The MFS Patients’ Guide to Services 2010-11 is now available as an interactive and downloadable full-colour brochure, including information on MFS, an overview of services, at-a-glance success rates and links to more detailed information on the MFS website.

More e-brochures will be introduced to the on-line list of MFS literature over the coming months.

Issued: 30 August 2010

Su Barlow, laboratory director at MFS draws attention to a statement from the HFEA about the risks to patients who use unlicensed internet sites to buy donor sperm, eggs or embryos. 

Patients interested in treatment using donor sperm, eggs or embryos should contact Su Barlow at MFS for more information about safe donor/recipient matching and purchasing.

More information:

• receiving donor eggs and embryos
• receiving donor sperm
• legal information for donor treatments

• view dates of, and information about, MFS Open Evenings
• view dates and details of UK and worldwide fertility-related events and conferences

In Made in Aldridge read about one very new daddy’s first Fathers’ Day, following almost 12 years of trying to have a family of their own.  Clinic news includes an update on the launch of the Cost Estimator^© , a unique on-line service from MFS.

Other firsts for MFS include the first twin pregnancy from vitrified blastocysts and the first pregnancy from a thawed vitrified egg.  Read about the new faces at the unit and also about the national champion on the finance team . . .

A Day in the Life returns in this issue, featuring the role of Lynsey Bissell erstwhile secretary and now clincial administrator at MFS.  Today’s the Day includes birthday greetings three MFS babies aged one, eight and 13!  If you would like to mark a milestone or other achievement in the life of your MFS baby, complete the Today’s the Day form.

Since the last enews, MFS has published a new Patients Guide to Services and Patients Finance Information leaflet.  If you’ve not received your copies in the mail, they can be downloaded in PDF format or requested by email.

The next newsletter will be out in September 2010 and if you don’t yet subscribe, complete the form to make sure it pops into your inbox on the day it’s issued.

We hope you enjoy the e-newsletter and welcome your feedback.  And if you’ve found it a good read, why not tell a friend?

Jill Anthony-Ackery
Communications Manager

Lynsey Bissell has been in her job at MFS for six months now.  As a brand new role, the detail of the job description for the clinical administrator was yet to be written, but already Lynsey’s days are filled to the max, constantly varied and still the role continues to evolve.  Even working 8.30am-5.00pm, Monday through Friday, her days are anything but routine.

Lynsey Bissell LlB, clinical administrator

By 8.45am Lynsey is working her way through the 43 emails and phone messages the clinical team has received from current patients since 6.00pm yesterday.  This vital function really defines the main characteristic of the clinical administrator’s role - to act as a bridge between patient enquiries and the nurses and doctors, and to provide patients with a quick response.

Lynsey pulls the patients’ files for all the enquiries and assesses which she can answer and which need to be referred to one of the fertility nurse specialists or a doctor.  This morning’s enquiries include Mrs K wanting to know which needle she should use for her hCG injection tonight and Ms L who has phoned in, as planned, to confirm her LH surge in advance of her IUI insemination.  Lynsey is able to handle both queries and reassure the patients about what they need to do next.

“Essentially I can answer any enquiry which doesn’t need specific clinical advice, or which are not about fertility drugs and drug protocols,” she explains.  “Instead of patients having to wait for a call from a nurse or doctor between their appointments, I can help patients with queries about whether test results are available, or booking scan appointments for patients who call in with a positive pregnancy test result, or spend some time with them on the phone if they call in with a negative result and then book a follow-up appointment for them.

“I make a note of any contact I’ve had with the patient in their notes and file any emails they have sent so there are no gaps in the contact they’ve had with the unit.”

Today is a busy Tuesday with five egg collections scheduled for the morning and four embryo transfers in the afternoon diary.  Before patients leave the unit following their egg collections , Lynsey prepares their discharge letters, detailing the number of eggs, their medication, confirming the time and date of their embryo transfer and providing any specific additional advice requested by the nurse or doctor responsible for their care.

