn money by donating their eggs to be used by couples who are infertile.
At the moment women who donate their eggs to fertility clinics can only get compensated up to a maximum of £250 for what is consider loss of earnings compensation for the time it takes to donate. However, with donated eggs scarce in Britain, many couples are now heading abroad for eggs where higher payments are allowed for donations.
Although it is not likely that auctions for eggs as takes place in America will be permitted in England, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has consented to take a look at the current policy in place and consider revisions.
Chairman of the HFEA, Professor Lisa Jardine, stated that most people believe that the HFEA policy towards donor payment should be looked over given the knowledge that they have gained since it has been in use. Jardine continued to say that the agency will not comment on what the new review will possibly result in.
Outside of the donation reimbursement policy, the HFEA will also look at if the maximum age for sperm donations should be changed from 45 down to 40 and if the age for egg donors should be raised up from 18 given the health risks that are involved.
Additionally, the HFEA plans to consider if its limit on donation from one donor should be raised from ten due to the current donor shortage.
December 5, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 6:06 am
Soon couples who undergo IVF may be facing stiffer bills after European regulators declared that between treatment cycles couples should be screened for diseases.
Although British doctors stated that it is highly unlikely that new infections such as syphilis or HIV would appear between cycles if they were not caught at the initial screening before treatment, regulators still want the additional safety precaution.
Thus, couples possibly may need tested for sexually transmitted diseases every month or two, which will add to the expense of IVF treatment, which commonly takes several cycles before it is successful.
Chairman of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Dr. Luca Gianaroli, wrote to members of the group urging them to speak up about the EU’s commission, stating that over the last 30 years of IVF treatment not one case has been reported where a disease was transmitted under the current guidelines for testing.
Dr. Gianaroli also addressed the fact that if all patients must be tested at the beginning of each new treatment there will need to be a major overhaul in terms of how resources are allocated.
The head of the Department of Women’s Health at King’s College London, Professor Peter Braude, seconded Dr. Gianaroli’s call to action, when he stated that if clinics are forced to implement testing every cycle the cost of fertility treatment will rise substantially.
He also commented that fertility clinics already adhere to the EU rule that men be tested every year despite being a part of a committed couple.
November 12, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 7:04 am
Doctors believe that IVF treatments may be more successful for older women if their eggs are spliced with the eggs of a woman that is younger.
In fact, scientists believe that splicing and combining the eggs may double the chance of pregnancy from IVF, due to the fact the younger women’s eggs help to counteract the damage to eggs due to age.
On the other hand, critics of the process consider that babies born from this type of treatment have two different mothers which is not a natural process.
In any IVF treatments things that can decrease the chances of success, damage to the nucleus, the jelly like cytoplasm that surrounds the egg, or damage to the area where the DNA is stored.
According to the New Scientist reports, Atsushi Tanaka has attempted to splice 31 eggs out of which 25 cases were successful.
Out of these eggs, seven of the eggs started to develop into embryos when injected with sperm, which is a little over double the traditional rate.
Since the DNA is held in the nucleus the baby would still look like the male and female parents, but technically it would have two mothers and fertility laws in the UK do not allow babies to have three parents.
Reproductive Ethics member Josephine Quintavalle said that nature has been great at taking care of human reproduction and the idea that science feels they can make the process better is ridiculous.
October 30, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:48 am
A new study suggests that women who lie flat on their backs for about 15 minutes after they receive fertility treatment have a 50% greater likelihood of getting pregnant.
The new research points to movement after artificial insemination as the reason why many women fail to conceive.
In the study, 400 couples were looked at, with the results that showed only 18% of women who moved after IVF treatments became pregnant, compared to 27% of women who remained still after the treatment.
Dr. Inge Custers of the Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre said that this is a significant finding and that it has been discovered that even 15 minutes of immobilization can play a large role in confirming the positive results of the study. Custers continued to say that immobilization should become standard after artificial insemination takes place for the best result.
In the past, smaller studies have looked at immobilization and artificial insemination, but this is the largest study to actually show the same result.
As part of the study half of the women were asked to lie down on their backs for fifteen minutes following IVF, while the other half were asked to get up and move around directly after treatment was finished.
Custers stated that moving immediately after IVF may cause some sperm to leak out of the uterus, or the sperm may be delayed from moving up to the fallopian tubes.
October 21, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:42 am
New research shows that the chances of successful IVF treatments is lower in women that consume even just a handful of glasses of white wine during a week.
Men who consume beer on a daily basis also reduce their chances of being able to father a child.
Even worse, couples in which both of the partners drink over six units per week; which is the same as splitting one bottle of wine between two people, reduces their chance of conceiving and carrying a child to full term birth by 26%.
The research comes from a study by the Boston, US Harvard Medical Study that asked 2.574 couples to report their regular drinking habits before they tried IVF treatments.
Out of the group surveyed, 34% of men and 56% of the women reported that they drink less than one drink a week while 5% of the men and 4% of the woman reported they had an alcoholic drink at least once every day.
The study leader, Dr. Brooke Rossi, said that the results of the study showed that couples in which both partners drank over six units of alcoholic a week had a much less likelihood of becoming pregnant. Six units are the same as two large glasses of wine or two pints of strong beer.
Men who drink this amount reduce their chances by 14% and women by 18%.
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