Advanced Fertility Treatments and Trends at Sims IVF Clinic Cork

CORK – Since the late 1970s, In vitro Fertilisation (IVF) has transformed the landscape of reproductive medicine.Caroline O’Dea, manager of Sims IVF Cork clinic in Mahon, highlights the clinic’s commitment to providing accessible, world-class fertility care.

As part of Virtus Health, a global fertility group based in Australia, Sims IVF Cork offers advanced fertility testing, including reproductive immunology, sperm DNA fragmentation testing, and Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) blood tests.

According to Ms. O’Dea, an AMH test determines a woman’s ovarian reserve, indicating the approximate number of eggs she has. “We’re born with all the eggs we’re ever going to have,” she explains.”Once we hit puberty, we start to release those eggs, and once you’re twenty-five, the count drops.”

Ms. O’Dea advises women in their late twenties and early thirties to undergo a checkup, including an AMH blood test around the time of their smear test. This helps assess their fertility status and allows for further inquiry if results fall outside the normal range.

For women planning further education or career advancement, understanding their fertility is crucial. “We have some patients for whom, if this information had been available, they might have made different decisions,” Ms. O’Dea notes. “We are very proactive in educating people.”

She emphasizes the importance of open conversations about fertility, similar to those surrounding mental health and men’s health. “It’s not as taboo as it once was. A lot of people going down the IVF route didn’t want to share that information with family or friends.”

The increased openness is partly due to celebrities sharing their experiences. “The stigma attached to IVF is not as topical as it was even five years ago,” Ms. O’dea states.

The clinic caters to diverse patient needs,including single women seeking egg freezing and couples interested in banking embryos.”people are deciding to have children later in life as they want to prioritise career and travel, or whatever is critically important to them,” she explains.

Ms. O’Dea also notes a rise in single women freezing their eggs and an increasing number of same-sex female couples seeking pregnancy using donor sperm.

She observes that women today are more informed and empowered, with a significant percentage holding third-level qualifications. “We give our main fertility window to our careers. It’s a critical window for women. People are taking more control of their destiny.”

ms. O’Dea acknowledges the emotional challenges of IVF. “what is anecdotal and based on what we have observed here, and I expect it applies to all clinics, is that you have a couple that have reached out to engage with an IVF clinic. That is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. It would have been a long, long journey to arrive at that point.”

“The quest to have a child and start a family can be all-consuming for people.They have to be mindful that IVF is emotionally expensive and financially expensive. Once a couple reaches out to us, they’ve gone through a lot of soul-searching and conversations.”

During a regular menstrual cycle, one dominant egg is released. In contrast, “In an IVF cycle, we try to manipulate the cycle so we get a good number of eggs. they are collected transvaginally and brought into the laboratory. The male partner produces a semen sample that’s brought into the lab. The sperm is put in with the eggs, and hopefully fertilised.”

The embryos are then placed in an incubator that monitors their development. “After five days, if there’s a suitable embryo, it will be transferred into the uterus. After two weeks, we do a pregnancy test to see if there’s a viable pregnancy there and then a scan at seven weeks to check that all is going well before the woman either goes to her GP or obstetrician.”

The clinic provides counseling services to patients. “Some people are quiet happy not to engage in counselling.A lot would have already engaged with it as part of the arduous conversations they’ve had when they decide to reach out to a fertility clinic. While we offer one counselling session, some might need more than one.”

Ms. O’Dea acknowledges that embryo transfer may not always succeed initially, and multiple miscarriages can occur. “There might be multiple miscarriages,which isn’t a nice experience for anyone to go through. But there is support available.”

Since the introduction of marriage equality,more gay couples are seeking IVF treatments. “We have a program called ‘Shared Motherhood‘ for same sex couples. One of the partners will provide the egg, which will be fertilised through donor sperm. The othre partner will carry the pregnancy. both have a genetic link to the child. It’s quite a popular programme.”

Ms.O’Dea highlights the clinic’s extensive research network available to embryologists and doctors. “I think embryo grading and embryo development are probably most significant.”

The clinic also offers Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy (PGTA), a specialized technique to test embryos for chromosomal abnormalities.

PGTA provides an earlier assessment compared to alternative antenatal screening tests, helping to identify normal embryos suitable for transfer (Euploid).

Conversely, an abnormal embryo exhibits significant chromosomal losses or deletions, rendering it unsuitable for transfer (Aneuploid).