2024-07-12 08:11:25
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary, at EFEsalud we look back and study what IVF was like and how this assisted reproductive process has been in Spain until now with a safer and more effective method.
Dr. Pedro Barri, President of the Dexeus Mujer Foundation and head of the medical team that achieved that first pregnancyremember, in the details to EPHESALUDthat until the advent of modern complementary medicine, the treatments were ineffective and “more about alchemy and quackery than anything else.”
Louis Brown, the first test tube baby in the world
The birth of the world’s first test tube baby, Louise Brown, on July 25, 1978 in England, represented “a before and after” at this point. It is possible thanks to the cooperation between the doctor Robert G. Edwards (who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2010) and gynecologist Patrick Steptoe..
Since that time, says Barri, who was lucky and had the opportunity to learn from Steptoe and Edwards, a “medical revolution” took place.
The success of the creation of aid in Spain
“And it looks like that. We started working four or five groups at the same time and we were lucky enough to be the first – at the Dexeus Hospital in Barcelona – to get the results a year before all the other groups,” stressed Barri.
Assisted reproduction is a medical treatment to address a medical problem such as infertility. At the time there was widespread controversy about it, but reception was “very good from the start.”
Furthermore, Barri stressed, Spanish law on welfare creation in Spainfrom 1988, “is a point in its favor, because it was open from the beginning, and it was in line with the social reality of our country and the technological reality of reproductive medicine.”
After that, in 1987, the first birth in Spain of an embryo and a year later, in 1988, the first through egg donation.
From laparoscopy to puncture
President of the Spanish Traditional Federation (SEF), Juan Jose Espinós, explains EPHESALUD that the concept of in vitro fertilization is the same as before, what has changed is the means to achieve it in order to protect the woman, with the highest pregnancy rate and for the whole process to be as fast as possible.
Medicines
There have also been drugs, Espídos points out.
“Every time we have created drugs with few impurities that can be administered under a candle, they are self-administered and all this, obviously, has been in favor of making the dosage more specific. We know exactly what we control. Before, the calculation of doses was more complicated,” explained the SEF Director.
Pregnancy
And the procedures in the laboratory have also been modernized. Years ago, three embryos were implanted to have the best chance of pregnancy, now it is normal for only one to implant.
If this embryo was previously implanted about two days after fertilization, now it is done between day five and day six, when the embryo is in the blastocyst stage.
Maternity leave in Spain
One of the first is ovarian failure as a result of the woman’s age. This is the main reason why couples seek fertility treatments, whereas 40 years ago they did so for other problems not related to age.
Both Espiños and Barri emphasize this approach since going ahead with motherhood is “a big workhorse” because couples tend to think that having children later, when you women are decreasing, after 35 years . . .
Even for men, Barri points out, because there is scientific evidence that after the age of 50 the quality of their sperm deteriorates, making fertilization difficult.
“The best thing would be to ensure that couples who want to have children can give birth between the ages of 25 and 35, but how do we do it? How are positions created? An economic environment must be created that allows them to have children at this age. In Spain, some public resources are set aside to help the family,” reflects the president of the Dexeus Mujer Foundation.
In the same way, Espídos said, who emphasized that the use of social assistance for social causes is not good news.
“Women are getting pregnant later and later, partly because people’s mindsets are changing a little, but mostly because of the obstacles they face from the point of view of reconciling working life with motherhood, which “It means from the point of view- the means of economic stability of the family,” highlighted the CEO of SEF.
The data
According to the latest statistical report on the aid correction technique of the National Activity Registration 2021-SEF Registrationwhich is prepared with the Ministry of Health, in which all Spanish fertility centers participate, In 2021, a total of 165,453 IVF cycles and 33,818 artificial inseminations were performed..
These figures are 11.7% more than in 2019 and 29.8% more than in 2020, the year in which they decreased due to the pandemic.
And these are the techniques that have made possible the place of totality 40,638 childrenwhat does it stand for changed to +33.3% compared to 2020y a total of 11.8% of the place in all of Spainaccording to data from SEF.
The increase is also due the expansion of family models that is, Espiños specific.
“We’re talking about women who are single, or in a relationship with another woman, and that’s also increasing significantly,” she said.
The future of assisted living in Spain
Looking to the future, Barri noted that the goals of assisted reproduction treatments are as safe as possible and controlled genetic risks that couples can have, because today there are analytical methods to ensure that the embryos received by a woman are normal and the risks for the pregnancy and the future child can be significantly reduced.
Espinós points out that the entry of artificial intelligence, as in many other fields, will be very helpful, both from the point of view of diagnosis and therapy. In this sense, it is indicated that it will favor even specific treatments, especially high chances of a successful pregnancy.
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