All posts by medical

Immunology

SWC hosts Health for Heritage Week with collaboration from campus clubs – Daily Bruin

When Mihika Sridhar ran for Student Wellness Commissioner last year, she wanted to encourage marginalized communities to engage with their health and wellness.

Sridhar finally realized her idea with the inaugural Health for Heritage Week from Feb. 22 to Feb. 28, which was an 11-event collaboration of the Student Wellness Commission and various clubs.

The week included discussions and presentations about the intersection of culture and health, a hygiene drive, an interactive art gallery, a beach cleanup and a CPR class.

Sridhar, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics student, planned the event with Sophia McMurry, a fourth-year philosophy student and SWC platforms director, and reached out to almost 100 student organizations. Once they narrowed down their list, they pushed for the SWC subcommittees to reach out to the organizations that sparked their interest.

Sridhar said her goal for the week was to push for collaborations between organizations that might not have come in contact otherwise.

A lot of times people can get sort of pigeonholed, Sridhar said. I think collaboration is a really great way to impact a greater number of people who may not have originally ever been privy to even knowing that an event was happening or that a topic is of interest to them.

Health for Heritage Week kicked off Feb. 22 with a beach cleanup co-hosted by SWC Environmental Awareness, Recycling and Terrestrial Health and the Indian Student Union. Around 200 pieces of trash were collected over a span of two hours from Venice Beach to Santa Monica Beach.

Kiera Dixon, the co-director of SWC EARTH, said that students were handed trash bags and forms to record the types of trash collected. The cleanup allowed students from different backgrounds to bond through environmental beautification efforts, she said.

I feel like its very important to be exposed to different types of cultures and establish friendships with people of different heritages, said Dixon, a fourth-year molecular, cell, and developmental biology student.

Another event that hoped to expose students to new cultural knowledge was organized by SWCs Student Education And Research of Contemporary Health along with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztln de UCLA. These two organizations collaborated to create conversations about Latinx culture, relationships and intimacy through answering anonymous questions from a box. Other activities included making love potions and meditation.

Tara Shooshani, co-chair of SEARCH, said the event was inspired by Latinx cultural traditions. The two clubs wanted the event to be a celebration of these traditions to share with the UCLA community.

I think the main takeaway is for people to have a renewed respect and interest in other cultures to be interested in learning about other peoples traditions and customs, said Shooshani, a fourth-year human biology and society student.

SEARCH also partnered with the Afrikan Student Union to hold Unpacking Medical Racism, a three-speaker panel regarding the topic of medical racism. Speakers talked about the history of racism in the medical field and why it continues to this day.

Kylie Paramore, a panelist at the event, does research within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health to uncover the subconscious racial bias on the health outcomes of black patients. She said the more discussion and research on the topic, the more inclined the health care system is to change this problem.

A lot of times, were fed this false narrative that our society is so progressive and colorblind but unfortunately, thats just not true, said Paramore, a fourth-year African American studies student. We have to have these conversations because these conversations are about real life.

To address the intersection of mental wellness and Pilipino culture, Active Minds and Pilipinos for Community Health co-hosted an event called Utakatawan: Physical x Mental Health in the Pilipino Community. The event incorporated Pilipino food, dance and a cappella performances, a panel and a presentation.

Three undergraduates and two graduate students participated in the panel to share how they have overcome struggles that pervade Pilipino culture.

With our culture theres this word called hiya, which translates to shame, as well as to be shy, said Robi Bucayu, who spoke on the panel. Were not good at seeking help or talking about our feelings, so I think this forum really helps to dispel that culture of silence.

Vernadette Laderas, a second-year psychology student, said that it was refreshing to hear raw conversations about taboo topics within Pilipino culture.

Theres definitely trends within the culture, like constantly giving and giving, and waiting until its too late to start to take care of yourself, (which) is something that I have struggled with, specifically with my mom, Laderas said. It surprised me to hear anecdotes that sound almost exactly like mine.

