The Fertility Show

The Fertility Show is less than a fortnight away on November 6th and 7th at Olympia. Online ticket sales are booming, and the 45 scheduled seminars are rapidly filling up. There are more than 80 exhibitors at the show, and a huge range of speakers covering everything from complementary therapy to coping strategies, as well as all the latest developments in reproductive medicine. Come and say hello if you're there - I'm speaking on Friday about choosing a clinic and on Saturday about travelling overseas for treatment - in between you'll probably find me at the Infertility Network UK stand!

Back to green

I've gone back to green with the background! I missed it - and actually I think it's much easier to read...

Womb transplants

There was huge excitement in the media last week about womb transplants, which we were told could take place in humans within just a couple of years. At Infertility Network UK, we were inundated with interview requests and the news was widely hailed as a huge step forward, offering hope to women who would never otherwise be able to carry a child.

In fact, it seems that this may have been one of those hype over substance stories, as the research project had involved rabbits, who have completely different wombs to humans. Although five rabbit womb transplants were carried out and two of the rabbits survived, neither became pregnant. The transplants were seen as a success because the rabbits, who had been given immunosuppressant drugs, did not reject the transplanted wombs. In fact, being able to get pregnant and the womb being able to expand to accommodate a baby are pretty crucial if the technique is to help women have children. The only previous attempt to transplant a womb into a human was unsuccessful.

Of course, this is an interesting development - but it may be some time before we see successful womb transplants in humans.

Exciting new advance for IVF

Despite all the advances in IVF over the years, the one big hurdle has been knowing which embryos were most likely to implant in the womb. Now, a new screening technique can be used to check for genetic abnormalities which can lead to a miscarriage. Using this technique, researchers have had success rates of more than 66%, a remarkable level considering that most of those in the trial were around the age of 39 and had tried IVF a number of times before. Although the numbers involved in the trials have been quite small, if this could be replicated elsewhere, the potential is enormous.

More on this story here

Have you had fertility treatment overseas?

A research team are looking for people who've travelled abroad for fertility treatment as part of a large-scale survey into cross-border treatment. More and more people are going outside their home country for treatment for all kinds of reasons - to escape certain regulations, to access treatment more easily or simply because it costs less. There's still very little research into the subject and no one really knows how many people seek treatment overseas - what's more we don't know much about their experiences. One of the only pieces of research into the issue so far was carried out by Infertility Network UK but this new work will be an academic project, going into far more depth. If you'd like to know more about volunteering for the project see www.transrep.co,uk

Asian support group

Talking to others who are in the same situation can be a huge help when you are trying to conceive, but sometimes cultural differences can cause particular problems that not everyone can appreciate. Now, British Asians with fertility problems are about to benefit from a group aimed specifically at them, which will be set up in London early in the new year. For more information, check out the Infertility Network UK website.

Fertility monitoring device

If you happen to have a spare 500 quid knocking about, you may be interested in purchasing a new device designed to take your temperature twenty thousand times whilst you are asleep to try to pin down the most fertile days in your month. Many years back, doctors would always suggest that you started any fertility investigations by taking your temperature every morning, but more recently it has been recognised that the results are not always accurate when you are using a thermometer to do this.

Now there's a small sensor about the size of a pound coin that you can put under your armpit, and a monitor that lights up to show your most fertile days. It's all very well if you don't have anything better to do with five hundred pounds, but for you may be better off saving your money and trying to have intercourse more frequently, especially around the time you think you are most likely to be ovulating. If you happen to be one of the monied few, it's called DuoFertility by the way!

Unregulated clinics

I've been reading about some fascinating Canadian research which calls for fertility clinics in Latin America to be regulated. Apparently, more and more fertility clinics are opening up in developing countries, where it is possible to offer treatment at relatively cheap rates. In order to make things easier for overseas patients, the clinics offer package deals which include travel, accommodation and treatment, allowing patients to have a "holiday" along with their IVF. The problem with the plethora of new clinics is that no one can be entirely sure of the standards they adhere to.

This can be a particular problem for patients travelling for treatment from the UK. Here. all fertility clinics offering IVF are tightly regulated and monitored, and it is easy to assume that clinics overseas must have the same rules and ethics. This is why it is so important to do your homework when you're looking for a fertility clinic abroad.

If you're interested in the Canadian research, you can find details on the University of Montreal website. You may also be interested in coming along to The Fertility Show where I will be giving a presentation on treatment overseas.

Risks of IVF?

Do you think women are putting their lives at risk from IVF treatment? That was the claim just a few weeks ago in some national newspapers - see here . I think women who have dozens of cycles of IVF are always going to be in the minority - not many of us could afford the financial or emotional cost. It is true that a little more honesty about the chances of success might not be a bad idea, but most women come to their own decisions about when to call it a day.

As for the suggestion that women with cancer are dying because they've waited to get pregnant - surely they would be better advised to consider freezing embryos rather than putting their cancer treatment off for years? If women are doing this, it must raise questions about the quality of the counselling they've been receiving.

Then finally, there's the thorny issue of IVF drugs and cancer - it's one of those subjects that pops up now and again. No one has any proof, but there have been a few high profile women who have believed that their IVF treatment was related to their cancer. In fact, earlier this year a large-scale study found no evidence of this whatsoever, and it seems somewhat irresponsible to raise the subject without mentioning this.

I think if you're going to make claims like these, you need to be able to back them up with solid evidence. Scientists often say the rest of us rely too much on anecdotal evidence, but there seems to be little more than that for any of these suggestions.

Find a clinic

The HFEA launched a brand new version of the online "find a clinic" service today. The information it offers is great - really detailed for those who like that kind of thing, but with a clear overview for anyone who just wants to get a general picture.

There's also a more statistically-accurate version of the success rates that have always been pounced on by journalists keen to create league tables of fertility clinics. These figures have been changed because the real differences between most clinics are small and giving blunt figures was not a very accurate representation of an individual's chances of success. The new figures give a range between which success rates will fall, and include a "most likely around" percentage which will doubtless be what most of us focus on. There's also information about the types of fertility problem the clinic treats, all the things it can offer and practical stuff like opening hours.

It's all fantastic - but at the moment it seems to be suffering a lot of glitches. I've been on it a few times during the day and it hasn't been able to get the information I wanted - instead I've had error messages and been told certain pages are too busy! Early days... Once these teething problems have been sorted out, it should be a fantastic resource - see here