AssistedConception.org

Instituto Marques is one of the leading fertility clinics in Spain, offering a host of fertility related treatments. Representatives of the IM clinic approached us early in 2006 and invited us to visit their establishment to both observe how their clinic facilitates its treatments and to meet the medical staff working directly with patients at every level.

With more and more patients approaching us for information on both egg and sperm donation and requesting information on clinics abroad who offer these services, we felt it was not only a welcomed opportunity to actually go directly to a service provider, but we were curious to see just how accessible and realistic this could be.

Our motives for going were really three fold. We wanted to inspect their premises, scrutinise the service that they provided to patients from a patients point of view and discuss with them openly the science and technology available to patients. As patients, the latter is not always something we are privy to, but as I am myself a
molecular geneticist, I was keen to know more.

I initially met with Dr Raul Olivares who is head of the Assisted Conception Unit, and was pleasantly surprised from the very outset at his very laissez-faire although buoyant personality. Three of the senior Doctors, all of whom are female, then appeared to greet us and again were very excited about our visit and full of chat and information for us. All of the Doctors spoke excellent English; one British, spoke in five languages, so I was instantly put at ease as my Spanish is rather poor. The Doctors have constant contact with patients attending the clinic for gamete donation and every day they answer approximately 100+ email questions presented by patients. No matter how trivial they may seem, they make every effort to reply quickly with the best advice that they have to any particular question. I found this very reassuring, and instantly I thought about all the patients who call us with questions which they are terrified to ask their doctors or nurses, not because they won’t be answered but because they feel they are inappropriate or that they are time wasting.

I spent a further two hours with Dr Olivares and went through a series of questions relating the gamete donation, everything from how donors were recruited to Spanish Law surrounding gamete donation. Essentially, donors are recruited through an advertising campaign in and around Barcelona, they tend to be between the ages of 19 and 25 and although it is assumed that donors are paid for the service of donating eggs and sperm, this is not the case. Spanish law does not permit that donors can be paid directly for the act of donation, and as in the UK it must be seen as an altruistic act. However it should be said that donors are paid expenses at a considerably higher sum than is currently available to those in the UK, but is still relatively modest in comparison to the act of the medical procedure involved. They have almost 400 donors available to them which reflect the availability for physical character matching, to the best of their ability, with likely recipient couples. In most cases one donor will be synchronised with one recipient at any one time. However a donor is entitled to approach the clinic again at a later date, at which time they would probably be matched up with a different recipient. Donors in Spain still receive anonymity and cannot be contacted by either the recipients or a child at any future dates should they wish to do so.

For a couple to be considered for egg donation the female partner should be about 45-50 max, Dr Olivares states quite frankly that all they look for is a healthy uterus and that both parties are healthy and other complication are not likely to occur if a pregnancy is achieved. The clinic has a very good and encouraging live birth rate for egg donation and we worked through their most recent statistics which are presented to the Spanish authorities. As a patient and as the Director of a patients support organisation interested in the well-being of each and every patient, I felt confident that the clinic made every effort to look at each patient’s past experience with infertility as well as what was the here an now – medically, for that couple. We discussed at length multiple failed attempt of IVF and ICSI and he went into great detail about the technology that they have available, which helps them analyse in more detail any further genetic problems which may be the route of the problem. Although some tests are fairly straight forward and available to patients all over the world, such as blood sample karyotyping, they also have the facilities on-site to carry out meiotic screening of spermatozoids, which can give great insight into any genetically related problems, which may be the cause of multiple failed attempts at ICSI or associated with multiple miscarriage. If genetically related problems are diagnosed, then the clinic also has the facility to carry out Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening and Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis or sperm donation if preferred. In instances where there are multiple failed attempts at conventional IVF with a patient’s own eggs and everything appears normal with the genetic analysis of the sperm, PGS is also considered to determine any potential genetic problems with the egg.

My discussions with Dr Olivares and his team of both senior Doctors and Geneticists went on into the early evening. The information discussed above does not reflect in how much depth we discussed infertility and fertility treatment throughout our meeting. I felt that the day was spent well and we achieved nearly all that we needed to know, in our opinion, to feel confident that patients would receive the best treatment (both medical and personal) which was available to them, should they intend to travel to Spain for fertility treatment. The patient facilities within the Instituto Marques are very comfortable and sophisticated. The CIMA building right next door where most of the medical procedures are performed is something quite spectacular and very 21st century. Even though both buildings seem rather incongruent with each, there is something quite special about this very relaxed, yet hi-tech setting which it has naturally created. For those patients wishing to travel to Barcelona for treatment, the clinic have recruited a separate agency to help make the accommodation and travel arrangements around the city easier, should they wish to do so

I am sure that some people may feel sceptical about why the Instituto Marques opted to invite Cradle representatives to look around their facilities. There approach was one which many may feel was rather unusual but their focus would definitely appear to be delivering the best possible service for the consumer, so what better way to do it than by talking to us directly.

We would encourage anyone wishing to travel to Barcelona for fertility treatment, but more specifically requiring gamete donation, to contact us directly by email for more information about the Instituto Marques. In 2007 we now have a number of patients who have attended the Instituto Marques and the results have not only been excellent but the feedback that we receive from patients about the service provided and treatment of themselves from all of the satff in the IM unit, has alwasy been 1st class. We can now put you in contact with other patients who have atteneded the unit and completed treatment, so you may get first hand information.

It is our intention to always put our patients’ needs first by providing them, where possible, with as much information as we can, which relates specifically to the choices that they make in trying to achieve a longed for pregnancy.