HeyReprotech's summer 2024 roundup
HeyReprotech's summer 2024 roundup
Update, read, attend, watch, participate…
Update
In January 2021, I wrote about a group of patients who were suing an Australian fertility clinic over a screening technology that didn't work as promised.
People who want to screen an embryo before using it typically turn to "preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy" (PGT-A), which involves having a few cells plucked from the embryo and sending them off for analysis.
But in May 2019, some Australian patients were offered a cheaper, easier option. Called "non-invasive PGT-A" (niPGT-A), this procedure did not test an embryo's cells directly, but rather, tested DNA that had been secreted into the nutrient solution in which the embryo was growing. The new testing was being offered by one of the leading fertility clinics in the country, Monash IVF.
The new method was described as nearly as accurate as the invasive method. A Monash IVF press release at the time hailed it as "revolutionary." It was used some 13,000 times. Then suddenly, in October 2020, it was withdrawn.
Sensing something was wrong, a group of patients sued.
Last Thursday, 700 former patients were awarded $56 million in a class action settlement against the fertility clinic. It turns out that about a third of the times the test deemed an embryo to be no good, it was in fact fine.
"Tragically, many patients had their embryos wrongly classified as abnormal and unsuitable for transfer as a result of this flawed Monash IVF testing and lost their chance to ever have children," says Michel Margalit, the lawyer who led the court action, in a press release. "When undergoing IVF, patients often hear the phrase 'you just need one embryo.' Many of these people will now be left to forever wonder 'what if that was the one?' "
According to the press release put out by the legal team, the class action also uncovered some shocking allegations: "that employees of one of the defendant companies, Repromed, deliberately doctored the results of a clinical trial, forged patient signatures on consent forms, and burnt documents to cover up incriminating evidence of illegal experiment on patient embryos."
The lead plaintiff said she hoped the case helps to "draw attention to the fact that IVF in Australia has become a multimillion dollar industry, which does not always put the best interest of its patients first… We hope that the outcome brings a sense of closure and healing to all the families impacted."
Reads
Sarah Deech. "A decade on from freezing my eggs, I now know I’ll never have my own children." The Sunday Times. 25 Aug 2024.
Alison Motluk. "Sperm donors are anonymous in Canada. Adult children are finding their roots anyway." Broadview. 15 Aug 2024.
Catherine Bennett. "There’s big money in IVF – but not for the women who hand over their eggs." The Observer. 11 Aug 2024.
Julie Bindel. "The dark side of the global surrogacy trade." The Telegraph. 13 Aug 2024.
Alexandra Stevenson and Zixu Wang. "A Chinese Woman Sued to Freeze Her Eggs. She Lost." The New York Times. 08 Aug 2024.
Melissa Davey. "Widely advertised hormone test unreliable as fertility prediction tool for women, researchers say." The Guardian. 28 Jul 2024.
Emine Sinmaz. "Woman loses appeal over child’s birth certificate after ex-wife had sex with donor." The Guardian. 26 Jul 2024.
"The fertility industry: profiting from vulnerability." The Lancet. 20 Jul 2024.
Kat Brown. "I was 36 when I had IVF. Here’s why women leave it 'late'." The Times. 18 Jul 2024.
Natalie Lampert. "I Wrote a Book About Egg Freezing. What I Learned Changed Everything." Elle. 18 Jul 2024.
Steven McIntosh. "Sperm donor says Netflix series is misleading." BBC. 03 Jul 2024.
Emma Goldberg. "Your Boss Will Freeze Your Eggs Now." The New York Times. 29 Jun 2024.
Maya Oppenheim. "‘I wish I was 3 years younger so I could legally find out my egg donor mother’s details.'" The Independent. 28 Jun 2024.
Resources
Events
03 Sep - evening to share and discuss findings about experiences of donor-conceived people in the UK - Young Adults Study
04 Sep - in-person lecture - Bioethical Implications of Prenatal Testing
04/05 Sep - Monash University's Reproduction in Society seminar series - Australian Regulation of Surrogacy and the Needs of Surrogates, Intended Parents and Those Born Through Surrogacy
12-14 Sep - Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society annual meeting - Past, Present and Future, Celebrating 70 Years of Innovation, Science, and Medicine
18-21 Sep - in-person meeting - Second AI Fertility World Conference
19-23 Oct - American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting - Equity, Access and Innovation
19-22 Oct - World Congress on Menopause
24 Oct - in-person conference, Future of Human Reproduction, Lancaster University - Reproduction and Speculative Cultures
28 Oct - online conference, Future of Human Reproduction, Lancaster University - Reproduction and Speculative Cultures
Watches
"The Man with 1000 Kids." Netflix. 2024.
"A group of families learn the charismatic man they had trusted is sperm donor to hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of other children across the world."
"Frozen in Time." The Guardian. Jul 2024.
"Fertility tourism is booming for single Chinese women with hopes of future motherhood. China's birth rate is at a record low, yet unmarried women are not legally allowed to freeze their eggs there. We meet Lei and Abu, as they travel to the US for the procedure, battling self doubt and scepticism along the way. What does this mean for womanhood and parenting in modern China?"
Studies
University of Texas Medical Branch - Healthcare Professionals’ Views on Assisted Reproductive Technology for the LGBTQ Population
Universite du Quebec en Outaouais - Contact Project: The Experience of Gamete Donors Contacted by their Donor Offspring
University College London - Health Outcomes in Subfertile Men
Fertility Alliance - Patient Survey
University of Bristol, University of Kent, University of Liverpool - Children's Voices in Surrogacy Law
University of Sheffield - The Digital Donor Conception Study
Queen Mary University of London Remaking Fertility Online Survey
University of Ottawa, University of Waterloo, University of Manitoba and others - Surrogates' Voices
University of Kent - Egg freezing For Social Reasons
University of Birmingham - Survey of LGBTQ+ parents