In another effort to promote mental wellness, Total Wellness and Southeast Asian Campus Learning Education and Retention hosted an event that consisted of five stations to prompt reflection on the negative effects of social media.

The first of five stations asked participants to rate their happiness and provided tips on how to foster a healthier relationship with social media. Other stations asked students what makes them happy outside of social media and which part of their body is their favorite.

Its important to recognize how (social media) might be affecting you, even though you dont realize it because you think its a necessity, and then take the steps to use it and in a healthier way, said Rebeca Gasper, a second-year political science and communication student.

Sridhar and McMurry said they hoped different cultural communities would gain insight into each others various health needs.

I really hope that committees and the other students who do attend these events just make meaningful and thoughtful connections with other groups on campus and hopefully (that) continues throughout the year, McMurry said.

See original here:
SWC hosts Health for Heritage Week with collaboration from campus clubs - Daily Bruin

Immunology

Two Wake Forest Baptist scientists receive $1.5 million for cancer research – The Medical News

Two scientists from Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health, have received a total of $1.5 million in research funding from the American Cancer Society (ACS) to study new chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments for cancer.

One of the grants, for $792,000 over four years, was awarded to Yong Lu, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, to study a new approach to immunotherapy for metastatic and treatment-resistant cancers.

Using specialized white blood cells or T cells that he discovered, Lu and his research team will determine if the administration of these blood cells can eradicate advanced tumors and prevent recurrence of resistant tumors in an animal model.

Cancer recurrence may cause cancer treatment failure and death in more than 90% of patients with advanced tumors, especially with metastatic disease, which often develops resistance to the initial treatments, Lu said.

We hope our work will shed light on the mechanisms underlying how T cells, the major type of white blood cells, prevent resistance and hopefully establish a foundation for translating that into more effective immunotherapies in human cancers."

Yong Lu, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and immunology

The second grant, for $782,000 over four years, was awarded to David Soto-Pantoja, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery and cancer biology.

The grant will support his team's efforts to create preclinical models to study cardiotoxicity - damage to the heart muscle - that results from some chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs.

"In the next 10 to 15 years, there will be 20 million cancer survivors in the U.S. thanks to newer cancer drugs that are very effective," Soto-Pantoja said. "Unfortunately, many of these drugs have other side effects such as heart disease that can occur many years after treatment."

Soto-Pantoja's goal is to better understand how chemotherapy drugs can affect the heart and develop strategies to prevent future development of cardiac diseases, as well as to find new treatments for those patients who have already developed heart disease.

For example, when he was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health prior to coming to Wake Forest Baptist, his team identified a molecule present on cells that when blocked prevents some of the damage caused by chemotherapy drugs.

"The molecule enhanced the immune system to attack the tumor but protected normal tissue from the negative effects of chemotherapy," Soto-Pantoja said.

This grant will support his continued efforts to understand how this molecule works and hopefully lead to a new approach to cancer therapy.

Read the original post:
Two Wake Forest Baptist scientists receive $1.5 million for cancer research - The Medical News

Immunology

Livestock research ‘going to do some of the very best science’ – Rocky Mountain Collegian

In case you forgot, Colorado State University is a land-grant institution, originally formed as an agricultural college.

To further the Universitys initial mission, the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are teaming up to start the Sustainable Livestock Systems Collaborative.

I think the impetus really is that, you know, CSU is a land-grant university, said Mark Zabel, CVMBS associate dean for research. We still have a commitment to agriculture and to educating Coloradans centered around those issues.

Zabel said that while there will be no physical building or presence, the Sustainable Livestock Systems Collaborative will be a collection of stakeholders researchers, policy makers and producers in the livestock, agriculture and dairy industries coming together around the idea of sustainable farming practices.

The overall goal (is) to specifically engage with livestock production and to help producers at the grassroots (level) address firstly profitability, secondly their environmental footprint, thirdly animal health and lastly human health, particularly via food safety, said Keith Belk, head of the department of animal sciences and co-chair of the steering committee.

