Norfolk's first IVF clinic opens

Norfolk's first IVF clinic has officially opened, offering
local couples the opportunity to receive treatment outside London and Cambridge
for the first time.

The clinic has the capacity to treat 500 patients and a
number of pregnancies have already been announced since its opening earlier
this year.

Jen and Jamie Field, a Norfolk couple who have a son
conceived through IVF, welcomed the clinic. 'One of the big stresses we had was
the travelling, going from here to Cambridge, so if there's a clinic just down
the road for the families in Norfolk, that's a fantastic thing', they told the
BBC.

Kate Brian from Infertility Network UK, a charity which
provides peer-group support to couples with infertility problems, said: 'We
welcome the opening of this new clinic which will help to make fertility
treatment more accessible to people in Norfolk'.

The clinic is a branch of the Bourn Hall clinic in Cambridge — the first IVF clinic in the world. Around one in six couples experience
fertility problems but there is a persistent 'postcode lottery' when accessing
IVF. The east of England region has, in the past, led the way in making IVF
treatment more widely accessible by making three IVF cycles and a further three
frozen embryo transfers available on the NHS (reported in BioNews 506).

Mr Hamed Al-Taher, lead clinician at
Bourn Hall, said: 'It was always the dream of Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards
after their success with Louise Brown that IVF treatment would be made
available to all that needed it. By opening the first full-service IVF clinic
in Norfolk, we are continuing their remarkable legacy and patients from across
the region can benefit from over three decades of experience'.