MITERA: Innovations in IVF
The advancement of science makes the desire of infertile couples to have their own healthy baby increasingly possible.
The innovative embryo development and culture methods, coupled with the state-of-the-art equipment of MITERA Hospital’s IVF Unit lab, have contributed in the Unit having performed over 10,000 IVF cycles in the last 10 years, while more than 3,000 children have been born as a result of these techniques.
This was announced during the 2-day meeting entitled “Fertility 360ο”, organized by MITERA Hospital’s Assisted Reproduction Unit (IVF) at the N. Louros Conference Center on 9th- 10th March. Many distinguished Greek and foreign scientists attended the meeting, including the internationally-acclaimed Gynecologist Professor Mats Brännström, from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who has performed the world’s first successful
uterine transplantation.
The Professor talked about all the latest findings with regards to research in uterine transplantation, and human implementation and correlation to Assisted Reproduction techniques.
He remarked, “We want to give the opportunity to women who have been born without a uterus, as well as women who have lost their uterus due to disease, to become pregnant. So far, my team has performed 6 successful uterine transplantations. The next step is for these women to become pregnant, after undergoing IVF. This has not been achieved yet in humans, but it has been successful in lab animals. During the meeting, I was able to discuss with colleagues from MITERA Hospital’s IVF Unit, in an effort to discover ways for these women to conceive. After 12 years of
research, we are very close to making this dream a reality.”
Commenting on the innovative uterine transplantation technique, Dr Georgios Ioannidis, Consultant Reproductive Gynecologist and Scientific Director of the IVF Unit, stated, “We are constantly working closely with the most distinguished colleagues worldwide and implement all the latest IVF techniques. At MITERA IVF Unit, we realize that these techniques are now possible, and we stand by and support our Swedish colleagues. Such developments would overcome the problems associated with surrogacy and assist women who do not have a uterus to become pregnant. However, we are indeed confronted with moral dilemmas, which must be resolved in the coming future, with the State instituting legislation to this effect. These dilemmas mainly relate to which women should donate or receive a uterus and at what age.”
Clinical Embryologist Giles Palmer, Director of the Assisted Reproduction Unit, declared, “One in 6 couples at reproductive age who wish to have a child are facing difficulties. Assisted by the constant developments and innovations in the field of IVF, we are able to offer a comprehensive treatment plan to subfertile couples. By implementing the new time-lapse embryo monitoring .