PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsCommentProgress Educational Trust Conference: Should Assisted Conception Always Be Evidence-Based?

BioNews

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Should Assisted Conception Always Be Evidence-Based?

Published 19 December 2011 posted in Comment and appears in BioNews 638

Author

Rebecca Hill

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.

In what is now synonymous with Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s ethos, the final session of the annual conference, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', was a free-form debate. Following on from the previous sessions where a wealth of eminent researchers gave informative and often provocative talks, Guardian columnist Zoe Williams had the task of chairing what proved to be an entertaining debate...

In what is now synonymous with Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s ethos, the final session of the annual conference, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', was a free-form debate.

Following on from the previous sessions where a wealth of eminent researchers gave informative and often provocative talks, Guardian columnist Zoe Williams had the task of chairing what proved to be an entertaining debate.


The session, 'Should Assisted Conception Always Be Evidence Based?', started off with a very pertinent question from the audience — is it possible to obtain evidence-based results for assisted conception technologies? Panel opinion was that many of the difficulties arose due to financing issues, rather than a lack of interest or ability to carry out the research.


Indeed, funding, or a lack thereof, proved to be a common theme, with questions about everything from clinical trials through large-scale collaborations to regulation falling back on the same ground. The verdict was clear: without suitable investment clinics don't have the manpower, resources or time to collect the data or conduct the necessary studies to provide an evidence base.


In terms of clinical trials something I hadn't previously considered were the related benefits. As Professor John Galloway noted, in his own work a major bonus was the fact everyone agreed to work as a group. 'Could you imagine being part of a set up like that?' he asked the panel.


The answer was a resounding 'yes', with Professor Bobbie Farsides saying collaborations are 'excellent' — she thought it would also help even out the 'shocking' differences in success rates between clinics at a basic level. 'We've got to pull the stragglers up to the best practice', she emphasised.


Changing topic slightly, the next two questions had a more ethical aspect — one relating to how to reduce multiple births, and the second to egg freezing.


Dr Virginia Bolton said audience member Professor Brian Lieberman's suggestion that we pay women for fetal reduction or opt for single embryo transfer (SET) was an 'upside down way of saying SET should be on the NHS'. Mr Anthony Rutherford echoed this sentiment, saying he would be 'frustrated if the HFEA [Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority] take their foot off the gas'. He continued: 'It's about the mindset of the clinicians — this is achievable this if they want to'.


Professor Farsides countered that doctors are only acting in the best interests of patients, and that there needs to be a wider discussion about the risks of multiple births.


'Committed clinics regard SET as the best chance of having a healthy baby and many patients are now accepting that', agreed Ms Jane Denton. '[But] we need more public education'.


It was the ethics of 'social' egg freezing, and the idea of 'banking children' that raised most debate in this section. Dr Maureen Wood thought the idea of women freezing their eggs at 20 as an insurance policy 'a step too far', but Professor André Van Steirteghem believed it was a realistic option worth discussing. 'Having children has changed nowadays, people want to be older. I think it's worth it', he explained.


Professor Daniel Brison said evidence shows that the frozen eggs of a 20-year-old woman have a lower risk of abnormalities than the fresh eggs of a 40-year-old, and Denton pointed out its worth beyond the social — we aren't making enough of the available options for younger women with cancer. I thought a particularly interesting, and often overlooked, point came from Professor Gudrun Moore: 'The best time to have children is when pregnancy is easiest — having a baby at 40 is harder than at 20. We've forgotten all this. We need to invest in making it easier to have babies earlier and protect women's prospects'.


It was noticeable how much discussion there was of randomised control trials throughout the session. A number of panel members raised this as an ideal, although hard to deliver, way to provide the desired evidence base. Dr Joyce Harper, from University College London, asked what the panel thought of previous speaker Dr Simon Fishel's comments at a recent fertility meeting: 'If you waited for randomised control trials we wouldn't get anything done'.


Her own opinion on technological developments? 'There's always something new here and there'. But she was keen to know whether the method was safe and how and such techniques should be implemented in the IVF lab, concluding that 'strange new procedures aren't fair to anybody involved'.


It was Rutherford and Dr Bolton who took on this question, using the example of an embryoscope — an expensive piece of kit, priced, they said, £65,000, which takes automated time-lapse images of the embryos as they are being incubated. However, it can only be used for six patients' embryos at a time, and there isn't enough evidence that it is actively beneficial to the embryos. 'It's a sizeable investment', Rutherford noted. 'If we find the technology doesn't work... someone has to bear the costs'.


The idea that clinicians felt obliged to invest in big money technologies lacking evidence to substantiate their claims again reared its head in the closing remarks from Dr Bolton: 'It's our duty as practitioners to be responsible to patients and the data out there. We need to scrutinize it and not be swayed by the headline-grabbing new technologies'.


Her assertions that they must 'hold fast and behave professionally, being clinicians not charlatans' was met with appreciative applause, and was a fitting end to what had been an informative and thought-provoking day.


PET are grateful to Merck Serono for sponsoring the conference.

Related Articles

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
16 December 2013 • 6 minutes read

Progress Educational Trust conference: Making the grade

by James Brooks

The third session of the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo' boasted a redoubtable roll-call of eminent clinicians and researchers as speakers...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
News
17 May 2013 • 3 minutes read

Time-lapse embryo imaging boosts IVF success, clinic claims

by Emma Stoye

A technique for monitoring embryo health could increase the chance of IVF couples having a healthy baby, according to a study from researchers at a private fertility clinic...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
News
27 February 2013 • 2 minutes read

First British baby born with help from IVF embryoscope incubator

by Dr Greg Ball

A fertility clinic helped to conceive the first baby born in the UK following the use of a device which allows doctors to record images of a developing embryo in the days following fertilisation, prior to implantation...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
23 January 2013 • 4 minutes read

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Introduction to the embryo and its out of body experience

by Dr Rebecca Robey

Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s annual conference, 2011, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', started with two fantastic sessions chaired by Dr Virginia Bolton, consultant embryologist at the assisted conception unit at Guy's Hospital, London, UK....

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Comment
10 December 2012 • 4 minutes read

Weighing up your options: the impact of weight and nutrition

by Rachel Lloyd

I had a front row seat for session three of Progress Educational Trust's 2012 annual conference 'Fertility Treatment: A life-changing event?'.
This session was entitled 'Weighing up your options: The impact of weight and nutrition'...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
1 November 2012 • 5 minutes read

Transferring single embryos: Education ain't enough

by Dr Alan Thornhill

When asked why having twins isn't a good idea, I struggle. I start trotting out the party line, the obstetric risks and risks to the babies themselves, and then begin to shuffle my feet. It's complicated, I say, hoping they will move onto another topic...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Marquardt's off the mark

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels

RetiringDentist.co.uk The UK's Leading M&A Company.
easyfundraising
amazon

This month in BioNews

  • Recent
4 July 2022 • 4 minutes read

Widening the debate about direct-to-consumer genetic testing and donor conception

4 July 2022 • 3 minutes read

Join PET and Genomics England to celebrate the 200th birthday of Gregor Mendel

27 June 2022 • 4 minutes read

Thirty years of PET: our 'Fertility, Genomics and Embryo Research' report

27 June 2022 • 5 minutes read

Children's rights and donor conception: What next?

20 June 2022 • 4 minutes read

The problems with lifting donor anonymity earlier

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856