Category Archives: IVF Treatment

Free fertility treatment for women struggling to conceive will not be available on the NHS in the very county where IVF was pioneered. Funding for specialist in vitro fertilisation (IVF) services was scrapped by health bosses in the Cambridge and Peterborough area on Wednesday, and provision was suspended with immediate effect. The money-saving move attracted backlash when the plans were first announced, with more than 2,200 people signing a petition calling for the proposals to be reconsidered. But Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it was a "financially necessary decision". Dr Gary Howsam, chair and chief clinical officer of the CCG, said: "This was a very difficult decision for the governing body to make and we understand that people will be disappointed. "The CCG has finite resources to fund a whole range of health services and treatments. "We need to save 46.5m this financial year, and so we have had to review all areas of our spending and to make some difficult decisions. "The decision to suspend routinely commissioning specialist fertility services is a financially necessary decision." He added: "Couples can still be referred on to hospital for further tests to investigate the cause of their infertility. Many … Continue reading →

Funding for specialist in vitro fertilisation (IVF) services was scrapped by health bosses in the Cambridge and Peterborough area yesterday, and provision was suspended with immediate effect. The money-saving move attracted backlash when the plans were first announced, with more than 2,200 people signing a petition calling for the proposals to be reconsidered. But Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it was a "financially necessary decision". Dr Gary Howsam, chair and chief clinical officer of the CCG, said: "This was a very difficult decision for the governing body to make and we understand that people will be disappointed. "The CCG has finite resources to fund a whole range of health services and treatments. "We need to save 46.5m this financial year, and so we have had to review all areas of our spending and to make some difficult decisions. "The decision to suspend routinely commissioning specialist fertility services is a financially necessary decision." He added: "Couples can still be referred on to hospital for further tests to investigate the cause of their infertility. Many causes of infertility can be successfully treated without the need to go on to IVF." There will be some exceptions to the plans, with … Continue reading →

baby boom The process can use eggs and sperm from the couple themselves, or these can be sourced from a donor ONE of the techniques used to help women with fertility problems who are struggling to have a baby is in vitro fertilisation (IVF). But what does process involve and who qualifies for the treatment on the NHS? Getty - Contributor The process involves removing an egg from a womans ovaries and fertilising them using sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, also known as an embryo, is transferred back into a womans womb to grow. The process can use eggs and sperm from the couple themselves, or these can be sourced from a donor. There are six main stages of IVF: Getty - Contributor The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)recommends in its fertility guidelines that IVF should be offered to: Those who have been recommended by NICE for NHS-funded IVF in England will then have to be approved by localClinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who can have stricter criteria. These requirements can include: If a woman doesnt qualify for IVF on the NHS, treatment is available at a private clinic. Getty - Contributor Costs can vary depending … Continue reading →

Image caption Della McGill and Ryan Cunningham say IVF offers them an opportunity to have a baby A County Down couple have said the political deadlock at Stormont is delaying their chance of becoming parents. Della McGill has suffered two ectopic pregnancies and said in vitro fertilisation offered her and and Ryan Cunningham the chance of having a baby. Last month, the Belfast Health Trust announced a temporary halt on offering fertility treatment as part of a raft of cost-cutting proposals. Access to the Regional Fertility Centre for an estimated 320 new patients would be deferred until next April, it said. They would then join a waiting list that is already up to nine months long for certain treatments. Ms McGill, 35, said she was "heartbroken" when she heard the news. "The current political deadlock at Stormont has obviously contributed to all the other problems that we are facing, the uncertainty of our future and the possible postponement of potentially never having our family and we aren't getting any younger," she told BBC news NI. "We've already been through a nightmare for two years. I have suffered two ectopic pregnancies and lost one fallopian tube. "Our hearts are broken." The … Continue reading →

Free IVF treatment on the NHS in Cambridgeshire has been scrapped - despite 82 per cent of survey respondents disagreeing with the move and thousands signing a petition opposing it. Instead of getting the first cycle of IVF free through the NHS, hopeful parents will have to pay for each cycle, according to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The CCG decided to cut funding for specialist fertility treatment to save 700,000, helping ease its current financial concerns. Cambridgeshire is now one of only five regions not to offer any NHS-funded speciality fertility treatment. Infertility, which is categorised as a disease by the World Health Organisation, affects one in six people. Berenice Smith, who underwent six unsuccessful IVF treatments, said it was incredibly disappointing that affordable fertility treatment came down to a 'postcode lottery'. She said: "It is incredibly sad, incredibly sad that people [who want to conceive] have to make these appalling choices." A previous online survey found that 82 per cent of people did not agree with the plans to cut funding. A 2,278 signature petition opposing the proposals was also submitted by Stuart Tuckwood, a representative of UNISON Acute Hospitals. Ms Smith said the overwhelming … Continue reading →

