NEWS

29-Nov-06 Abbott delivers for Australian couples
ACCESS Australia, the national patient support group for people affected by infertility, welcomes The Hon Tony Abbott, Federal Minister for Health & Ageing, decision to respect and support the reproductive choices of Australian women.

29-Aug-06 PCOS One day Conference
The support and advocacy group Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association of Australia Inc (POSAA) is holding a one-day conference on how best to manage PCOS in Sydney, on Saturday September 30. The theme is “POSAAtively Managing PCOS”.

May-06 Medicare & Assisted Reproductive Technologies - new policy briefing paper from AHPI
The Australian Health Policy Institute (AHPI) has introduced a series of policy briefing papers on contemporary Australian health policy issues. The first of these papers is entitled: Medicare and Assisted Reproductive Technologies.

May 06 Wonders of IVF revealed
Article from the Maitland Mercury 1 May 2006

Feb-06 Good News for Couples needing Fertility Treatment
ACCESS Australia’s National Infertility Network, applauds the health professionals providing fertility treatment in Australia following the results of the National Perinatal Statistic Unit’s 2003 report released today, which shows an overall increase in the number of women accessing fertility treatment and a significant reduction in multiple pregnancies.

Nov-05 In vitro oocyte maturation success
Swedish doctors report of a case of successful in vitro oocyte maturation after repeated failed cycles of IVF treatment.

Nov-05 FSH levels as a tool for patient counseling
A group of Austrian researchers are proposing that basal FSH levels are predictive of ovarian reserve and therefore may be predictive of the number of oocytes that may be retrieved.

Nov-05 Effect of overweight and smoking on fertility
In a study of 8457 women on their first IVF cycle, smoking was associated with a lower delivery rate and higher miscarriage rate.

Nov-05 Position statements
ESHRE has released a number of position statements this year. Most recently they have issued one on the treatment and diagnosis of endometriosis and another on surrogacy.

25-Jul-05 Is blastocyst transfer any better?
Austrian researchers in a retrospective study of 1259 consecutive cycles comparing outcomes of embryos transferred at day 2-3 or on day 4-5 (blastocyst stage) revealed pregnancy rates of 28% versus 44% and a take home baby rate of 17% and 34%.

18-Jul-05 Surrogacy and the law
In the UK a couple who had attempted four cycles of donor egg were offered by the woman’s mother that she would be a surrogate. In the absence of donors for eggs the couple elected to use donor embryo.

11-Jul-05 Rare syndrome and IVF link confirmed
The prevalence of babies born with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) seems to be associated with IVF. Researchers in Australia looking at 37 babies born with BWS have found that the prevalence of BWS in IVF babies is 1 in 4000 and 1 in 15,000 for babies conceived naturally.

04-Jul-05 Be careful who you share your DNA with
The Swiss parliament has approved legislation that would allow insurance companies limited access, but still access, to genetic test results.

27-Jun-05 Saving Zain
The parents of Zain Hashmi have given up there attempts to have a tissue-matched IVF baby to save the life of their son who has the genetic disease thalasemia. After several IVF attempts, the clinic is stating the age of the mother as the main cause for ceasing this treatment. The Hashmi family were the first to get authorization of a procedure of this nature form HFEA and then also had to fight a pro-life group in the High Court.

20-Jun-05 Legislation loop-holes
In a review of the legislation in France regarding cloning and embryo research something slipped through the cracks. The new legislation still bans human cloning but now allows genetic testing of embryos and research to take place on stem cells derived from donated human embryos for a limited period of time (five years).

13-Jun-05 Public Opinion
In Germany preimplantation diagnosis, egg donation and surrogacy are prohibited. Researchers in Germany have surveyed infertile couples and the general population to find that the legislation is out of step with the population attitudes.

06-Jun-05 Male infertility – lifestyle factors
A Danish study has shown that of 1558 Danish men, those with either a low or high BMI had significant differences in reproductive hormone levels and sperm count.

30-May-05 IVF Children’s Health
The HFEA is reported to be moving to establishing a register of all fertility procedures carried out in UK clinics. In particular it hopes to maintain records of techniques used, their outcomes and follow-up data on the physical and developmental health of the children born. There are also some murmurings from the USA along similar lines. Currently privacy legislation would prevent this happening.

