The Fertility Show

Get out your diary now, and make sure you don't miss The Fertility Show on November 6 and 7 at London's Olympia. It's aimed at anyone who wants to know more about fertility, from those who are wondering how late they can leave it to try to conceive to those who have already started fertility tests and treatment. There will be exhibitors from the UK and overseas, experts on conventional and complementary therapies and talks on a wide range of topics. I'll be speaking at the show and will let you know what about and when closer to the date. You'll be able to book tickets online in just a few weeks. To find out more, go to www.fertilityshow.co.uk

Survey on funding

I've been on Channel Four News this morning, talking about the latest survey on funding for fertility which suggests that 80% of primary care trusts are not offering the treatment they should.

The website www.fundingforfertility.com has all the latest details on NHS funding for fertility treatment, and shows that your chances of getting treatment depend entirely on where you live. The system is blatantly unfair, with individual primary care trusts making up their own criteria. In some parts of the country, you only get treatment if you are over the age of 36, in others if you are under the age of 35.

Many are refusing to pay for spare embryos to be frozen and transferred, which means patients end up having more than one embryo transferred and the multiple birth rate rises. The cost to the NHS of more multiple births would far exceed the cost of freezing and transferring spare embryos, but there seems to be little in the way of joined up thinking on this issue.

There is little point in going to the expense of having a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to look carefully at all aspects of a problem and make recommendations if primary care trusts are then free to ignore them entirely and make up their own rules.

You can see more of the Channel Four News coverage at www.channel4.com/news

Fertility worries of over 30s

A new survey for Red magazine has revealed that seven out of ten childless women who are over the age of 30 are worried about their fertility. The women surveyed for the poll had an average age of 37, and the survey results showing that 34% of them had experienced fertility problems have been quoted in some papers as suggesting that 1 in 3 women are infertile -double the normally quoted rate. This is probably due to the age of the women surveyed as older women are far more likely to experience fertility problems.

The survey also showed that six out of ten women thought they would use IVF if they didn't manage to get pregnant naturally - which is rather worrying given the average age of the respondents. IVF is not a solution for the biological clock and can't reverse reproductive ageing.

Apparently, the survey suggests that the recession has had no impact on the fertility industry. Many of those questioned who'd had IVF had turned to their parents to help foot the bill, as the postcode lottery means that not everyone can access the funded treatment the government's own advisory body believes they are entitled to.

You can read a take on the story here , or go and browse a copy of Red in your local newsagents!

Researchers want your views

If you've been trying to conceive unsuccessfully for six months or more, researchers at Cardiff University are interested in your views. They're conducting an online survey - so no need to talk to anyone face to face - and you can give your views from home when you'd like to do it. You can find the survey here

IVF for lesbian couples

News in The Times today of a lesbian couple winning the right to equal access to IVF funding. They'd originally been refused NHS treatment. Some local trusts are less enlightened than others when it comes to treatment for lesbian couples and single women, but later this year changes to legislation will remove the need to consider the need for a father when considering who should be offered treatment which should put an end to discrimination. You can read more about this case at www.timesonline.co.uk

Attractive men produce less sperm

If you've got a low sperm count, it may be down to the fact that you're so good looking... New research suggests that attractive males don't produce as many sperm as their less handsome counterparts. Apparently this is part of a pattern seen in some animal species where males who attract more females produce fewer sperm each time they mate. The males who aren't as popular with women need to produce more sperm each time they ejaculate in order to maximise their chances of reproducing, as they will get to mate less frequently.

The research is part of a study from researchers at University College London and the University of Oxford, and you can find out more at www.ucl.ac.uk

New hope for male infertility

You've probably heard by now about the human sperm created in the laboratory along with dire warnings about men becoming redundant in the future.

The sperm were made using embryonic stem cells by a team from Newcastle University and the NorthEast England Stem Cell Institute, and the researchers believe the development will offer hope to many couples with fertility problems. You can read all about the research at www.nesci.ac.uk

However, some other experts in the field have expressed doubts as to whether what has been produced are actually real sperm, or something similar with many of the same characteristics - clearly a case of watch this space!