Reality check on reasons for IVF

Anyone following recent media coverage of infertility would be forgiven for thinking that most patients embarking on IVF treatment are 40-something women who simply didn't get around to having children in their more fertile years. The hype that accompanied the publication of Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book, 'Baby Hunger', in which she urged working women to start planning their families early, did nothing to dispel this idea. Articles proposing egg freezing as a serious option for women who want to delay having children appear regularly, despite the very low success rate of this procedure.

But whilst reminders to set the alarm on their biological clock may be useful for some women, increased awareness of fertility decline will not necessarily reduce the numbers of couples requiring IVF treatment. This is because a woman's age is just one of many factors that can affect her chances of conceiving - starting young (or putting young eggs on ice) doesn't guarantee success. Around 30-40 per cent of couples who attend fertility clinics are affected by male infertility, which is often treated using ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), a form of IVF.

As we report in this week's BioNews, the chairman of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) thinks that research into male infertility holds the key to reducing the need for IVF treatment, which is both costly and invasive. Professor Hans Evers said last week that if scientists could find ways to boost sperm production in men who produce little or poor quality sperm, demand for IVF could be halved.

Although research into male infertility may not be as newsworthy as some other causes of fertility problems, it is likely benefit many patients. Finding ways to kick start sperm production would mean fewer women undergoing the hormone injections and egg collections involved in IVF procedures. Advances in this area would be good news indeed for many couples affected by male infertility.