Instituto Bernabeu addresses the late motherhood challenge in a meeting with specialists from all over Europe in Alicante
20-11-2023
- The congress will be held in Alicante on November 16th and 17th at Instituto Bernabeu’s Conference Room.
- Almost 60% of In Vitro Fertilisation treatments performed at Instituto Bernabeu in patients under 35 years of age end in pregnancy.
- After the age of 35, a woman’s ovarian reserve decreases considerably, but cryopreservation allows the use of frozen oocytes for years with high success rates.
On November 16th and 17th, 2023, Instituto Bernabeu Alicante will host in its Conference Room a European meeting on reproductive medicine for fertility professionals, with the support and sponsorship of Ferring BV. Along these two days, experts form the Instituto Bernabeu Group will gather in Alicante and share with European gynaecologists the latest developments in assisted reproduction techniques carried out in IB, as well as donor selection and compatibility processes, new social trends and the latest laboratory advances developed by researchers and medical professionals from the Instituto Bernabeu Group.
Dr Rafael Bernabeu, medical director of Instituto Bernabeu, who will host the event, emphasised that “We are proud to share the way we perform our work with professionals from other countries, who wish to learn from us; it is an honour. The challenges we face today in reproductive medicine are the results of the great development of our discipline and of a society that, in Spain and around the world, is increasingly demanding treatments that provide answers to new family models and individual cases of infertility, which involve a personalized and multidisciplinary approach”.
According to the World Health Organisation, one in six people of reproductive age worldwide will have a fertility problem during their lifetime. These figures highlight the importance of continuing to support research in a field that, every day, helps thousands of women and families to achieve their goal of becoming mothers.
At Instituto Bernabeu, almost 60% of In Vitro Fertilisation treatments in patients under 35 years of age end in pregnancy, although the percentage decreases as the patient’s age increases.
In this regard, after the age of 35, a woman’s ovarian reserve decreases considerably, but cryopreservation allows the use of frozen oocytes for years with high success rates. In fact, it is recommended to do the oocyte preservation process as soon as possible, as the chances of having children decreases as women grow older. In this sense, the average age in Spain for having a first child is now close to 32, whereas in 1980 it was around 25. From the age of 30 onwards, the probability of becoming a mother is reduced by half compared to the age of 20-24. And after the age of 35 it decreases considerably.
Today’s lifestyle and the new conception of family have changed the paradigm of human reproduction forever. Women create around 6 million eggs, but this number is reduced to 300,000 at puberty, and fertility decreases especially after the age of 35. The average age of Instituto Bernabeu patients is 39 years old. “Late childbearing increases the risk of complications during pregnancy, such as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia or premature birth. That is to say, just because a woman is healthy and has her period every month does not mean there will be no problem getting pregnant with her own eggs. In fact, a large percentage of the treatments we perform at Instituto Bernabeu are IVF with egg donation”, explains Dr Juan Carlos Castillo, scientific director of Instituto Bernabeu.
Researchers at Instituto Bernabeu have developed more than 400 papers that have been published in the most important scientific research publications in the world. “We constantly maintain different lines of research in all areas related to reproductive problems and their treatment with the aim of improving the personalized approach and results”, explains Dr Castillo. In addition, IB is prominently present at the world’s leading medical congress and meetings on infertility, genetics and embryology.