IVF treatment in Peterborough and the rest of Cambridgeshire is set to be cut despite overwhelming opposition to the plans. The specialist fertility service is to be removed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), barring two exceptions, until at least April 2019 despite more than 80 per cent of respondents to a public consultation opposing the cost-cutting measure. In total, nearly 797 people formally opposed the plans, while a petition of 2,278 was also handed in. Moreover, none of the organisations which took part in the consultation supported the measure, with many suggesting that the CCG continue to fund one round of IVF. However, the CCG's governing body is set to press ahead with its decision to cut all IVF treatment except for patients with cancer or another disease which is likely to make them infertile, or if they have a chronic viral infection. Papers released ahead of its meeting at the Future Business Centre at the ABAX Stadium in Peterborough on Tuesday (September 5) recommend that the governing body cut IVF but review the decision in 2019. The move will save the body, which commissions health services in the county, 700,000 a year as it bids … Continue reading →

Home/Mumbai/IVF treatment demand shoots up by over 100% in Mumbai By Swapnil Mishra|Aug 24, 2017 08:06 am Mumbai: Blame it on lifestyle or abuse of substance or just plain luck, sperm count among male Mumbaikars has gone down so low that the demand for test tube babies has seen more than 100% rise in the city. According to the civic health department, cases of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment being sought have gone up by more than 100 per cent between 2012 and 2016. In the same period, 32,864 Mumbaikars have approached IVF experts for pregnancy tests. The doctors said on an average, 5,000 children are born every year, through IVF as change in lifestyle has made the sperm count among males decrease drastically due to which couples prefer IVF. Health officials further said more than 60 new IVF centres have been registered in the last three years in the city alone. There has been a consistent increase in the registration of IVF cases in the 17 wards from 2014 to 2016. The change in lifestyle and delay in getting married have increased the number of couples infertility and therefore they rely on IVF, a senior doctor said. Civic officials … Continue reading →

Environmental factors such as airborne pollutants and pesticides in our foods are leading to a decline in the quality and quantity of male sperm, says Lorraine Courtney. THE infertility crisis at the heart of the recently televisedThe Handmaids Taleis the reason why Gileads founders staged a coup, overthrowing democracy and reclaiming fertile women, like Elizabeth Moss character Offred, as state property. Channel 4s dramatisation of Margaret Attwoods dystopian novel got rave reviews and drew large audiences. But new research suggests that by linking infertility to environmental issues, the near-futuristic series may too far-fetched after all. Mens sperm counts have fallen by almost 60% since the 1970s, according to major new research which cautions that our modern world may be prompting a male fertility crisis. Over the past few years, various studies have pointed to declining sperm quality and quantity. This latest research, and the first systematic review of trends, looked at 180 studies over four decades. It concluded that total sperm counts in Western countries have fallen by 59% since 1973, with a 52% fall in sperm concentration, or the concentration of sperm in a mans ejaculate. Decreasing sperm count has been of great concern since it was first reported … Continue reading →

Comments recently published in The Independent have deemed fertility testing unnecessary and even harmful, causing both false reassurance and unnecessary anxiety. I could not disagree more, and believe such statements detract from the very important role "fertility testing" has in reducing the UK's reliance on IVF and assisted conception. Fertility testing is a key tool in changing our focus as a country to prevention, and not just treatment. With 1 out of 6 couples now requiring a fertility doctor to help them achieve a pregnancy, I disagree with the suggestion that women do not need such tests unless they are having trouble conceiving. These tests provide both men and women with crucial information about their chances of conceiving that enables them to make informed decisions before it may be too late. In 20 years of testing men and women for fertility, I have had countless express gratitude for results that have enabled them to take proactive measures to conceive naturally and avoid expensive and stressful IVF treatment. Equally it has provided others with peace of mind that they still have time before they need to consider having children. Such tests are very simple, with the most common being the Anti-Mllerian … Continue reading →

Getting pregnant can be one of the most exciting chapters in life that is, if you want children in the first place. Even if you do, conceiving can be difficult. For some would-be parents, that's where assisted reproductive technology, or fertility treatments that involve both eggs and embryos, comes in. In vitro fertilization (IVF), for example, is a more and more popular technique for having babies: A 2014 report from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology found that IVF led to the births of 1.5 percent of all babies born in the U.S. in 2012, an all-time high. To get the lowdown on how it works, who can benefit from it, and more, Allure spoke with fertility doctors Zaher Merhi, the director of IVF Research and Technology at New Hope Fertility Center, and Joel Batzofin, founder of New York Fertility Services. Ahead, what you should know about this increasingly common treatment. When a patient decides to get IVF, they begin by taking medication that helps stimulate the production of eggs. They're monitored by a doctor with blood tests and ultrasounds to make sure they're healthy during the process and that their eggs are maturing; eventually, the practitioner extracts the eggs … Continue reading →