The HFEA debate

I was really sorry to have to miss the recent debate organised by Progress Educational Trust on the future of the HFEA, and so was pleased to find a write up of the evening in this week's edition of Bionews.  It was clearly a lively and interesting debate - it may only be a snapshot view but it's interesting that those working in fertility clinics seemed keenest to be rid of the HFEA, while those on the outside were keener for it to remain.  I'd be the first to agree that streamlining and change are both necessary, but it's far too easy to focus on the negatives and to forget all of the good work that the HFEA has done and continues to do.

One of the speakers apparently claimed that people were travelling overseas for treatment because of over-regulation by the HFEA in the UK.  Having spoken to many people who've opted to have treatment abroad, I can't remember hearing one of them mention "over-regulation" as an issue - excessive costs and waiting lists were more likely to come up as reasons for having treatment abroad, as well as higher success rates in some other places and being treated as an equal by consultants.

Sadly the one thing that wasn't mentioned in the reporting of the evening was patient information, and I don't know whether this cropped up at all.  For most fertility patients, information provision is one of the most important functions of the HFEA.  It's the publication of success rates, the reliable information about new treatments and the calm response to fertility scare stories that is so vital - and yet it seems to be the one thing that most of the experts discussing this seem to entirely overlook.

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

Seeking fertility treatment overseas

There was an interesting article in The Guardian recently about the scale of what is often referred to as "fertility tourism". It's not a term many of those who have had fertility treatment abroad would use, but travelling overseas for donor treatment in particular has become more and more common in recent years.

Couples who face long waits for donor eggs or sperm, or who find the costs of IVF and ICSI in the UK are simply beyond their budgets, may travel in order to access treatment. There are no accurate statistics to show how many people end up doing this, and it's an area which is now attracting interest from researchers. To date one of the only surveys looking at the issue was carried out by Infertility Network UK - a project I was involved with. If you're interested, see the article here