Applications for director of the initiative recently closed, Belk said, and research is anticipated to begin by the fall semester of this year. Belk said they will be opening a couple more faculty positions in the coming months as well.

Its actually across our entire campus. Where we have students interested in sustainability, weve got scientists that are interested in it, and were going to be able to do great things by working together. -James Pritchett, College of Agricultural Sciences interim dean

James Pritchett, interim dean of CAS, said professionals in the agriculture industry have been coming to CSU asking for answers to questions grounded in sustainability. The driving force behind much of the research conducted by the collaborative will be issues posed to CSU by those professionals.

For example, as the climate changes and we have disrupted weather patterns and we have periods of drought or flood, how does that affect how we can grow crops? Zabel asked. We can do things like try to develop heartier strains of grain that can survive droughts or that can survive floods. We can develop better feeding and watering practices for our livestock.

Belk added that research could be anything related to the environmental impact of farming, ranching and livestock production. Water use, water contamination, soil erosion, land management and production of greenhouse gases are all topics the collaborative wants to explore and find solutions to.

The collaborative will not only provide faculty with more opportunities to conduct research, but will allow for undergraduate and graduate students to participate as well.

I am very committed to having all of our students at every education level coming together as research teams to solve these problems, Zabel said. In (the department of microbiology, immunology and pathology), we really emphasize undergraduate research. Its our goal to be able to train each of our undergraduates in long-term substantive research experience.

Pritchett said funding for the collaborative comes from repurposing a base budget that funded faculty members who have since retired or moved on, and the Office of the Provost will then match that with funding from student allocations from the general fund.

Were going to do some of the very best science to help create sustainable food systems, Pritchett said. Its reaching across not just the college of agriculture or vet med, its actually across our entire campus. Where we have students interested in sustainability, weve got scientists that are interested in it, and were going to be able to do great things by working together.

Serena Bettis can be reached atnews@collegian.comor on Twitter@serenaroseb.

Here is the original post:
Livestock research 'going to do some of the very best science' - Rocky Mountain Collegian

Immunology

Russia’s Ministry of Health refutes misleading online claim that it stated COVID-19 is man-made – AFP Factcheck

Multiple articles and social media posts viewed tens of thousands of timesclaimthe Russian Ministry of Health confirmed in a document that the novel coronavirus, COVID-19,is man-made.The claim is misleading; the RussianMinistry of Health said it did not make such astatement; the documentcited in the misleading postsstates COVID-19is a recombinant virus which can form naturally.

The claim was made in this report by Taiwanese news site CredereMedia. The article has been viewed almost 150,000 times on Facebook after it was published on February 21, 2020, according to statistics from social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.

The article's traditional Chinese-language headline translates to English as: The first official confirmation in the world: Russian Ministry of Health says Wuhan pneumonia is caused by a man-made virus.

The photo in the article is captioned: Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko (pictured left) signs a document confirming the source of the Wuhan pneumonia is a man-made recombinant virus."

The article reports onRussia's measures to combat the novel coronavirus, as well ason China'sdenials that the virus was created as a biological weapon.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post alongside CrowdTangle statistics:

The claim was also shared in Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of followers, such as here, here, here and here. It has also circulated on Twitter here, here, here and here as well as on Instagram here and here.

The claim is misleading.

The Russian Ministry of Health has never indicated that the virus was of artificial origin in its recommendations on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the new coronavirus, a Ministry of Health spokesperson told AFP by email on February 27, 2020.

Regarding the alleged document, the misleading posts refer to a report published late January by the Russian Ministry of Health.

A search forcoronavirus on the ministrys website found the Temporary guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the new 2019-nCoV coronavirus infection, which was published on January 30, 2020.

Coronavirus 20190nCov is presumably a recombinant virus, between a bat coronavirus and a coronavirus whose origin is unknown, part of the Russian report reads in English.