“I first joined MFS in June 2008 as one of the secretaries, so I’m familiar with the number and types of letters needed to keep patients informed of each stage of their treatment.  But now I’m based at the nurses’ station I get to meet them at the start or end of their appointment, rather than knowing them only through the letters I prepare for them and file in their notes.”

As well as the standard egg collection discharge letters, Lynsey also produces urgent one-off letters requested by the clinical team.  Dr Adi has completed an egg collection but noted that the patient has a polyp which needs to be removed before she can go ahead with her embryo transfer , as it could affect the implantation process.  Lynsey writes a letter to the hospital consultant requesting that the polyp is removed and confirming that all the embryos will be frozen until this has been completed.

Lynsey and Dr Adi discuss the details of an urgent letter

Between writing the letters and booking appointments, some of the calls Lynsey takes are from patients phoning in the results of their pregnancy tests.  “They can be some of the most lovely and some of the hardest calls I take,” she says.

“It’s fantastic to get news of the positive results and to hear the total happiness in the patient’s voice as she tells me she’s pregnant and I book the scan appointment for two weeks time.  When it’s a negative result patients can either be really angry, or terribly upset, sometimes totally deflated and even a little confused - and sometimes a bit of all of these.  But if I can spend some time with them on the phone and arrange a date for a follow-up appointment or even offer them the counselling service, I hope I can make things just a little better for them.”

The day’s blood results are passed to Lynsey and she presents them to Dr Adi to be signed off before filing in patient’s notes ready for their next appointments.  Two of the nurses are waiting for test results so they can plan the next stage of their patients’ treatment and Lynsey lets them know they are now available.

By 1.00pm all the egg collections are all complete and the patients have been discharged, so she joins some of her colleagues in the staff room for lunch.  Immediately afterwards she prepares the paperwork for the weekly nurses meeting, for which she takes the notes.

This week the team are reviewing new consent forms about donor anonymity and the development of the HFEA Donor Sibling Link. 

“I graduated with a law degree and so am interested in how the unit operates within the terms of the HFE Act and the impact of this on the day to day running of the unit - and of course, how it affects patients,” said Lynsey.

Before she begins her afternoon appointments, nurse manager Mandy Godwin, briefs Lynsey on some changes that are needed on the Data Management System (DMS) diary.  As a DMS ’super-user’ Lynsey can change patient appointments and also programme the diary to indicate when clinical staff are unavailable for appointments because of annual leave or training events.  Having someone to manage the administration function means the nurses have more patient contact time.

“Eventually the patients’ notes will all be electronic and join-up with the DMS diary system.  The finance team will also use it to generate invoices based on the appointments each patient has.  In preparation of this I make a note of any patients who have not arrived for their appointments so that their notes are up to date and the system knows that they will need a repeat appointment in the future.”

Once all the letters for the afternoon embryo transfer patients have been issued, Lynsey checks over the day’s referral letters from consultants, before allocating appointments to the patients.  “All patients have access to all the clinical team, but if woman cancer patient is referred to MFS for fertility preservation treatment I need to act fast and make sure she receives an appointment within 24 hours with one of the dedicated egg freeze team.  If she has had unsuccessful treatment cycles at another clinic or if one of the couple has a condition which could make their treatment particularly complicated, such as a bicornuate uterus or a previous history of testicular cancer, I may need to make their initial consultation appointment with a specific member of the clinical team.”

Towards the end of the afternoon Lynsey completes one of her favourite tasks - confirming the day’s pregnancy test results with the information analyst, Jo Patel.  “Today I’ve had six results, two positives and four negatives.  One of the positives was for a couple who has had three egg collections and four embryo transfers in the last three years, so this is brilliant news.

Lynsey and Tracey confirm a newly-pregnant patient's first scan appointment

“The other positive was from a patient who called on Friday to say she’d had a negative result and she was really upset, but this morning the blue line is really strong.  She came into the unit this afternoon for a sensitive test so we could double-check the results and she was ecstatic when fertility nurse specialist Tracey Lewis confirmed that she really was pregnant!  We’ll see her again in two weeks for her scan to see if she’s expecting one or two babies.”

