24th September 2014 | by MFC Team
London city workers offered low cost fertility testing
A new fertility clinic in London, England, is trying a unique marketing strategy – they are offering city workers the opportunity to have their fertility testing during their lunch break – at a significantly reduced cost compared to other fertility clinics. For £200 the clinic is offering to test women’s fertility using 3D ultrasound and blood tests. Men’s fertility will be tested via a detailed semen analysis for £90. The clinic also is offering fertility advice that is specific to each individual’s age.
The clinic hopes to provide up to 4,000 IVF cycles per year – with a focus on providing ‘natural cycles’ in which a woman’s egg are retrieved during her natural menstrual cycle, fertilized, and transferred to her uterus without the use of powerful fertility medications to stimulate her ovaries. Mild-stimulation IVF will be offered by the clinic as well, using low-doses of fertility medication. Professor Geeta Nargund, the founder of the centre, says that compared to traditional IVF, their approach is safer, cheaper, and can be repeated in back to back cycles. “Our primary ethos is to avoid invasive techniques and improve conditions for conception before using drugs.” So far, this more conservative approach is showing promising success rates.
However, some physicians caution patients to compare success rates when selecting which type of cycles to use. Gedis Grudzinskas, an independent gynaecologist warns:
“While offering alternatives to conventional IVF is very positive, patients need to be aware of the success rates. Satisfying results are much lower in natural cycles than when drugs are used…The live-birth rate for natural IVF is unlikely to be more than 10 per cent, especially in older women.”
Learn more about fertility testing here.
Read more about the new clinic here.
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