Category: UK

IVF Treatment, UK

UK – Thousands of couples could be spared gruelling IVF with new 5p-sized device that spots infertility before any unnecessary treatment

Intended Parents

Source Daily Mail

Doctors and engineers at the University of Southampton have created a sensor the size of a 5p piece that could diagnose the cause of unexplained infertility.

Infertility is a huge problem in Britain, with one in six couples struggling to conceive. 

Yet in a third of infertility cases doctors can find no cause.

So thousands of couples turn to expensive and difficult IVF in a bid to start a family. 

Of the 68,000 cycles of IVF conducted in the UK every year, 32 per cent, more than 22,000, have no diagnosis of the cause of the infertility. 

But the Southampton team believe their new device, which is to undergo its first major NHS-backed trial next year, could plug this gap and bring down the number of couples undergoing unnecessary IVF.

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Genetic Testing, UK

UK – What You Might Learn

Intended Parents

Source Genome Web

The UK’s Human Fertility and Embryology Authority has called on consumer genetic testing companies to better warn their customers that testing could reveal family secrets and point them to where they can get counseling, the Guardian reports.

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IVF, UK

UK – IVF mothers and babies’ ‘urgent need’ for health-check database

Intended Parents

Source The Telegraph

Babies born through IVF and their mothers may be suffering a raft of health problems but nobody is aware because they are not being monitored, a leading fertility doctor and MP have warned.

Professor Geeta Nargund, the founder and medical director of Create Fertility and MP Siobhain McDonagh, are calling for the Human Fertility and Embryology Act to be amended to merge NHS and fertility databases.

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Fertility Benefits, IVF, UK

UK – Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness London launch IVF campaign

Intended Parents

Source PMLive

Specialist health and wellness advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness London has partnered up with Fertility Network to launch a new IVF campaign.

The new campaign targets fair access to IVF treatments in the UK, where 3.5 million people are affected by fertility issues, but cannot get access to treatment under the National Health Service.

Titled #Scream4IVF, the campaign features screaming faces of patients who have been affected by infertility.

Additionally, the advertising agency is calling out to the public, influencers and celebrities to take part by donating their scream on social media, which will result in the world’s longest scream of IVF.
It will then be played at a rally outside Parliament on 10 October this year.

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Frozen Eggs, UK

UK – Freeze eggs before 35 for a better chance of IVF success, says report

Intended Parents

Source The Guardian

For women intending to undergo IVF treatment using frozen eggs, the younger they are when they are frozen the greater the chance of a successful pregnancy, according to a report by the UK’s independent fertility regulator.

Most IVF treatment cycles use fresh eggs, but a very small number use eggs that have been frozen and thawed. It can, for example, be especially beneficial for cancer patients who decide to freeze their eggs before undergoing chemotherapy.

The report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) looked at data from UK fertility clinics from 2010 to 2016, and found that the key factor for successful pregnancies is the age at which women freeze their eggs.

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Early Menopause, UK

UK – Woman who went through menopause at 11 proudly shows off miracle baby at 31 after doctors told her she couldn’t have kids

Intended Parents

Source The Sun

A WOMAN who was the youngest person in the UK to go through menopause at the age of 11 has now has now had her dreams come true by giving birth to her first baby.
Amanda Lewis, 31, from Nuneaton, was told by doctors that she would never have kids, but has managed to start a family with partner Tom Hill, 28, thanks to an egg donor.

She proudly showed off four-week-old son Oryn on Lorraine this morning.

The pole dance and fitness instructor told the host: “I still don’t believe it to be honest. Last September I had an investigation and internal scans, which showed that my uterus is really really tiny, it was really really thin so I had to go on a high HRT.

“It was very high hormones that I was on, but we got there in about four weeks, I got to the right lining.

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Restorative Reproductive Medicine , RRM, UK

UK – Treatment offers hope for women after IVF failures

Intended Parents

Source The Times

A fertility treatment that focuses on correcting problems in the reproductive system has achieved success for older women, a study found.

