In this e-newsletter:
1. A record breaking Annual Meeting - to Italy and back again
The last 10 years
Pictures of ROME now live!
Abstract categories
e-posters
2. The EU - connection
European Medicines Agency may compare drugs in future
Equal pay for pregnant workers but with limits
Scientists to share a common set of standards
3. ESHRE campus / educational activities
4. ESHRE news
10 years of EIM to be celebrated in Munich
5. News in reproductive medicine
HFEA will be no longer
PGD breakthrough in Germany
6. ESHRE calendar
With 9,204 participants of which 1,013 were exhibitors and 95 press and media, ESHRE broke all records in Rome.
After 10 years ESHRE finally returned to Italy. But the meetings between Bologna and Rome could not have been more different. With a more than two fold increase in the number of participants, exhibitors and press, this year's Annual Meeting has been the largest Annual Meeting ever.
We have come a long way and ESHRE has grown into a successful society representing thousands of scientists and clinicians in the field of human reproduction. The figures speak for themselves: 1,537 abstracts submitted, 421 presentations held, 121 of them during 13 pre-congress courses and 581 posters selected.
Number of participants and journalists over the last 10 years
The top 10 countries:
Italians made up the majority of this year's registered delegates, followed by participants from Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. From outside of Europe, China sent most professionals in the field to Rome.
Pictures of ROME - now live!
We have uploaded the best pictures of the Annual Meeting on the ESHRE website. Please visit here.
All abstracts submitted were catalogued according to below categories. Reproductive Endocrinology and Andrology were the most popular categories of research submitted.
Topic category Reproductive endocrinology 215Andrology 208Others202Embryology184Endometriosis, endometrium and implantation 144Safety & Quality 112Fertility preservation 105Early pregnancy 71Reproductive genetics (PGD/PGS)68Demography, epidemiology, registries, and health economy 54Psychology and counselling 47Reproductive surgery35Paramedical (Nursing, Laboratory)30Stem cells24Ethics and law21Cross-border reproductive care17Grand Total1537
Number of submitted abstracts per topic
e-Posters
e-Posters in the field of Reproductive Genetics, Embryology and Endometriosis were viewed most frequently each day of the conference.
Monday and Tuesday were the most popular days with 5,212 and 6,415 e-posters viewed respectively. On Wednesday 3,582 posters were accessed online.
The top ten most viewed e-posters:
1. [P-004] Cryopreservation of single spermatozoa using CryoTop
2. [P-006] Oral anti-oxidant use for male partners of couples undergoing fertility treatments
3. [P-011] A simple method for cryopreservation of small numbers of human spermatozoa
4. [P-002] Sperm DNA decondensation is positively correlated with sperm morphological anomalies and negatively correlated with sperm motility
5. [P-005] Reproductive outcomes using Kruger´s strict criteria in IUI cycles
6. [P-001] A healthy birth after intracytoplasmic sperm injection using ejaculated spermatozoa from a patient with Kartagener's syndrome
7. [P-010] Morphologically selected sperm injection as a routine and in vitro fertilization outcomes
8. [P-014] Dynamics of sperm DNA fragmentation in fresh and processed samples used for ICSI cycles
9. [P-394] Investigation of ideal conditions for the transportion of human ovarian tissue
10. [P-021] Sperm DNA Fragmentation: the effect of age
Many ESHRE members and non-members joined us on our social media platforms after Rome. But also exhibitors and media now follow our events and news on facebook and twitter. We can proudly announce that ESHRE is now being followed by 1,044 fans on facebook and 122 exhibitors, companies, media organisations, journalists and others on twitter.
If you also wish to receive up to date information on ESHRE events and news why not join us!
For more information please visit the ESHRE website.
In this section you can read about news and issues in the EU arena. Not every month will we have something to feature here, but we hope this section will develop over time and lead to an increased interest in ESHRE's e-newsletter. For comments and feedback please send an email to hanna@eshre.eu.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) may in future, apart from licensing drugs, also compare them to assess their value for patients. Often drugs that have been approved by the EMA are also assessed by health technology assessment agencies such as Britain's NICE or Germany's IQWiG, which often reach different verdicts.
"There is a certain degree of appeal to having a rational evidence-based relative efficacy or effectiveness discussion once in Europe rather than having it 27 times and potentially answered in 27 ways," Andrew Witty, president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (Efpia) said. Read more >
Equal pay for pregnant workers, but with limits
Under EU law a pregnant worker that is transferred to another job while pregnant is entitled to pay equivalent to the average earnings she received before the pregnancy, the European Court of Justice ruled. Pay components such as additional allowances related to her occupational status, her seniority, length of service and professional qualifications are also to be paid. However, payments related to certain tasks such as an on-call duty allowance are not guaranteed. The ruling is binding for all EU member states.
Read more >
"Scientists should share a common set of standards to avoid research misconduct and unacceptable research practices", the European Science Foundation (ESF) said. This new European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, set by the ESF and its 79 member organisations, sets out to achieve just that and was recently presented at the World Conference on Research Integrity.
