For our first update, we visit our official fertility journey clinic partners IVF Spain, following Anita and Simon’s challenging journey with the Alicante-based experts.
At IVF Spain we are proud to announce that, once again, we will be part of the exciting project Fertility Journeys. This has been a hugely original, inspirational, global project that we have endorsed fully, and to sign up for the third year is a privilege.
After all, we know how important it is for people with fertility problems to fulfil their dream of becoming parents. Considering that treatment is provided free of charge for one lucky couple, we hope that the economic factors which control so much of our lives should not always be a barrier to starting or extending a family.
So for the third year, and together with the support of the IVF Spain Foundation, a new family will have the opportunity to start an egg donation fertility treatment working with the medical team of Dr Aizpurua.
The IVF Spain Foundation is a non-profit organisation established by the IVF Spain fertility clinic in 2012. The foundation focuses its efforts on two essential aspects: supporting families through the ‘Amadrina’ (sponsoring) social programme and committing to research, training and teaching.
Meet fertility journey couple Claire and David
Under the chairmanship of Dr Jon Aizpurua, the multidisciplinary team – committed to both causes – collaborates on a daily basis for the IVF Spain Foundation to play a significant role with families being helped.
The couple we have been supporting through the journey, Anita and Simon, recently travelled to Spain in order to make their latest visit to the IVF Spain fertility clinic. They are very excited about the treatment and are looking forward to a happy conclusion – namely being able to form the family they have always dreamed of.
They were due to come to IVF Spain on December 28 – when this piece was going to press – for an echography and then on January 5, 2016, for their embryo transfer. The doctors and the entire team have put all their effort and hope into achieving successful implantation and, of course, fulfilling Anita and Simon’s dream.
IVF Spain pays special attention to providing comfortable patient care. People sometimes think that begins and ends with specialists, but the reality is the attention to detail goes right the way down to furniture distribution, the colours used in each room and other elements of decoration. Everything has been chosen carefully following the Feng Shui principle in order to make couples feel as settled and relaxed as possible.
We complement this with holistic treatments such as acupuncture. These kinds of treatments have been scientifically demonstrated to improve responses to fertility medication and, ultimately, increase pregnancy rates. After all, a comfortable state of mind promotes blood flow and relaxes patients before and after treatment, thus significantly reducing stress.
But our attention to detail goes even further. The therapeutic, technological and biotechnological equipment found at IVF Spain is exceptional compared to most Spanish clinics, and as a result the clinic ranks among the most advanced in Europe. We have a flow cytometer for semen analysis, genetic tests to analyse the endometrial receptivity, preconception genetic testing to avoid monogenic diseases, protamine tests to improve male fertility, specific genetic screening protocols that improve the chances of pregnancy, technologies to predict the viability of embryos and many other technologies that ensure our visitors are in the best and most experienced hands.
IVF Spain devotes all its effort to obtaining and retaining the best pregnancy rates and does not hesitate when it comes to improving progress and scientific knowledge. This line of action has meant the consolidation of IVF Spain as a globally regarded reference point in research applied to assisted reproduction, as evidenced by the recognition and the impact their scientific work has had throughout 2015.
During the annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine – one of the fertility world’s most important conferences, where the latest developments in assisted reproduction are disclosed – IVF Spain attracted great interest with two revealing scientific studies. Each study has demonstrated that the use of the growth hormone on patients with poor prognosis improves the implantation rate, based on the use of a protamine ratio as a new marker for male infertility.
Another important event for IVF Spain has been its recent participation in the most important national meeting on embryology organised by the Association for the Study of Reproductive Biology (ASEBIR), where the reproduction clinic has been recognised for excellence in scientific innovation by the Scientific and Organising Committee. Out of the 11 presented studies two important procedures were awarded the highest honour:
Embryobranking With PGS
Thanks to this technique embryos are generated and accumulated after several cycles (usually two to four) and ultimately analysed using the Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS). Its function is to detect both numerical and structural chromosomal alterations with the aim of transferring embryos with a normal chromosomal content.
The chromosomal alterations increase with age, hence it is advisable to apply the PGS to patients older than 38 years.
Sperm Vitrification
Unlike traditional freezing, through this process, we achieve an improvement in the survival of the semen sample after cryopreservation. This improvement allows patients to use the sample obtained during the first visit. This way it is possible to achieve better results and, hence, it prevents the male partner from travelling the day of the embryo transfer.
The aim of focusing on innovation and technological advances in fertility lies in the need to offer patients the highest pregnancy rates – 70% to 85% depending on the type of treatment and placing the clinic above the Spanish average according to the data provided by the SEF (Spanish Fertility Society) – as well as providing a satisfactory solution to the most complex and difficult cases.
Repeated miscarriages, implantation failure and male fertility factors are the primary causes of not achieving pregnancy. Detection is as important as applying an appropriate treatment for each patient, hence IVF Spain has a mechanism for an early detection of factors that constitute the cause for not achieving a successful pregnancy.
In short, in most cases, having a multidisciplinary team at our disposal, capable of implementing the advances in reproductive medicine, makes a difference when trying to achieve the desired pregnancy.
On behalf of the entire IVF Spain, we wish you every success and happiness for 2016 and we would like to send you our best wishes, that in the year ahead all families can fulfil their dream of conceiving a healthy baby.
