The new facilities have the capacity to care for about a thousand women a year, but until the staff is completed with more embryologists, part of the patients will continue to be referred to La Vega
The new assisted reproduction laboratory in La Arrixaca, inaugurated this Thursday, will allow the waiting times to access in vitro fertilization techniques in the Region to be reduced “by between four and six months”, according to the calculations of Jesús Álvarez, head of unit. Currently, women have to wait between 12 and 14 months to start the process, which until now was carried out in the La Vega concerted clinic due to the absence of adequate public health facilities. But with the new laboratory, delays will not only be reduced, but patients will be treated with “the latest technology” and by the same professionals during all phases, highlighted the president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, who toured this Thursday the 320 square meters that the facilities occupy. The investment amounts to 1.2 million euros.
Every year La Arrixaca refers some 500 women to La Vega who are trying to become mothers using in vitro fertilization techniques. The new laboratory has the capacity to “double this figure,” stressed Jesús Álvarez. However, at the moment the estimate is about 300 patients a year, because the center starts with two embryologists, but at least a third professional would be needed to make the most of the capacity of the facilities. Hence, for now, part of the patients will have to continue to be referred to La Vega. The Murcian Health Service is encountering difficulties in recruiting embryologists, since it is a specialty not yet recognized.
But, with everything, the step taken this Thursday represents a great leap for La Arrixaca and regional public health. The project had been on the table since 2007. In 2009, an internal report already argued that having its own facilities would mean savings and reduce delays, but the idea was not recovered until 2018. The pandemic and the complexity of the works once again generate delays.
In the 320-square-meter facility, there are two operating rooms: one for the extraction of the patient’s ovules and the other for the transfer of the embryos. In addition, the new center has an andrology laboratory for the manipulation of the partner’s or donor’s semen, and an embryology laboratory where the formation of the embryos will be monitored once the ‘in vitro’ fertilization has taken place. Likewise, there is another space for the cryopreservation of embryos that are not going to be used at that time.
The new facilities work with the security and isolation measures of a ‘clean room’, since it is essential to avoid contamination by microparticles. Only the two embryologists, Inmaculada Torres and Bienvenida Lozano, will be able to access the embryology laboratory, which is the most important space of all, with protective equipment and “without makeup, creams or cologne,” they detail.
Once the patient’s oocyte has been extracted in the operating room, fertilization will proceed in the embryology laboratory, with the father’s or donor’s sperm, which is previously studied and prepared in the andrology laboratory. The resulting embryos will be “grown” in incubators for five days, and those that end up being viable will be selected for embryo transfer or cryopreservation. The new spaces seek maximum intimacy and humanization.
A long-awaited project
Until 2003, Murcian patients were referred to the La Fe hospital in Valencia, which meant “waiting up to two years,” explain SMS sources. In 2003 a contract was signed with the IVI clinic in Murcia and, between 2005 and 2010, the agreement was extended to four other private clinics: Imfer, Dexeus Murcia, Instituto Bernabéu de Cartagena and Tahe. But the delays continued to exceed 30 months. After the concert was renewed, in 2018, the referrals were centralized in La Vega and, since then, the wait has been reduced to about 12 or 14 months, explains Jesús Álvarez.
In 2019, the Murcian Health Service took an important step by incorporating lesbian couples and single women to assisted reproduction techniques. The Region of Murcia was, with Asturias, the last community to recognize this right, which is now protected by national regulations.