City Fertility Centre has received early approval to use new IVF technology that replicates a naturally occurring protein expressed in the female reproductive tract and assists in embryo development.
For the past six months City Fertility Centre has been utilising BlastGen™, a culture medium that can assist with successful embryo development in the laboratory before transfer to the mother, says chief executive officer and scientific director Adnan Catakovic.
He said large clinical trials in Denmark and Sweden had shown a significant increase in survival of transferred embryos and lower miscarriage rates when BlastGen™ was used.
Dr Marcin Stankiewicz, City Fertility Centre’s Adelaide medical director, said the new technology was a real advance for women with previous recurrent miscarriage.
“BlastGen™ is a positive development in IVF treatment to assist our patients trying to achieve a successful pregnancy,” Dr Stankiewicz said.
Mr Catakovic said that based on the positive outcomes achieved in overseas trials, City Fertility had been granted early approval to use BlastGen™ in Australia through the TGA Authorised Prescriber Scheme.
“So far, in patients with previous recurrent pregnancy failures, we are achieving pregnancy rates of about 50 per cent with BlastGen™,” he said.
Mr Catakovic said the cost for using BlastGen™ was minimal to the patient and unlike in randomised trials, no City Fertility Centre patients would be excluded from accessing it.
BlastGen™ is commonly used in conjunction with another liquid, EmbryoGen®, which City Fertility Centre has been using in its laboratories for the past two years.
EmbryoGen® and BlastGen™ are suitable for all patients, and especially recommended for those who have experienced recurrent pregnancy loss, miscarriage, recurrent implantation failures or unexplained infertility.
EmbryoGen® and BlastGen™ are culture media that have been developed with the addition of the cytokine Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF): a protein expressed in the female reproductive tract and upregulated throughout embryo development.
To learn more, please read our Fact Sheet EmbryoGen and BlastGen.
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