“I’ve previously worked in training and HR admin at other companies and although I enjoyed being a part of the MFS office team and occasionally working on reception, my new role allows me to be more involved in the clinical activity of the unit, and to see many more patients face to face.  It’s my perfect job.

“I’ve planned about 60% of the work I have to do tomorrow, but as ever the other 40% will be in response to the calls I get or the emails I receive - but that’s the way I like it.  I just wish there were a few more hours in the day to finish the other 20%!”

New Faces

Welcome to clinical research fellows Dr Adrija Kumar Datta and Dr Krishnaveni Nayini and also to fertility nurse specialist Donna Wassell who all recently joined the clinical team.

Dr Adrija Kumar Datta MRCOG MD MBBS

Dr Krishnaveni Nayini MRCOG DGO DFFP MBBS

Donna Wassell RN DipHE

Dr Adrija joined MFS in March 2010 after gaining his MBBS qualification in Calcutta, India in 1988 and his MD status in 1996. He has been practicing obs & gynae since 1990, working at the Assisted Conception Unit in Birmingham Women’s Hospital in 2005 and most recently, as a clinical fellow at the IVF unit in St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London and a senior registrar at the Royal London Hospital (2008-2010). He received his MRCOG qualification in 2005 and is currently studying for a diploma in medical education. In addition to English he speaks Hindi, Urdu and Bengali fluently and some Nepali.

Dr Krishna qualified in June 1999 and completed a diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2003. She worked as senior house officer for 20 months in Burnley General Hospital, Macclesfield General Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary and as a registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology for two years at University Hospital North Durham, George Elliot Hospital Nuneaton and Walsall Manor Hospital. In 2009 she completed a diploma in family planning and received her MRCOG qualification in 2006. In addition to English, she speaks Telugu, Hindi and Kannada fluently.

Donna joined MFS after training at Walsall Manor Hospital and qualifying in 2007 and then gaining experience as a district nurse and more recently as an endoscopy staff nurse at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield.

Carol-Ann Smith

Gemma Lester

The office team also has some new faces: Carol-Ann Smith joins MFS as the office manager, leading the team of receptionists, secretaries, office assistants, filing clerks and housekeepers. In addition, visitors to the unit on a Saturday and Sunday will be greeted by Gemma Lester, who joins the weekend office team, greeting patients on arrival and taking phone calls and making appointments.

‘So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu’

'So long' Ruth

'Farewell' Donna

'Auf Wiedersehen' Sharon

'Adieu' Pam

A few familiar faces have recently left MFS for pastures new, including fertility nurse specialists Ruth McPhail and Donna Price and office manager Sharon Edwards. And after almost 15 years at MFS, housekeeper Pam Mahoney begins her retirement at the end of June - we wish them all good luck in their new roles and, in Donna’s case, ‘bon voyage to Down Under’!

Everything in Moderation

Jo Milner MIBMS BSc (Hons)

Biomedical scientist and laboratory assistant Jo Milner recently began a new and additional role at MFS as one of the Forum moderators, helping to ensure that all is fair on the Forum and that it continues to be a friendly and supportive place for all its regular users and occasional visitors.

Staying in Touch

Lorraine Sears

DMS project manager Lorraine Sears has extended her role at MFS by taking on a pre-patient liaison role. Every month MFS receives hundreds of enquiries by phone, email, via the internet and from people who attend the Open Evenings. Lorraine will contact many of these every month, in the evening or at weekends to assess the quality of how their enquiries were handled by the team and to provide any additional information that may be needed to help an enquirer decide whether or not to pursue treatment.

SINGing Chair for Heidi

Heidi Birch RGN RM MSc

Director of nusing services, Heidi Birch has been elected to the Chair of SING, the Senior Infertility Nurses Group. She will hold the role for two years and ensure that SING continues to enable senior nuses involved in treating infertility to share information and best practice with each other, to help further improve fertility treatment throughout the UK.

National Finalist at MFS

Gail Bellingham FCCA MAAT and 3rd in NABBA UK!

