In this e-newsletter:
1. Abstract submission Rome 2010
2. Focus on Reproduction
3. HFEA ethics and law horizon scanning seminar
4. ESHRE news
5. News in reproductive medicine
6. ESHRE calendar
The abstract submission deadline for ESHRE’s Annual Meeting in Rome officially ended 1 February 2010. Once more, we received an overwhelming number of abstracts.
1.506 abstracts (1.154 in 2009 - an increase of 31%!) will now be reviewed over the next few weeks according to ‘originality’, ‘design’, ‘data quality’, ‘presentation’ and ‘significance’. The first three categories ‘originality’, ‘design’ and ‘data quality’ are each multiplied by 2 and ‘significance’ by a factor of 4. The category ‘presentation’ is not multiplied.
All scores are collected online and computer weighed in the ESHRE Central Office to minimise discrepancies between the referees’ scores.
Finally the Programme Committee selects the best scoring abstracts for either oral or poster presentation and designates them to the appropriate session.
For last year’s Annual Meeting 20% of all abstracts were selected for oral communication, 26% for poster presentation and 54% were rejected.
List of categories for ESHRE’s Annual Meeting:
• Andrology (male fertility, spermatogenesis)
• Cross-border reproductive care
• Demography, epidemiology, registries, and health economy
• Early pregnancy
• Embryology (embryo selection)
• Endometriosis, endometrium and implantation
• Ethics and law
• Safety, Quality, Risks and Complications (guidelines, accreditation and certification, multiple pregnancy, treatment outcome and follow-up)
• Fertility preservation
• Paramedical (Nursing, Laboratory)
• Psychology and counselling
• Reproductive endocrinology (including PCOS, infancy, puberty, adolescence, menopause)
• Reproductive genetics (PGD/PGS)
• Reproductive surgery (female & male)
• Stem cells
• Others
We hope to provide our members with an interesting and engaging scientific programme for this Annual Meeting and hope to see many of you in Rome!
For more information on ESHRE 2010 visit our website.
The January issue of ESHRE's newsletter Focus on Reproduction is now online. Special features of this issue are 'Ready and able - sperm preparation for ART' and 'Poles apart - IVF legislation in Poland'. Simon Brown also reports on news of our SIGs and TFs.
3. HFEA Ethics and Law horizon scanning seminar
The HFEA is holding its inaugural Ethics and Law scanning seminar in London on the 24 February 2010. This interactive event provides an opportunity to engage with the Authority’s Ethics and Law Advisory Committee (ELAC).
Attendance is for free and a certain number of places have been reserved for ESHRE members. The event will take place in central London 10:00-15:00.
The programme will be divided in two parts:
1) Fertility treatment abroad
In the morning, ethical, policy and regulatory issues around fertility treatment abroad will be discussed. This will include presentations of three speakers.
Lorraine Culley will provide an evidence based perspective, on the trans-national reproduction study (www.transrep.co.uk), Nicola Dawson will speak from the patient perspective and Veronica English, Deputy Head of medical ethics of the British Medical Association, will provide the ethics /policy perspective (www.bma.org.uk/ethics/index.jsp).
This will be followed by a floor discussion with an expert panel.
2) Identifying core issues
In the afternoon ELAC will listen to participants through workshop based discussions with the aim to identify core issues of relevance to the Authority. Issues identified throughout the day will be fed back to the full Committee at its March 2010 meeting for consideration in the ELAC work plan for 2010/2011.
If you wish to attend this event, please send an email to Hanna at hanna@eshre.eu or call at +32 (0) 2 269 09 69.
Deadline for applications is 19 February.
More information on this event can be found here.
Press releases January 2010
Should obese, smoking and alcohol consuming women receive assisted reproduction treatment? Read more >
Our Journals
Human Reproduction
Editor’s choice January 2010
Editor’s Choice February 2010
Heo, Y.S., et al., Dynamic microfunnel culture enhances mouse embryo development and pregnancy rates
Related news: Like babies, embryos like to be rocked too
Human Reproduction Update
Koning. A.M.H., et al., Economic consequences of overweight and obesity in infertility: a framework for evaluating the costs and outcomes of fertility care
Cooper, T.G., et al., WHO reference values for human semen characteristics
Molecular Human Reproduction
New Research Horizon Review
De Felici, M., Germ stem cells in the mammalian adult ovary: considerations by a fan of the primordial germ cells
You can find more news and articles in our Press Room, Our Journals, and in the ESHRE News.
Should there be an age limit for IVF?
The discussion of introducing an age limit for women seeking ART treatment was reignited last month, when 59 year old Sue Tollefsen was offered IVF treatment by a British clinic. This comes despite guidelines advising against such treatment after 50. Read more >
As the Times reports British senior doctors have rejected a call for a ban on treatment for women over 50. This incidence sparked a further debate amongst fertility experts whether there should be an age limit on IVF with donated eggs. Read more >
Cord blood banking – new hope for blood diseases
99.5 % of all cord blood is being discarded. And this, although stem cells from umbilical cords are known to be valuable for treating different diseases such as leukaemia. Cord blood may also be used to treat diabetes, MS and testicular cancer as shown in clinical research. Earlier this year, Conservative MP David Burrowes emphasized the need for an infrastructure for the collection of cord blood cells. Read more >
This comes at a time where research published on umbilical cord blood transplants shows how a more widely used method can be used for treating leukemia and other disorders. Read more > With this new technique cord blood cells can multiply at a fast pace. Read more >
IVF children and their genes
A recent study published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics showed that IVF children may have altered gene activity compared to children conceived naturally. Read more >
Where these so called epigenetic changes – alterations to the patterns of gene activity and not changes to the genes themselves – occur and why is still not clear. It is also not known whether this is related to the IVF process itself. There is still some uncertainty behind epigenetics since this type of research is still in its early days. Read more >
More news can be found in our PRESS ROOM or you can subscribe to our RSS feed for reproductive professionals.
ESHRE guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis. Presentation and interactive discussion
(organised by the SIG Endometriosis and Endometrium)
26 February 2010, Budapest, Hungary
Research – theory and practice
(organised by the Paramedical Group)
4-5 March 2010, Brussels, Belgium
Poor ovarian response (POR). Inter SIG Campus and consensus conference
(organised by all SIGS)
19-20 March 2010, Bologna, Italy
Approaching accreditation of a PGD centre
(organised by the SIG Reproductive Genetics)
22-23 March 2010, London, United Kingdom
Sperm and testicular tissue banking
(organised by the SIG Andrology)
25-26 March 2010, Granada, Spain
Basic genetics for ART practitioners
16 April 2010, Porto, Portugal
Array technologies to apprehend developmental competence and endometrial receptivity: limits and possibilities
(organised by the TF Basic Reproductive Science)
22 April 2010, Brussels, Belgium
The management of infertility – training workshop for junior doctors, paramedics and embryologists (organised by the SIG Reproductive Endocrinology, SIG Embryology and the Paramedical Group) - more information will be available soon!
26-27 May 2010, Kiev, Ukraine
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis
1 July 2010, Rome, Italy
More information on all workshops is available in our Calendar.
Mark your calendar for our 26th Annual Meeting / Rome, Italy / 27 to 30 June 2010