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   Media Review no.2 - April - June 2004 http://www.fertility.org.uk


News from the BFS Press Office   In the press   Watch out for...


Visit http://www.fertility.org.uk/press/email/media02.html for an online version.
See http://www.fertility.org.uk/press/email/media01.html for issue 1.

Welcome to the second issue of the BFS Media Review. This quarterly email alert is intended to keep you abreast of some of the recent media coverage of your professional field, as well as providing other information of interest.

Perhaps it will even fill you with enthusiasm to get involved! You can help your profession and patients by being media-friendly. What do I mean by this? Well, why not proactively approach your local newspaper or television station when you have good news stories to tell?

Has one of your patients overcome incredible odds to start a family? Could your research have fantastic benefits for the future of fertility treatment? Have you had a record number of patients or gamete donors?

There is distrust of the media because they generally focus on scares and controversy. However, they’re rarely offered anything else. Current and future patients and fertility peers in your area would love to hear the flip side, and you’ll find that journalists are surprisingly receptive to it.

If you want to talk any issues over, or get a mediator to make the initial approach to the media, do please get in touch. Tom and Jane at BioScientifica are here to help you. Just call 01454 642244 or email jo.thurston@bioscientifica.com

NEWS FROM THE BFS PRESS OFFICE
Media Training
The first ever BFS media training workshop took place in London on Friday 21st May. Jane accompanied nine enthusiastic volunteers at a day-long ‘masterclass of media’. Peter Evans, a BBC radio science presenter with stacks of experience and character led the day, along with two colleagues.

The group heard how the media works and began to understand that the vast majority of journalists aren’t ‘out to get you’, they just need to do a good job to ridiculously tight deadlines. If you can help with information or comment they will be eternally grateful.

Trainees were then put under pressure by doing two mock radio interviews (one relaxed, one more aggressive) in front of the group. Everyone held their nerve, spoke articulately and with compassion, and by the end of the day some real ‘stars’ had emerged.

The day was a great success. To read a full account from one of the trainees look out for an article in the next issue of BFS News.
National Infertility Day 2004
BioScientifica assisted Infertility Network UK in the preparation of their media material for this event. Many BFS members spoke at the event and it received reasonable press coverage, with a few journalists attending on the day.

ESHRE 2004
After the glut of controversy and scare-mongering that came out of ESHRE’s 2003 meeting, we braced ourselves for a flood of phone calls on ethically and practically questionable techniques.

To our relief, and probably yours, it passed with relatively little negative coverage and we got just a trickle of enquiries each day. Of course the biggest story was the ‘mobile phones and sperm counts’ scoop. Our andrology spokespeople did their best to put this in context and suppress the growing panic.

It is worth noting that ESHRE did not press release this story, as they felt that it was of limited significance due to sample size and possible confounding factors. Unfortunately a roving journalist picked it up anyway.

You may be interested to read a critical piece on these fertility scares from the Guardian during ESHRE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,3605,1249399,00.html
IN THE PRESS
April 2004

Paternity ruling challenged (The Times 6 April 2004)
The House of Lords has given permission for a man to challenge a Court of Appeal ruling that he was not entitled to be viewed as the father of a child conceived through IVF by his ex-partner, using donor sperm, after they had separated. His challenge is based on the fact that the man had signed the original consent form for the treatment in 1996.
Controversial technique with high success rates (Daily Telegraph 12 April 2004)
The CARE clinic in Nottingham has been using a technique pioneered in Chicago to increase the IVF success rates for older women. Using IVIG to suppress the women’s immune responses the clinic has seen 62% success of pregnancy.
UK Gamete donor register launched (BBC news online 20 April 2004)
The UK DonorLink Voluntary Information Exchange and Contact Register for donor conceived adults, siblings and donors is launched by Melanie Johnson MP.