Professor William Robert Fleischmann Jr., an expert on viruses and immunology, noted in his co-authored academic book Medical Microbiology that recombinant viruses can form naturally.

Viruses are continuously changing as a result of genetic selection. They undergo subtle genetic changes through mutation and major genetic changes through recombination, the book stated. Mutation occurs when an error is incorporated in the viral genome. Recombination occurs when coinfecting viruses exchange genetic information, creating a novel virus.

A research paper published here in January 2020 in the Journal of Medical Virology also explains how recombination can be a natural process.

The report, which is titled Crossspecies transmission of the newly identified coronavirus 2019nCoV, states that the coronavirus may appear to be a recombinant virus between the bat coronavirus and an originunknown coronavirus.

A claimthat the deadly virus was created in a laboratory, and specifically by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was previously debunked by AFP here.

Read the rest here:
Russia's Ministry of Health refutes misleading online claim that it stated COVID-19 is man-made - AFP Factcheck

Immunology

Coronavirus circulated ‘unnoticed for weeks’ in Italy, expert says – Daily Sabah

The new coronavirus had been "circulating unnoticed for weeks" in Italy, experts said Friday after studying its progression in the country.

"The virus circulated unnoticed for several weeks before the first ascertained cases ... perhaps since mid-January," Massimo Galli, the director of the Biomedical Research Institute, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Studying the virus in Italy "will help understand the epidemic better, and contain it," he said.

The virus mutates from person to person, he said, so researchers will be looking at why Italy has the largest number of cases in Europe and "the differences between this and the coronavirus in China." That will help in terms of treatment and the potential development of a vaccine, he added.

Some 650 people have tested positive for the virus in Italy, though only 303 are considered serious clinical cases.

Galli's team at the Sacco hospital in Milan, led by immunology professor Claudia Balotta, worked on samples taken from three patients in the "red zone" around Codogno in Lombardy, home to Italy's first known case of COVID-19. They isolated the Italian strain in just four days.

The small town of Codogno in northern Italy is home to a 38-year-old man dubbed "patient one." "Patient zero," who passed the virus to the 38-year-old, has yet to be found, but "patient one" is considered the source of both the Codogno outbreak and another in the Veneto region.

The 38-year-old hospitalized a week ago passed the virus to his heavily pregnant wife, a friend and men who were regulars at a bar in Codogno, before going on to infect doctors, nurses and other hospital patients as well.

The virus has killed 17 people in Italy over the past week, all of whom were either elderly or had pre-existing health issues.

The number of cases of infection reported has risen steadily each day, though Galli said that did not mean the virus was spreading. Most were people who had caught it previously but had not been tested until now.

Bilotta said it would "take weeks" to determine the exact date of arrival of this strain in Italy, saying results would likely only come "once the epidemic is over."

View original post here:
Coronavirus circulated 'unnoticed for weeks' in Italy, expert says - Daily Sabah

Immunology

Northwell creates institute for gun violence prevention – The Island Now

Northwell Health System announced the creation of an institute to study gun violence prevention on Wednesday.

The Center for Gun Violence Prevention was established by its President and CEO Michael Dowling to help curtail the nearly 40,000 firearms-related deaths that occur every year in the U.S.

I firmly believe that health care leaders have a social responsibility to try to stop the mindless bloodshed caused by firearms-related violence in this country, just as we respond aggressively to health crises like vaping, the flu or the new coronavirus that is causing worldwide panic, said Dowling, who has called gun violence a major health problem and called on other hospital groups to support legislation to address the problem.

The center will be headed by Dr. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric surgeon and associate trauma medical director at Cohen Childrens Medical Center, whose trauma surgery training at Northwestern Medicines Childrens Hospital in Chicago, Ill. involved treating infants with gunshot wounds.

