This week at the Progress Educational Trust (20 November 2019)

The Progress Educational Trust (PET) is delighted to announce that its next free-to-attend event - produced in partnership with the Scottish Government - will be 'Does Fertility Treatment Still Need to Be a Medical Secret?', taking place in Edinburgh this coming Tuesday evening (26 November 2019).

The event will be chaired by Dr Sarah Martins Da Silva, who was recently named one of the BBC's 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019. Speakers will include Dr Catriona McMillan, Gwenda Burns and Dr Jane Stewart.

Find out more here, and register for your free place(s) here. If tweeting about this event, please use the hashtag #IVFsecret

After that, PET will be holding its Annual Conference 'Reality Check: A Realistic Look at Assisted Reproduction', taking place in London all day on Wednesday 4 December 2019.

The conference will explore fertility-related practices, technologies and treatments that are the subject of popular claims or widely held assumptions, but that can give rise to challenging questions when examined in light of available evidence.

See the agenda and timetable here, and register to attend here.

The conference is supported by the Anne McLaren Memorial Trust Fund and the Edwards and Steptoe Research Trust Fund (silver sponsors) and by CooperSurgical, the European Sperm Bank, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the London Women's Clinic and NGA Law (bronze sponsors). Additionally, the Institute of Medical Ethics has provided funding for eight medical students based outside London to attend the conference free of charge - to apply for one of these places, email sstarr@progress.org.uk

Conference sessions include:

1. What Is a Fertility Doctor's Duty?

2. Trials and Tribulations: How Can We Build an Evidence Base?

3. Beyond Regulation: Shining a Light on Fertility Treatment

4. What's the Truth about...

   • ...Mild Stimulation for IVF?

   • ...Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome?

   • ...ICSI - Is It Being Overused?

   • ...Aneuploidy Screening - Can It Improve IVF Success?

   • ...Implications of Genome Editing for Down's Syndrome?

5. Should Fertility Patients Be Given What They Want, or What They Need?

The conference will begin with a Keynote Address by Professor Søren Ziebe (Head of Fertility at Rigshospitalet's Juliane Marie Centre).

Other confirmed speakers and chairs include:

• Sally Cheshire (Chair of the HFEA, and Deputy Chair of CAFCASS)

• Professor Robin Lovell-Badge (Chair of Trustees at PET, and Group Leader in Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute)

• Dr Jane Stewart (Chair of the British Fertility Society, and Head of the Newcastle Fertility Centre)

• Dr James Duffy (Co-Chair of the Priority Setting Partnership for Infertility, and National Medical Director's Clinical Fellow at NHS England and at NHS Improvement)

• Professor Geeta Nargund (Founder and Medical Director of CREATE Fertility and of ABC IVF, and President of ISMAAR)

• Dr Raj Mathur (Consultant Gynaecologist and Lead for Reproductive Medicine at St Mary's Hospital and at Manchester Fertility)

• Jan Grace (Clinical Director of Gynaecology and Maternity Services, and Consultant Gynaecologist, at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust)

• Professor Nick Macklon (Medical Director of the London Women's Clinic, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Copenhagen and at Zealand University Hospital)

• Professor Bobbie Farsides (Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and Member of the HFEA)

• Professor Christopher Barratt (Professor of Reproductive Medicine, and Head of Systems Medicine, at the University of Dundee)

• Dr Cristina Hickman (Chief Scientific Officer at Apricity, and Scientific Representative of the British Fertility Society)

• Dr Roger Sturmey (Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Medicine, and Principal Investigator, at Hull York Medical School)

• Fiona Fox (Founder and Chief Executive of the Science Media Centre, and former Chair of Trustees at PET)

• Alastair McLellan (Editor of the Health Service Journal)

• Professor Joyce Harper (Professor of Reproductive Science, Head of the Research Department of Reproductive Health and Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction at University College London's Institute for Women's Health)

• Professor Peter Braude (Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at King's College London, and former Director of the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's Hospital)

• Dr Catherine Hill (Head of Communications at PET, author and former fertility patient)

• Sarah Norcross (Director of PET, and Commissioning Editor of BioNews)

Further details of the conference can be found here. If tweeting about the conference, please use the hashtag #PETconf19

Finally, PET is pleased to announce that registration is open for its first free-to-attend event in the New Year.

'Frozen Fertility: The Challenges of Storing Eggs, Sperm and Embryos', produced in partnership with the Scottish Government, is taking place in Edinburgh on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.

Speakers will include Rachel Cutting, Dr Melanie Davies and James Lawford Davies.

Find out more here, and register for your free place(s) here