Parthenogenetic mouse (The Independent 22 April 2004)
A mouse fertilised from the egg cells of two female parents has grown into a healthy adult. Scientists at the Tokyo University of Agriculture created a mouse that is believed to be the first parthenogenetic mammal to go to adulthood. The researchers altered two imprinting genes in one of the eggs so that it had similar genetic qualities to a sperm and overcame the natural barriers to parthenogenesis in mammals.
First ovary transplant (BBC news online 23 April 2004)
In a five-hour operation, surgeons in St Louis have transplanted part of an ovary from a fertile 24-year-old woman to her twin sister, who suffered premature menopause at 13 and has not been able to have children using IVF.
May 2004
Cancer therapy risks not clear to teens (BBC online 11 May 2004)
Out of 450 young cancer sufferers questioned by the charity Teenage Cancer Trust, only one in three said they were told their treatment could cut their chances of having children later in life. Almost half of those who were informed of their options were not happy with the counselling they received.
Paternal smoking and miscarriage (BBC news online 12 May 2004)
The American Journal of Epidemiology has published a study showing that the chance of pregnancy loss rises steeply if the woman’s partner smokes. Nearly a third of women whose partners smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day lost their babies within six weeks of conceiving. Among those whose partners did not smoke, the rate was a fifth.
Reversing spermatogenesis (Science 13 May 2004)
In experiments with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins scientists have restored the insect’s sperm-making stem cells by triggering cells on the way to becoming sperm to reverse course.
Embryo test could increase IVF success (Nature news 13 May 2004)
Researchers at Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine tested levels of sHLA-G released from nearly 600 IVF embryos in culture medium, and looked to see if levels were linked to the outcome of fertility treatment. The study, published in the Journal of Reproductive Biomedicine claims that IVF success rates could be doubled if the test was done as sHLA-G is thought to help embryos survive after implantation.
‘21-year-old’ baby (Press Association 25 May 2004)
In what is believed to be a world record in fertility treatment, a baby was born in the UK using sperm that had been frozen for 21 years. The father had his sperm frozen when he was 17, before treatment for testicular cancer.
June 2004
Don’t delay IVF if you’re over 35 (BBC news online 16 June 2004)
Scientists at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research have warned that women who delay trying to have a family cannot rely on IVF. The researchers used computer models in a study of fertility at various ages and found that births to over-40s through IVF were only slightly more common than they would have been naturally.
First therapeutic cloning licence application in UK (Reuters 17 June 2004)
The HFEA are considering a licence application from Newcastle University to carry out nuclear transfer in order to use stem cells from cloned human embryos to produce insulin. The application is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe.
Scan to predict biological clock (Guardian 17 June 2004)
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have discovered that they can use an unltrasound scan to measure ovarian capacity and predict the age of menopause in women. This could enable women to plan when to have children.
Endometriosis breakthrough (The Independent 28 June 2004)
Presenting their work at ESHRE, Dutch researchers claim that they have been able to inhibit development of the blood vessels that cause growth of new endometriosis lesions.
Mobile phones and male fertility (Daily Mail 28 June 2004)
A Hungarian study has found a link between use of mobile phones and male sperm counts and quality. The work is presented at ESHRE.
(See above for feature on ESHRE in NEWS FROM THE BFS PRESS OFFICE)
High sterilisation rates in UK (BBC online 28 June 2004)
A study of 12,000 women (2,500 from the UK) presented at the European Society of Contraception Congress in Edinburgh showed that on average 10.8% of women in Western Europe are sterilised for contraception, or depend on their partner to have a vasectomy. However, in the UK the figure is 20.8%.
Pregnancy from frozen ovary (Daily Telegraph 30 June 2004)
A woman in Belgium, who recovered from cancer, has become pregnant after having her ovaries grafted back after they had been removed and frozen prior to her cancer treatment.
WATCH OUT FOR…
National consultation on designer babies
An nationwide public consultation on the genetic testing of embryos and babies in the womb has been launched by the Human Genetics Commission.
http://www.hgc.gov.uk/choosingthefuture/index.htm

NEW! NICE implementation website
A recent report showed that 'postcode prescribing' is not being eliminated by NICE guidelines. NICE are attempting to tackle this by launching a programme of work to support the implementation of its guidance in the NHS.

The institute will be advertising for an Executive Director with responsibility for implementation and a new section on the website is designed to support those responsible for implementing guidance in the NHS. For more information go to: http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=implementation

Wellbeing Research Training Fellowships 2005
The aim of the Research Training Fellowship scheme is to further the training of medical graduates in research techniques and methodology in a subject of direct or indirect relevance to obstetrics and gynaecology.
Deadline for applications: 14 January 2005
For more information go to: http://www.wellbeing.org.uk/researchtraining.html
 
   
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