Our goal is to build a blueprint for how health systems across the nation can reduce gun violence and promote gun safety, Sathya said. If we can develop a successful gun violence prevention strategy internally, it will serve as an example for other health systems and industries to follow suit. We want to lead the charge on this and show others that meaningful change is possible and that lives can be saved.

Northwells Deputy Physician-in-Chief Thomas McGinn will assist, as will Dr. Jose Prince, vice chair of surgery at Northwell and director of the Laboratory of Pediatric Injury and Inflammation at the Feinstein Institutes Center for Immunology and Inflammation.

Multiple prominent voices on gun violence prevention have agreed to serve on an advisory committee that will guide the new interdisciplinary center, including Dr. Peter Masiakos, founder of Massachusetts General Hospitals Center for Gun Violence Prevention and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Robert McLean, president of the American College of Physicians and associate clinical professor at Yale Medical School; Dr. Megan Ranney, chief research officer of the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine Research; Dr. Mark Rosenberg, former head for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former CEO of the Task Force for Global Health; and Daniel Webster, director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and a leader at the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction.

Dowling, who served as state director of Health, Education and Human Services, has been outspoken on gun violence as a public health crisis. He ran advertisements in The New York Times last summer calling for efforts to combat the problem, held Northwells Gun Violence Prevention Forum last fall and wrote an editorial in the August issue of Beckers Hospital Review on the subject.

True leadership means having the personal courage to speak out and take the heat, particularly on issues that are affecting the health and wellness of our communities, Dowling wrote. If there was a disease that was killing as many people as guns in this country, we would be mobilizing a national response effort. Its inexcusable for us to remain silent.

Originally posted here:
Northwell creates institute for gun violence prevention - The Island Now

Biochemistry

New ammunition uncovered by U of T researchers to develop colorectal cancer treatment – Varsity

One in 14 Ontarians can expect to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in their lifetime. COURTESY OF ED UTHMAN/FLICKR

University of Toronto scientists have identified a key protein as a common factor in the growth of many different types of colorectal cancer tumours, according to research published in the Journal of Cell Biology. Colorectal cancer develops in the colon or rectum. In Ontario, it is also the second most fatal cancer, and one in 14 Ontarians can expect to be diagnosed with this form of cancer in their lifetime.

In past research, scientists have linked the excessive accumulation of beta-catenin, a protein with crucial functions in cell development, to the expression of genes that drive tumour proliferation. Research has associated 80 per cent of colorectal cancers with gene mutations that greatly increase the production of beta-catenin.

The co-authors of the study have identified another protein, Importin-11, as the compound that enables beta-catenin transportation to the nucleus of the human cell. Cancer therapies that inhibit this transport could be a promising way to treat colorectal cancer.

Fundamental research provides new knowledge for cancer therapies

The Varsity spoke to Dr. Stephane Angers, a co-author of the study and an associate professor at U of Ts Department of Biochemistry. Angers lab has spent a considerable amount of time studying biological pathways the series of chemical changes during cellular development that give cells their final functions.

Angers noted that Monika Mis, the lead author of the study and a PhD student, uncovered the role of Importin-11 in colorectal cancer in Angers lab. Mis used the gene-editing CRISPR-Cas9 technology to screen genes in colorectal cancer calls to identify a novel gene, IPO11, which encodes for the protein Importin-11.

Current treatment options for colorectal cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and other radiation therapy. Although this discovery is still in its fundamental stages, blocking the transport of beta-catenin holds great promise for developing new therapies.

As Angers put it, It provides new ammunition, new possibilities, and new knowledge that could lead in the future to new therapies, but it is very much at the discovery level at this point.

More research required to develop therapies

Further research could involve drug discovery and widen the scope of Importin-11 function in various cells. Researchers may also find it valuable to analyze existing data about colorectal cancer. The goal is to understand how the mutations affect tumour formation and develop therapies that harness this knowledge.

Angers lab is also investigating other potential applications of the Wnt pathway, a specific biological pathway associated with beta-catenin. A particularly interesting aspect is its role in regenerative medicine, which is the study of restoring human cells, tissues, and organs.