In May, finance manager Gail Bellingham competed in the ‘trained figure’ class of the National Amateur Body Builders’ Association (NABBA) West Midlands regional competition and came second . . . and then just three weeks later competed in the UK finals and came third in a field of ’seasoned competitors’. Following her success she said: “For my first time competing, to qualify for the Britain competition, was an honour, and to place in the top three was just so unexpected and pretty much unheard of! I have qualified to do the NABBA Universe 2010 in October, which involves the top placed competitors from all over the world.” Watch this space for news of the MFS finance manager’s future attempt to conquer the universe!

Cost Estimator^© Goes Live

Check out a unique web-based service for potential and current fertility patients.  The MFS Cost Estimator^© provides a transparent breakdown all chargeable elements of 27 example treatment cycles, so patients can be quite clear about the total cost for a type of treatment.

“MFS is aware that budgeting for fertility treatment can be confusing, as not all clinics communicate clearly all the chargeable elements of a cycle before a patient commits to treatment,” said Jill Anthony-Ackery, MFS communications manager. “While MFS has always published a comprehensive list of charges, the Cost Estimator^© shows clearly how example cycles are calculated, including any indication of the cost of any drugs.

“While all the figures remain an estimate, rather than a binding quote, the Cost Estimator^© makes it easier than ever for a prospective or returning patient to gauge how much a specific type of treatment will cost and virtually eliminates the potential for any ‘nasty surprises’ when the invoice is presented.

“When comparing costs with other clinics’, potential patients are advised to ensure they check that all the elements of each service are also included in the costs quoted by any other clinic.  MFS is the first UK fertility clinic to offer such transparency to prospective patients and encourages them to insist on the same level of disclosure from other clinics before making their clinic choice.”

Go to the MFS Cost Estimator^©

Vitrified ‘Firsts’ for MFS

MFS finished 2009 with news of a twin pregnancy from vitrified blastocysts and in March this year, confirmed a pregnancy from vitrified frozen eggs.  MFS introduced vitrification, the ‘flash-freezing‘ technique which offers improved pregnancy rates of eggs and blastocysts after thawing, to the West Midlands in December 2008.  Staff look forward to livebirths from these vitrification milestones later in the year and anticipate further success from vitrified eggs and blastocysts over the coming years.

eSET is Ahead of Target at MFS

To reduce the number of multiple pregnancies from assisted conception treatments, in line with the HFEA’s One at a Time strategy, MFS joined with other West Midlands units in January 2009 in implementing a policy in which women who met certain criteria, are offered a single embryo transfer.  One year after implementing this elective single embryo transfer (eSET) policy, MFS has not only met, but exceeded, the first 12 month target of 24%, by reducing the unit’s multiple pregnancy rate from 28.7% for cycles in 2008, to 21.7% for cycles in 2009.  “MFS is well-placed to meet the HFEA’s new multiple pregnancy target of 20% for 2010, without compromising the chance of eSET patients achieving a pregnancy,” said Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director at MFS.  “By careful selection of the women who meet the eSET criteria, we can ensure that single embryo transfers do not reduce the number of pregnancies we achieve, but do reduce the number of babies born as twins.  Singleton pregnancies are healthier and safer for both the mother and the unborn baby, and MFS’s excellent embryo and blastocyst freezing programme offers the chance of a further pregnancy in the future ” .

Donor Sibling Link

Donor conceived people will be able to get in touch with others who share the same donor, their genetic siblings, through the Donor Sibling Link (DSL), a service launched by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Around 2,000 people are born each year as a result of the donation of sperm, eggs or embryos.  Since the launch of the HFEA in August 1991 around 36,000 donor conceived people have been born following treatment at a HFEA licensed centre.

Anyone conceived through donor conception treatment, and who has turned 18 years old, is able to join the DSL, to find out if there are other people who share the same donor.  If there are, they will be able to choose to exchange their contact details if they wish to.