An Irish fertility expert found that restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) helped women become pregnant even when IVF had failed for them.

The study said 74 out of 128 women who completed RRM at Neo Fertility, a treatment clinic based in Dublin, gave birth to full-term healthy babies after two or more failed IVF treatments.

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Danish, Denmark, Sperm Bank, UK

UK – The Brexit crisis nobody is talking about? Our need for Danish sperm

Intended Parents

Source Wired

The UK is heavily reliant on foreign sperm donors – and Denmark is responsible for more than its fair share. Then along came Brexit…

Brexit keeps surprising us. The latest industry that might be under threat if the UK leaves the EU without a deal is allegedly that of sperm donation.
Specifically, Danish sperm donation.
The Department of Health and Social Care revealed last week that 3,000 sperm samples were imported from Denmark to the UK in the last year, and nightmare scenarios were quick to flourish. The risk of Danish sperm being held up at British borders because of unclear custom arrangements seems to have never been so real.

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Fertility Jargon, UK

UK – Do you know your zygote from your oligozoospermia? Expert decodes the most CONFUSING fertility jargon for prospective parents

Intended Parents

Source Daily Mail

It’s 40 years since the first IVF baby was born, bringing joy to thousands of couples who might otherwise have been unable to conceive.

But while the NHS estimates that one in seven couples will still have difficulty conceiving, the fertility industry remains full of bamboozling jargon – from zygote to oligozoospermia.

Despite the wealth of information and advice now available, the language and terminology used can often be complicated, making the process confusing and overwhelming.

Here Dr Victoria Walker, leading fertility expert at Spain’s Institut Marques, has de-coded a list of the most confusing medical terms used in the fertility industry.

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Egg Freezing, UK

Fertilization: Who Should Go For Egg Freezing?

Intended Parents

Source Leadership

The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (RCOG) recently draw the attention of In vitro fertilization (IVF) experts on a very salient observation that egg freezing had tripled in five years. RCOG also stated that a large number of those who go for egg freezing are over 37 years and these group of people have lower chances of success when they would need the eggs. This, researchers have linked to the fact that more women now postpone raising families due to many social factors including educational/career pursuits and the unavailability of the right partners.

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Egg Donation, UK

UK – ‘I’m 35, childless and I donated my eggs to strangers and here’s why’

Intended Parents

Source INews


Becki Ellsmore has never cooed over babies in the way she’s seen her friends do. And while she says she’ll never say never to having a family, it’s not been a priority.

Yet the 35-year-old has not one, but two biological children – of around four and five – who she has never met. She was compensated £750 each time for donating her eggs, but with trips back and forth from her home town in Oxford to the clinic in London during the two-week process, the money is hardly a motivating factor.

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frozen embryos, UK

UK – Frozen embryo pregnancy boost

Intended Parents

Source Express

A fertility clinic has become the first in the UK to routinely freeze embryos – to give women more than a 50 percent chance of falling pregnant. Scientists at Cambridge IVF found the technique allowed them to transfer the embryos at the best time for the patient.

It also eliminates some of the side effects of IVF drugs, including weight gain, abdominal pain, vomiting and shortness of breath.

The clinic, which works with Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, achieved a 61.8 per cent success rate for a group of 167 women between the age of 24 and 45 compared with 40.6 per cent when using fresh embryos.

The figure is nearly double the national average of 36 per cent for using fresh embryos, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

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Surrogacy Abroad, UK

UK – ‘Parents risk legal status of children’ Desperate British couples go abroad for surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source Express

COUPLES desperate to have a baby are resorting to unregulated commercial surrogacy abroad, which can lead to legal battles and losing the child, experts warn. New figures show the practice is rising but due to a chronic shortage of British surrogates, many people are going to countries where commercial arrangements are legal.

The UK’s “altruistic” system means surrogates cannot advertise and may receive only “reasonable expenses”.
Experts say this should cost no more than £12,000.