We think that with new molecules that we have developed we can now activate the pathway in order to promote the regenerative abilities of tissues, noted Angers.

Tags: biology, cancer, medicine, oncology

Read the original post:
New ammunition uncovered by U of T researchers to develop colorectal cancer treatment - Varsity

Embryology

Sally Cheshire CBE appointed as Interim Chair of Cafcass – Mirage News

The Secretary of State has announced the appointment of Sally Cheshire CBE as Interim Chair of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). Sallys term of office will run from 16 December until 30 June 2020 whilst a recruitment campaign is carried out to fill the position on a permanent basis.

The role of Cafcass Chair is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and has been made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Cafcass is an independent (non-departmental) public body which has a statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children going through family proceedings. It is independent of the courts, social services, education and health authorities and all similar agencies.

Cafcass ensures that children and young people who are the subject of such proceedings are kept safe, their voices are properly heard, the decisions made about them by courts are in their best interests and that they and their families are supported throughout the process.

Sally Cheshire has been a member of Cafcass since May 2018, and was appointed as Deputy Chair in February 2019. Sally is Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UKs regulator of the fertility sector and embryo research, has held senior leadership roles across the health sector and is currently Chair of Health Education England (North). Sally was also a Board Member of the regional adoption agency Adoption Counts, and an independent member of adoption panels in the North West, which approve adopters and family matches in the best interests of children. She previously enjoyed a successful corporate career with Deloitte.

View post:
Sally Cheshire CBE appointed as Interim Chair of Cafcass - Mirage News

Embryology

IVF experts warn against clinics selling ‘pointless’ add-on treatments – inews

NewsHealthExclusive: Some of these add-ons, which can cost as much as 2,500 each, could pose a 'significant risk' to patient safety

Friday, 28th February 2020, 9:50 pm

A British embryologist who trained under the father of IVF has expressed serious concerns over private fertility clinics in the UK selling pointless and potentially unsafe treatments to desperate patients.

Many British fertility patients are being seriously misled byIVF clinics which promote expensive and ineffective treatments known as add-ons which are said to improve chances of conceiving, Professor Peter Hollands has warned.

Some of these add-ons, which can cost as much as 2,500 each, could pose a significant risk to patient safety while the effectiveness of others has not been proven, he said.

Professor Hollands has decades of experience in the field and trained under the father of IVF, Professor Sir Bob Edwards, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2010 for pioneering the treatment.

'Pointless' extra treatments warning

i reported earlier this month that the Competition and Markets Authority was developing the first official guidelines for private fertility clinics, and said it would not rule out taking enforcement action in the future, because of the concern about add-ons.

In a paper written with fellow fertility expert Dr Nicolas Zech, Professor Hollands has cautioned against a host of add-ons, from endometrial scratching to time-lapse video monitoring of embryonic development.

Basic IVF...is clearly a safe procedure providing the option of a family to millions of people which would not otherwise be possible, the paper states.

Fertility patients might be under the impression that add-ons offered by private clinics are also safe and effective but the scientific evidence is strongly to the contrary or at best vague, it says.

Some clinics could be said to be capitalising on vulnerable patients desperation, including those experiencing depression.

The only add-on the specialists believe should be used are pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which tests for serious genetic diseases.

'Corporate greed'

The growing number of add-ons offered is driven by patient pressure, corporate greed and the need of clinics to optimise their income, while an apparent lack of clarity surrounding these pointless treatments is also a serious concern, the paper, published in the Journal of Fertilisation, says.

IVF patients are very vulnerable even when they are totally well, Professor Hollands told i.

They are very stressed, sometimes angry...and this may turn into depression which...makes them even more likely, in their desperation, to accept almost any type of add-on offered to them by clinics.

Gwenda Burns, chief executive of the charity Fertility Network UK said: "Clinics...have a duty of care to patients, many of whom will have experienced years of distress and may be extremely vulnerable. That...should include ensuring fertility patients are given all the information they need to make the best decision for them."

