World Class Care in Fertility Treatment for Women

17th March 2008

World Class Care in Fertility Treatment for Women

New Zealand's pioneers in fertility treatment, Fertility Associates, are opening a new clinic in Wellington. This is the third clinic in Wellington that Fertility Associates has opened in their 21 year history, as it has grown to meet increasing demand from women all over the lower North Island. To date, close to 8,000 babies have been born following treatment at Fertility Associates.

Currently 1 in 6 couples experience infertility, and the proportion of live births in this country that result from IVF is about 1%. It is likely that within the next 10 to 15 years at least one child in every classroom will have been born following IVF. Compared to 15 years ago, the average couple having IVF is now almost three times more likely to go home pregnant, but with a much lower risk of having twins.

Dr Andrew Murray, Medical Director of Fertility Associates, Wellington, says "the new facility is chiefly designed to give couples experiencing fertility problems the highest standard of care, care that they deserve. Doctors, nurses, and scientists working together using the latest technology mean that our success rates are among the best in the world."

While expressing great satisfaction about the 300-400 couples the clinic helps each year to have children, Dr Murray said he hoped that the increase in demand in recent years was indicative of the fact that New Zealanders are becoming more comfortable with their reproductive health. Countries like Australia and northern Europe see fertility treatment as a key part of their overall population policy and roughly twice as many people, on a per head basis, access fertility treatment.

Fertility Associates is also well along the way to further improvement in treatment using a new technology, blastocyst culture, with promising results from frozen embryos. The new Wellington facility provides more space for research and development so Wellington based staff can join the exciting work already being done by Fertility Associates in Auckland. This includes working with the Liggins Institute and Massey University in following the health of IVF children, developing better ways of handling eggs and embryos during the IVF process and understanding the increasing issues around male fertility.

ENDS

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