In Ukraine and Georgia surrogacy costs between £30,000 and £50,000 through official clinics.

In Canada it varies from £70,000 to £80,000. It can be cheaper in unregulated countries such as Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.

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Surrogacy, UK

UK – ‘Parents risk legal status of children’ Desperate British couples go abroad for surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source Sunday Express

COUPLES desperate to have a baby are resorting to unregulated commercial surrogacy abroad, which can lead to legal battles and losing the child, experts warn. New figures show the practice is rising but due to a chronic shortage of British surrogates, many people are going to countries where commercial arrangements are legal.

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Sperm Bank, UK

UK – Brexit news latest: Fears over shortage of donated sperm after Britain leaves EU

Intended Parents

Source Evening Standard

Fears have been raised over a shortage of foreign sperm donations under a no-deal Brexit following the publication of technical notices released by the Government.

A paper from the Department of Health and Social Care revealed that Danish sperm made up almost half of all non-British male reproductive material imported to the UK in 2017.

A no-deal Brexit could lead to the UK leaving EU organ and tissue donation directives, which cover material including human sperm, eggs and embryos and organs for transplant.

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Gay Parenting, Same Sex, UK

TOM DALEY ON BECOMING A DAD, PREJUDICE AND WHY UK SURROGACY LAWS NEED TO CHANGE

Intended Parents

Source Independent

Tom Daley is sitting on a sofa in a central London hotel suite with his husband, Dustin Lance Black, while their seven-week-old baby, Robbie Ray, snoozes peacefully beside them – and it’s clear the new fathers (both dressed in baby blue) are entirely besotted with their son.

“We don’t ever turn on a TV anymore, we just stare at the little one,” Daley, 24, tells The Independent. “It’s been so crazy. It feels kind of surreal still, the fact that we have a…”
He stops mid-sentence to coo at baby Robbie, which I soon realise is to become a regular occurrence during our interview.

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Surrogate Mother, UK

UK – Why I’ve agreed to be a surrogate for the fifth time – after being sterilised

Intended Parents

Source Inews

I discovered surrogacy when I was looking into donating my eggs. My interest in carrying someone else’s baby came from a place of feeling quite sorry for myself. I was a young single mum and alone. Then I had this realisation that someone would swap places with me in a heartbeat. All these couples that couldn’t have children – I could help them.

What I didn’t like about egg donation was that it was completely anonymous. I was attracted to Surrogacy UK (SUK) because of their “friendship first” ethos. It meant I could have a relationship with the couple, their friends, and possibly have one after I gave birth, too.

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Embryo Freezing, Frozen Eggs, UK

UK – ‘There are no guarantees’: Experts warn women of social egg freezing risks

Intended Parents

Source Sky News

Women who freeze their eggs to extend their fertility run the risk of spending a lot of money for a treatment with a small chance of success.

So-called social egg freezing (SEF) can be used to put off childbearing or because a woman has not yet found a partner.

But the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCog) has warned that egg freezing does not guarantee future live births and there are storage limits for how long eggs can be kept frozen, currently 10 years in the UK.
Egg freezing is not available on the NHS apart from in certain circumstances, for example a woman undergoing medical treatment that may affect fertility.

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Surrogate Mother, UK

UK – My Family Was Complete But I Wanted To Birth Another Child, So I Became A Surrogate

Intended Parents

Source Huffington Post

Surrogacy had never even crossed my mind. The urge however to be pregnant and give birth again was strong and real. A kind of primal urge. But I knew my family was complete, with a husband, a daughter and a son. We were done. My body had other ideas though.

I knew it was probably a bad idea to have a third child just for a birth experience! So when my friend Stacey asked me what I knew about surrogacy it was like a light bulb actually went off in my head. Here was a bone fide way to scratch my pregnancy and birthing itch but without adding to my family. With the added bonus of helping another couple to start or complete their family. What a head spin.

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