Three thousand couples or people are on a waiting list in Catalonia to receive in vitro fertilization treatment in the public system. The new assisted human reproduction laboratory at the Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, comes to alleviate this need.
The Health Minister, Olga Pané, today inaugurated the center, located on Rosselló Street, in the vicinity of the Clínic’s central building, whose facilities have been designed in accordance with the opinions of patients and with their comfort in mind. “At the Clínic they are capable of making magic with space. It seems incredible how they can extract oil from such small spaces and be able to modernize them in the way they do,” Pané celebrated.
The waiting period is approximately one year, a period that is exceeded in more than 20 cases.
According to Pané, the waiting list for assisted reproduction in Catalonia is one year, and there are more than twenty cases that exceed a year. “This has a lot to do with the reproductive pattern we have, whereby women decide to seek pregnancy later,” he explained. “This causes many couples to begin their reproductive process around the age of 35 or beyond. Reproductive capacity declines progressively, and from the age of 38 it is greatly reduced.”
The Catalan public health system has set the age limit at 40 years for women who require an assisted pregnancy to be cared for by the public system. “It is an interesting program because women delay motherhood, but we also have a very low fertility rate, 1.1 pregnancies per woman, the lowest in Europe,” Pané explained.
Councilor Pané (left) visits the facilities
“Since 2017, Catalonia has been losing population vegetatively speaking. More people die than are born. Fortunately, we have the input of immigration that keeps the population growing,” he added.
In this context, the new assisted human reproduction laboratory “is a source of pride for the institution,” remarked the general director of the Clínic, Josep Maria Campistol. And it meets a social demand that is increasing, says the head of the section, Dolors Manau.
Currently, 670 in vitro fertilizations and 56 preimplantation tests are being carried out in the Clínic’s new laboratory, apart from the embryonic cryotransfer cycles and artificial inseminations, of which 490 and 110 were carried out in 2023, respectively.
The new facilities are equipped with the latest technology and are aimed at the comfort and privacy of the patients.
“The new unit has meant two things for us,” explains Dr. Manau: “On the one hand, the technology that we have been able to incorporate is a first step for a future laboratory that can create, through embryonic images and study of gametes, AI algorithms to be predictive in pregnancy. On the other hand, the doors are opened to multiple lines of research.”
The new facilities offer a more comfortable and intimate environment for patients, and the latest generation equipment that the laboratory has incorporated is designed to optimize the results of the treatments and reduce the need for repeat cycles, which reduces emotional stress.
The laboratory will develop AI algorithms to predict pregnancies
Infertility affects 1 in 16 people in the world at some point in their lives, according to the latest WHO report. “In our society, around 20% of couples of reproductive age have fertility problems,” Clínic sources point out. “It is a multifactorial fact,” they add, “in which socioeconomic, cultural and educational aspects intervene, with delay in gestational desire being the first cause.”
In Catalonia, the largest waiting list for assisted reproduction treatments financed by the Catalan public system is at the Fundació Puigvert, due to the fact that it is where all the tickets are centralized. At the Clínic, the wait for a normal in vitro fertilization is between 7 and 8 months, a period that those responsible for the center hope to reduce thanks to the new facilities.
Read also
#thousand #couples #waiting #assisted #reproduction #treatment #public #healthcare