23-May-05 Egg Giving
Egg giving is a practice that has only surfaced in recent years, most notably in the UK. It involves a couple who intend undertaking IVF for the first time. In effect a reduced fee is negotiated for subsequent cycles if all the eggs or the first cycle are donated to (an)other couple(s).

16-May-05 Posthumous sperm harvesting - Israel leads the way
There have been a number of cases in Australia where widows have fought to harvest the sperm of their husbands so as to start a family. Israel has taken an unprecedented move to allow widows to harvest their deceased husbands sperm even if the men did not give their consent while alive.

10-May-05 ACCESS says thanks
ACCESS thanks the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Health Minister for listening to the women of Australia and the couples and families

22-04-05 Letter from Sandra Dill, ACCESS Executive Director
Please write to the Prime Minister, your Coalition MP and the Liberal Senator in your state to express your concerns that the government has decided to cut the number of Medicare reimbursed IVF cycles to three each year.

22-04-05 Moss Brother's winery to donate $50 for every case of wine sold through the ACCESS network.
Moss Brother's winery have kindly offered to donate $50 for every case of wine sold through the ACCESS network.

Mother’s Day fact sheet
For infertile people, special family celebrations like Mother's Day can be painful reminders of the fertility and success of other people - times to be endured.

28-07-04 Men's experience of IVF
A newspaper feature writer, (Sunday Age, in Melbourne), is doing a story on men's experience of IVF and is looking to interview a man whose relationship broke up as a result of the pressures of the program.

28-May-04 Participants needed for a Male Sub Fertility Clinical Trial 2004
Some practitioners in the Chinese medicine community have been specialising in male sub fertility and gaining very good results. To be able to make any substantial claims about our results we need to conduct a scientifically based clinical trial.

26-Jan-04 Prof Gabor Kovacs appointed Member of the Order of Australia
Professor Gabor Thomas KOVACS, Toorak has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to medicine in the fields of gynaecology, obstetrics, family planning and in-vitro fertilization.

14-Apr-03 A biological clock for men!
Researchers from Seattle reported late last year that the chance of a man having children after 35 years of age is less likely than prior to his 35th birthday.

14-Apr-03 The value of counselling
In Australia it is mandatory of RTAC guidelines that all clinics provide access to counselling, indeed part of the Medicare fee is to cover counselling costs. In America, the situation is different and these support services are provided by clinics as they see appropriate.

14-Apr-03 Second Baby for Diane Blood
Diane Blood, the British woman who made legal history by fighting to have a baby by being inseminated with her late husband's sperm, has given birth to a second baby boy. The sperm was taken from her husband, when he was dying several years ago, from bacterial meningitis.

14-Apr-03 Congenital malformation in IVF babies.
A study reported in Human Reproduction in 2001 showed that of the babies born to IVF in the period 1992-1997 in Sweden (some 9111 children), that there was no increase risk of congenital malformations...

14-Apr-03 What Makes Sperm Do Its Job?
Professor Tony Lai and a research team at the University of Wales, Cardiff have been able to isolate a 'sperm factor' gene that could have implications for the treatment of infertility in males. The gene makes a protein called PLC-zeta, which causes an increased level of calcium in the egg during fertilization. When a sperm penetrates the egg, the increased calcium level causes the cells to begin to divide and to go on to develop into an embryo.

14-Apr-03 Endometrial Function Test Helps Improve ART Success Rates
At the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Annual Meeting, Dr Harvey Kliman of Yale University and his colleagues, presented their findings on their latest research into how tests on endometrial function can improve assisted reproductive technologies (ART). They found that a test of endometrial function could guide ART techniques and improve success rates.

14-Apr-03 Novel Technique May Diagnose Egg Aging
A unique technique of performing a biopsy on an egg may be able to accurately determine whether it is aging. According to Dr Goud and colleagues from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, this can be achieved by assessing the ooplasmic microtubule activity of the egg.

Sep-02 The Dangers of Cloning – Beware of those Claiming Success of Producing Cloned Human Pregnancies
Infertility patients who have had problems having children with the assistance of IVF techniques may be tempted to contact the Italian gynaecologist, Dr S Antonori now that he is..

Sep-02 Preserving Ovarian Tissue : Pipe-Dream or Future Reality?
The current options for preserving or extending fertility for women are limited. Advances in cryobiology (the science of deep freezing cells and tissues)...