The UKs fertility clinic regulator, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said it was aware that many clinics offer optional treatments that have not been proven to increase the chances of having a baby, often at a high financial cost to the patient.

We are clear that patients should not be misled or asked to pay for treatments where there is no evidence that they will make a difference to their chances of success, it added.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: Doctors providing fertility treatment must act in the best interests of their patient and ensure the patient has consented.

The UK fertility market is worth an estimated 320m per year and is growing by around 3 per cent annually, according to a 2016 report by LaingBuisson.

Case study: 'You dont know if the treatments are valid or not'

Will*, 34, from Somerset, and his partner underwent three rounds of IVF, after which they ran out of money

The treatment plan we chose cost about 15,000. Once youre in with the clinic you end up in their system. You stop looking for any other clinics, then they say to have a monthly blood test for 180, and the drugs are on top of that.

We knew there would be extra costs, but you just dont have another option. To go somewhere else would be such a step back. You dont want to go back to square one, you just have to see it through.

You dont know if the treatments theyre suggesting are valid or not - it might be really important.

The process we went through was unbelievably gruelling. Youre just waiting and hoping the embryos will survive. Its totally crushing.

We had really lovely doctors who we felt were caring for us. Theyre telling you This 700 test could see if something else might be wrong with your sperm. Youre staring down the barrel of a life without children or paying 700.

It was an extremely isolating experience. We werent lucky on our third attempt and by that time we didnt have any money left.

Theres a huge amount of shame around IVF. The success rate is quite low but we hear so few stories about failure. The narrative is totally unbalanced - it feels like youre alone and somethings wrong with you. The language around infertility is horrible.

I dont know what wed do differently but there needs to be some kind of additional support for couples going through IVF to help them. The HFEA became somewhere we could turn to.

During IVF you have no one to talk to except the people at the clinic or your GP or some family friend who once had it five years ago. We would have paid for independent support.

Original post:
IVF experts warn against clinics selling 'pointless' add-on treatments - inews

Embryology

New IVF clinic for people living in Plymouth, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – Plymouth Live

A new IVF clinic is due to open in Plymouth in the coming months.

In April 2020, IVFservices will be transferred from Derriford Hospital to a 2.5M purpose-built centre.

The centre, which will provide treatment for people living in Plymouth, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, will be run from a bespoke new building close to the hospital, on the Plymouth International Business Park.

The current provider, University Hospitals Plymouth, gave notice in August 2019 that it no longer intended to provide fertility services that require a licence from the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

These services includeIVFtreatment, storage of embryos, sperm and eggs, male fertility testing and sperm preparation.

NHS clinical commissioning groups buy these services on behalf of the local population.

Following a procurement process, NHS Devon and NHS Kernow CCGs have appointed CRGW Plymouth as the new provider.

Jo Turl, director of commissioning at NHS Devon CCG said: Fertility services for NHS patients in the new clinic will continue to be provided to the high standards required both by this contract and the licence regulations imposed by the regulator, the HFEA.

We will continue to work with the new provider, NHS partners and the regulator, to ensure that people are kept informed and reassured that they will continue to be cared for by their existing NHS team.

GP referrals will not change and the new provider will continue to provide full access to these NHS services in Plymouth.

All those receiving treatment will be cared for by the same specialist team currently working in the Ocean Suite at Derriford Hospital.

Staff at Derriford Hospital will continue to provide outpatient services for people with recurrent miscarriage and specialist endocrinology clinics.

The transfer and storage of eggs, sperm and embryos is undertaken under strict HFEA rules. During the transfer of services, NHS teams will work with CRGW Plymouth to minimise any disruption and maintain the usual high quality service.

Anyone currently undergoingIVFtreatment at the hospital will not be affected.

Originally posted here:
New IVF clinic for people living in Plymouth, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly - Plymouth Live