DSL will only put people in touch with each other if they consent to sharing their contact information.  Only donor-conceived siblings will be able to share information, it will not be available to others including their own parents or other family members.  Donor conceived people will also be able to opt out at any point.

Olivia Montuschi, co-founder of the Donor Conception Network said:  “Our experience has shown that donor conceived young people are much more interested in half siblings than they are in their donor.  We think that this is a wonderful service to help those people get in touch with each other.”

‘Today’s The Day’ is the chance for you to mark a special day in your lives, by sending in details of a birth announcement, or of your MFS baby’s or child’s birthday, or other achievements - such as first day at a new school, winning a prize, or getting their degree!  You can send details of any special date between now and the end of September 2010 for the next e-newsletter.  We’ll cover forthcoming dates or events and those that have already happened in this time.

George Jonah Edward Burrows, 20 June 1997

George age 11

‘A very happy 13th birthday to a very special boy and our no1 son! Have a lovely day - you so deserve it. Lots of love mum and dad xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx’

George as a baby

Constance Lydia Anthony-Ackery, 1 August 2002

Connie at 7

‘Happy birthday gorgeous girl. We can’t believe you’ll soon be 8 and you’ve completely filled the last eight years of our lives with sunshine and smiles. We love you so much girlie, Mummy and Daddy xxx’

Alfie Jack Blaize, 23 June 2009

‘Happy 1st birthday to our very precious little miracle Alfie Jack Blaize. You make us the proudest parents in the world and give us so much joy and happiness, something we never thought would be possible! A big thank you to MFS for making this happen!!’

Alfie is 1!

‘Made in Aldridge’ is a regular e-news feature which tells the story of a woman’s or couple’s experience at MFS and the impact of the result on their lives.

If you would like your story to be featured in ‘Made in Aldridge’, complete the form and we will follow up your details.

Joshua and Samuel Hartshorne

For Ade Hartshorne, Fathers’ Day used to mean sending a card and treating his dad to lunch.  At 36 years old he’s always been ‘the son’ marking this special day.  But this Fathers’ Day was very different for Ade as, earlier this month, he became ‘Daddy’ to twin boys and so he got to experience the other side of Fathers’ Day for the very first time - something he thought he might never get to do.

Sue and Ade with Samuel (l) and Joshua (r)

Ade (36), MD of a water pump company and Sue (39), an accountant, from Halesowen, have been together since 1995.  Fairly early in their relationship she explained to him that as she’d had a premature menopause when she was 29, she would not be able to have a baby without the gift of donor eggs and IVF.  “I knew that the odds were against us having any children but we knew that we would try all we could and, if it didn’t work for us, we’d be happy just as a couple, rather than as a family - but at least we had to try,” he explained.

Following tests at their GP surgery, they discovered that Dudley PCT would fund up to two cycles of IVF with donor eggs and eventually had their initial consultation at MFS in 2002.  Just a few months later Donna Rea-Gardner, the MFS donor co-ordintor contacted them with details of a matched egg donor - at last they were on their way to trying to have a baby!

After the donor’s egg collection, Sue and Ade were allocated 11 eggs and embryologists prepared Ade’s sperm sample and placed it with the eggs, so that fertilisation may occur to create embryos for the couple.

Two days later they returned to MFS for some of the embryos to be placed into Sue’s uterus - and then began the long two week wait to see if ‘they’ were pregnant.

“All couples going through IVF have such an up-hill climb, but when you need donor eggs too everything takes so much longer and so we hoped and hoped that we’d be lucky to get pregnant first time,” said Ade.  “Sue hadn’t started to bleed in the two weeks after the transfer so we were really hopeful when she did the test - and then heartbroken when it was negative.  We weren’t pregnant, had no embryos in storage and would have to start all over again. It was a real low point.”

Following such disappointment, Ade and Sue considered alternative ways to have a family and made enquiries with local social services about adoption.  “We eventually had home visits and attended some of the preparation courses, but a few months later something deep inside told me this wasn’t right for me,” said Ade.  “Sue and I talked it through and knew that stopping the adoption route meant we were just as far from becoming parents as we’d been years before, but I couldn’t carry on - it wouldn’t have been fair on everyone involved - especially any child.”

