Happy (belated) New Year!

After a quiet end to last year, the BFS Press Office has experienced a busy start to 2006. The Science Media Centre in London hosted a press briefing on 5 January, bringing together some of the UK’s most established fertility experts and top health journalists to talk about fertility.

Robert Winston, Peter Braude, Simon Fishel and our own Allan Pacey and Virginia Bolton were among the names facing an audience consisting of the BBC, Telegraph, Guardian, Times and New Scientist, amongst others. The panel answered questions on a range of topics from egg preservation to the costs of IVF to the NHS.

The event was a huge success, stealing headlines the following day (see below in the News section), and bringing useful publicity to the BFS Winter College taking place at the same time. The experience also leant the Press Office an invaluable opportunity to strengthen and extend our alliances with those all important media contacts.

National Infertility Day (NID)
National Infertility Day will take place on Saturday 10 June 2006 and is set to help raise awareness of infertility and to make information available to patients. Clinics, companies in the field of infertility, support organisations and more, will be attending. A programme will soon be available. More information can be found at:
http://www.nationalinfertilityday.co.uk/.

HFEA Annual Meeting (March 29 2006)
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is holding their annual Conference on 29 March 2006 in central London. It is expected to focus on multiple births and the possibility of future regulation of the sector, and may attract a fair deal of media coverage. See here for more info:
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/PublicEvents

Review of the Act
The Government is expected to timetable the parliamentary legislation for the Review of the Act, in the next few weeks. We will bring you more information when we receive it, but keep your eyes open for any media coverage.

The Baby Race (6-8 February)
This programme aired Monday 6 - Wednesday 8 February, looking at single women wanting to conceive by more unconventional terms, becoming Mothers without men.
http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/B/baby_race/

Concerns over IVF Contamination Risk (New Scientist, News page 10, 20 November 2005)
Some children conceived by a common IVF procedure could be carrying chunks of bacterial DNA in their chromosomes, according to an experiment in mice. Spanish researchers say that it is possible for children’s DNA to be accidentally modified if the sperm sample that was injected into a woman’s egg was contaminated with bacteria. The team say such accidental genetic modification would be very rare but are calling for fertility doctors to take more precautions. (No web link)

Checks on IVF parents simplified (BBC Online, 3 November 2005)
People seeking fertility treatment will face fewer and faster checks to make sure they will be suitable parents under new guidelines. Professor Alison Murdoch, chair of the British Fertility Society, said: 'The 'Welfare of the Child' clause in the HFEA Act has always been a problem. The BFS is pleased that the HFEA is responding to concerns from both clinics and patients."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4400034.stm

Embryo scientist quits team over ethics fear (Guardian, 14 November 2005)
Gerald Schatten, researcher in embryology at the University of Pittsburgh, ended a 20-month partnership with his South Korean counterpart Hwang Woo-Suk, claiming he flouted ethical rules and then lied about their practices.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,1642201,00.html

This story was also reported in the following press:

(BBC Health Online, 14 November 2005)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4435364.stm

(New Scientist, 14 November 2005)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8312

(Reuters Health Online, 14 November 2005 – registration required)
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2005/11/14/eline/links/20051114elin006.html

Boys more likely when pregnancy takes longer (Time to pregnancy and sex of offspring: cohort study, BMJ, 17 December 2005)
The longer it takes to get pregnant, the more chance there is of having a boy, finds a study in BMJ.
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7530/1437

Scientists Worm Out Fertility's Secrets (Forbes.com, 19 December 2005)
Two genes in the lowly roundworm may give important new clues to human infertility. Focusing on the much-studied genome of Caenorhabditis elegans -- or simply C. elegans -- researchers have found that two genes named egg-1 and egg-2 must be present in the worm's eggs before sperm can make effective contact with an egg.
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/12/19/hscout529736.html

Also reported here:

Fertility Genes Discovered At Rutgers University Genetics May Guide New Infertility Therapies (Biospace, 22 December 2005)
Rutgers geneticists have reported groundbreaking research on the genetics of fertility. They have discovered two genes, aptly named egg-1 and egg-2, required for fertilization to take place. The proteins encoded by these genes are similar to low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors, known from cholesterol and fat metabolism but never before specifically implicated in fertilization.
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?StoryID=5626

Some articles stemming from the fertility press briefing are listed below. This was also covered in a range of other media such as the Today Programme on Radio 4 and an interview on BBC television, to which we don’t have links.

Clinics prepare for 'lifestyle' fertility treatment (Guardian, 6 January 2006)
Fertility clinics are gearing up to open their doors to fertile couples seeking treatment as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical necessity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1680485,00.html

Frozen eggs will allow women to put family life on ice (Times, 6 January 2006)
Women in their twenties will be freezing their eggs to delay motherhood for social reasons within a decade, fertility specialists predict.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1972265,00.html

Older mothers 'could routinely use frozen eggs' (Daily Mail, 6 January 2006)
Women may soon be delaying motherhood until their 40’s with improved egg-freezing, an expert claims.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...

Telling the time on a woman's body clock (Guardian, 26 January 2006)
Women who fear they may be running out of time in which to have a baby are being offered a new test to predict the rate at which their egg reserves are declining (developed by Bill Ledger)…Richard Kennedy, a Coventry-based fertility expert and spokesman for the British Fertility Society, said: "This gives information but it might also engender false anxieties. Normally when we do tests it's in a hospital setting with follow-up care and advice. But home-based testing is the way things are going."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1695153,00.html

Male fertility kit goes on sale (Fertell) (BBC Health Online, 4 January 2006)
The world's first over-the-counter home fertility test for men has been developed by scientists at Birmingham University. Dr Allan Pacey, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "This is a neat device which actually examines how well sperm perform under 'test conditions' rather than just simply counting them and seeing how well they move.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/4579832.stm

More IVF could be provided if only one embryo transferred (Bionews, 16 January 2006)
UK researchers say that an additional 10,000 cycles of IVF per year could be provided free on the National Health Service (NHS), if clinics took action to reduce the number of multiple births following IVF. It is common for women undergoing IVF to have two embryos implanted at a time, to increase their chance of becoming pregnant, and some women may even have three embryos implanted.
http://www.bionews.org.uk/new.lasso?storyid=2885

Feedback
We are very keen to hear feeback about our work. Are you happy with our work? Do you value the emails detailing fertility in the news, and these quarterly Media Reviews? Is there anything you would change about our service? All feedback will be welcomed and readily acted upon.

If you live in London…
We get lots of enquiries from the press looking for people in London to comment on breaking fertility news, or to provide more general advice and information on fertility. Our current list of London contacts is still somewhat sparse, so if you are based in the city or its surrounding areas and are willing to take media enquiries every so often, please contact Jo or Tom for a chat.

Our Contact details:
Jo Thurston or Tom Parkhill can be contacted on:
Tel: 01454 642244
Fax: 01454 642222
Email: jo.thurston@endocrinology.org
Press Office on the web: www.fertility.org.uk/press/index.html