The code is not intended to replace existing guidelines but instead is a set of principles agreed by 30 countries for self-regulation of the research community. Amongst other, it sets principles for people and animal care, confidentiality, protocol standards, propriety of publication and conflict of interest. Its implementation will be discussed in the coming fall. Read more >
For all participants of the ESHRE Campus symposium on 'Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis - a celebration of 20 years' held in Rome 1 July 2010, the presentations can be found on the ESHRE website. This feature is available for participants only.
The presentations of the workshop 'The Management of infertility - training workshop for junior doctors, paramedicals and embryologists' (organised by the SIG Reproductive Endocrinology, SIG Embryology and the Paramedical Group) are now available for download.
ESHRE’s European IVF Monitoring Group is celebrating its 10 years of existence. The event will take place on 11 September 2010 in Munich, shortly before the IFFS meeting. You are welcome to join. Please register here.
The course describes ART practice and results in Europe, observed through the ESHRE-EIM European register on ART. It details the main aspects to consider when building a national register, including methodological and ethical ones. The strengths and weaknesses will be discussed, as the potential links with other registers. Several national experiences will be shared. Finally, several aspects of the EIM register will be discussed in round tables, including organisation, forms, additional studies and the future of the EIM.
Course objectives:
(1) To show the importance of building national and European registers in getting data on the practice and results in human reproduction
(2) To detail the main aspects to consider when building a register on ART
(3) To progress in the EIM register functioning
(4) To celebrate a 10 years of experience and success at the level of Europe through ESHRE
The following registration fees apply:
ESHRE members: EUR 100
Non-members: EUR 200
ESHRE Student/Paramedical members: EUR 70
Student/Paramedical non-member: EUR 150
The most recent EIM report was published during ESHRE's Annual Meeting:
De Mouzon J., et al., Assisted reproductive technology in Europe 2006: results generated from European registers by ESHRE
Our Journals
Human Reproduction
Editor’s choice June 2010
Braat, D., et al., Maternal death related to IVF in the Netherlands 1984–2008Related News: Pregnant IVF women more at risk of death
Ramezani Tehrani, F. et al., Is polycystic ovary syndrome an exception for reproductive aging?
Related News: Later menopause for women with polycystic ovaries
Molecular Human Reproduction
New Research Horizon Reviews
Initiated at the end of 2007, this series of reviews provides brief summaries of current knowledge in basic science topics in reproductive medicine, accommodating the option of including snippets of unpublished data or hypotheses pointing to new research horizons.
Seli, E., et al., OMICS in assisted reproduction: possibilities and pitfalls
Editorial
Hillier, S.G., Molecular diagnosis in the ART laboratory: making it better
Human Reproduction Update
Cibula, D., et al., Hormonal contraception and risk of cancer
You can find more news and articles in our Press Room and in our Journals.
The HFEA has been selected as one of several health bodies that are to be consolidated in the United Kingdom. In order to save more than £180 million by 2014/15, the Parliament aims to cut the number of health bodies by half in the next years.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will transfer its responsibilities to the Care Quality Commission (currently the regulator of NHS and private health care providers) and the Health and Social Care Information Centre. This way the Government hopes to reduce any overlap between the different organisations and any unnecessary bureaucracy. Read more >
On 6 July, the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which had so far been banned from German IVF clinics, did not violate Germany's strict Embryo Protection Law.
The German Embryo Protection Law, passed in 1991, limits the amount of embryos created in each IVF cycle to three. All of them, regardless of their quality or genetic makeup, must be transferred to the patient at any one time. This may lead to foetal reductions to increase the chance of the remaining foetuses or if any of them is abnormal.
"Today we have no doubts that most of the health problems associated with IVF are related to pre-term birth and underweight babies which in turn are related to multiple pregnancies," says Dr. Anna Veiga, ESHRE's chairman elect.
A doctor in Berlin turned to the court for clarity after having done tests on three couples he believed would pass genetic defects to their offspring if treated with ART. After implanting only healthy embryos and discarding the others, he turned to the court for clarity. In Germany, using embryos for scientific research can be punished with up to three years in prison. However, the court ruled that since the goal of PGD is to ensure a healthy pregnancy, the procedure did not violate the law.
You can read about the different reactions in Germany on this change of legislation here.
More news can be found in our PRESS ROOM or you can subscribe to our RSS feed for professionals in the field of reproductive science and medicine.
EIM 10 years’ celebration meeting
(organised by the EIM)
11 September 2010, Munich, Germany
The determinants of a successful pregnancy
(organised by the SIG Reproductive Surgery, SIG Early Pregnancy, SIG Reproductive Endocrinology)
24-25 September 2010, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Basic training workshop for paramedics working in reproductive health
(organised by the Paramedical Group)
7-8 October, 2010, Valencia, Spain
Female and male surgery in human reproductive medicine
(organised by the SIG Reproductive Surgery and the SIG Andrology)
8-9 October 2010, Treviso, Italy
Everything you forgot about gamete physiology and its impact on embryo quality
(organised by the SIG Embryology)
9-10 October, Lisbon, Portugal
More information on all workshops is available in our Calendar.
Mark your calendar for our 27th Annual Meeting / Stockholm, Sweden/ 3 to 6 July 2011