“Sue and I contacted MFS again and found that we could still have another cycle of IVF, which Dudley PCT would fund.  This was fantastic news, even though we knew that we’d have to wait a while for a suitable egg donor to become available.”  It was six years after the couple’s original appointment at MFS.

To speed up the possibility of their next treatment cycle, Sue asked her sister, who had completed her family, if she would consider donating some of her eggs to her and Ade.  She agreed, but she fell ill herself so she had to withdraw from donating eggs.

But in the summer of 2009, Donna Rea-Gardner contacted Ade and Sue with news of another donor.  “To be as prepared as possible for receiving the embryos, Sue had acupuncture treatment before and after the embryo transfer.  We don’t know how this may have helped, but we wanted to give ourselves the best possible chance of everything going right this time,” said Ade.

Again two embryos were transferred into Sue’s uterus and this time she left the test for 15 days so Ade would be with her when she got the result.  It was negative.  “We were gutted, totally devastated,” recalls Ade.  But as Sue still hadn’t started to bleed she repeated the test four days later and the blue line appeared showing the result was positive!

“We were so excited but because we couldn’t be sure the result was 100% accurate we were also really nervous.  To get confirmation, we booked a sensitive pregnancy test at MFS and were ecstatic when this was also positive!” remembers Ade.

Two weeks later Ade and Sue returned to MFS for the scan to confirm the pregnancy.  “The nurse explained that while there was a single strong heartbeat, there were also signs that we may lose the other, so Sue had to have daily Gestone hormone injections to try and save the second baby.

“For three months I gave Sue her injections and she had scans every week to check on how both babies were growing.  It was brilliant seeing the babies grow each week at the scans but between each appointment we were living on a knife-edge.”

Following the 16 week scan Ade and Sue received the news that she could stop the daily injections as the baby was no longer at risk of early miscarriage.

Following that, Sue had a relatively trouble-free pregnancy.  Then at 37 weeks a scan suggested that one of the babies wasn’t growing and so she was admitted to Birmingham Women’s Hospital to be induced.  Despite two days of labour, Ade and Sue were told that she would need an emergency Caesarean section and eventually Joshua Michael and Samuel John were born on 2 June 2010 just one minute apart, weighing 6lbs and 5lb 14oz, respectively.

“After all we’d been through to get pregnant, and the struggle to keep both babies in the early months and then after more than 50 hours of labour, seeing both our sons safely delivered was the most exhilarating and overwhelming feeling I’ve ever had.  Sue and I had become parents at last - something we had dreamt of for so long.

“We wouldn’t have our beautiful boys if it wasn’t for the woman who gave her eggs to us and also the amazing staff at MFS and at Birmingham Women’s Hospital.  They are truly miracle workers - to help us get pregnant to start with and then to make sure that our boys arrived safely - we can’t thank them all enough.

“I’ve spent every Fathers’ Day as ‘my father’s son’ but this year, I’ll was with my two boys and my dad had his son, two daughters and four grandsons with him throughout the day - including three born since last Fathers’ Day.

“While Sue and I knew we might have to get used to being just a couple, being a family is just magical.  The disappointments of treatment can be really tough, but it’s all so worth it in the end.”

More information:

• go to information on egg sharing for donors
• go to egg sharer/donor checklist
• go to information on egg sharing for recipients
• download a PDF booklet on egg sharing for donors
• download a PDF booklet on egg sharing for recipients
• email the MFS egg donation team
• go to the Donor Conception Network (DCN) website

For a totally transparent estimate of the cost of fertility treatment, view the MFS Cost Estimator^© to get a breakdown all chargeable elements of 27 example treatment cycles.

When comparing costs with other clinics’, potential patients are advised to ensure they check that all the elements of each service are also included in the costs quoted by any other clinic.  MFS is the first UK fertiltiy clinic to offer such transparency to prospective patients and encourages them to insist on the same level of disclosure from other clinics before making their clinic choice.