Caroline and Ed from South Wales are the latest couple to begin their fertility journey with one of IFC’s partner clinics, the Embio Medical Center in Athens.

The couple, both 39, were chosen by the clinic to receive a complimentary treatment earlier this year and are now in the process of planning their visit to Athens in September.

We caught up with them recently to find out how things were going, and their mood was summed up perfectly by Ed who said, “it’s a little bewildering, it’s a mixture of anxiety and excitement, but the support we have had from the International Fertility Company and Embio has been excellent, and we feel completely prepared for what is to come”.

Like many other couples, Caroline and Ed’s journey was interrupted by the Covid Pandemic which caused some delay in identifying the potential issues which were affecting their ability to conceive. Caroline spoke about their experience,

“Our initial communication with our G.P. was via email and telephone which was not ideal, but it was necessary because of Covid. We were initially told, ‘not to worry about it’ but as time went on and nothing was happening we took the decision to move things along ourselves”.

The couple had started preliminary investigations when they saw the offer of free treatment provided by Embio and IFC. “We registered an interest and put it to one side”, Ed said, “But were then gobsmacked to get a call to say that we had been chosen – within days we were contacted by Konstantina at the clinic who outlined the process, the timetable and explained what we needed to do in terms of tests”.

One of the challenging aspects of travelling for treatment is sometimes identifying providers and booking in scans and tests. Fortunately, for Caroline and Ed this didn’t prove to be too difficult, “Finding someone to do the necessary scans and blood tests was relatively easy but we experienced a number of delays whist we waited for results which was frustrating”, said Caroline.

All the necessary preparations, however, have now been undertaken and Caroline and Ed are looking forward to visiting Athens and the Embio Medical Center for their treatment in September, “whilst we are a little apprehensive we are confident that we will be given this possible opportunity for this to work” said Ed, “The clinic’s success rates are really good and patient feedback suggests that they receive a first class service from Dr Paraschos and his team. Whatever happens we cannot thank IFC and Embio enough for the support they have shown us to date, and we look forward to September and meeting the team at Embio”.

Look out for an update on Caroline and Ed’s visit to Athens in September where we will share their experience of treatment at the Embio Medical Center.

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR FENOMATCH?

Finding an egg donor is not an easy task. Long donor waiting lists exist in many countries. . This is where Fenomatch comes in. Launched in 2019 Fenomatch is an innovative facial matching tool. It allows medical teams to compare patients with agg donors. Comparisons are based on their facial characteristics including hair colour, eye colour and ethnicity. Four years on and how has Fenomatch evolved? This article explores how the company has developed its product.

FENOMATCH SCORE – FACIAL MATCHING

When a egg donor or sperm donor is required,  the challenge is to find a suitable one. Fenomatch tools address this by focussing on a number of specific questions:

How can we measure scientifically the compatibility of people by their physical characteristics?

How can we automate this process?

How can we avoid human error so the  medical staff and patients remain confident that the right donor is chosen?

Today, most IVF centres offer patients an egg donor who shares basic phenotypic traits. But, how do you know if an egg donor really resembles the patient? So, Fenomatch developed an artificial intelligence-based tool that produces objective facial similarity results for each potential donor. This result is the Fenomatch Score. In this way, centres see which donors from the bank are the best match to the patient offering more options for them.

The algorithm on which Fenomatch has been developed has been evaluated and validated by all the centres who actively use it.

BANK CONNECTION AND REQUEST MANAGEMENT

One of the big challenges in assisted reproduction treatments is the shortage of gametes for donation. This means that some patients have to travel for treatment.

Fenomatch has been focused on this shortage since its beginning. As a consequence, it has developed a way to connect all types of IVF centres. This allows for the possibility of sharing gametes.

Clinics and gamete banks can now be connected to find the right donor. Clinics can now request donors from diiferent banks if they do not have access to one. All information is encrypted: banks cannot see data about patients from different clinics, and clinics can’t see the database of banks. This makes it possible to expand the search. IVF centres all over the world can now interconnect and bring better results to their patients: the more donors, the better the selection.

GENETIC MATCHING & VALIDATION

Genetic carrier testing and genetic matching is also popular. More centres are starting to test both their donors and their patients to achieve what is called “Genetic matching”.  As a result,  Fenomatch has developed its own automated genetic matching process. The matching is then reviewed and validated by a geneticist.

This technology has been incorporated into the tool and it provides more options for IVF professionals. However, this genetic matching and validation is not mandatory.

NEXT STEPS

Fenomatch will continue to work to ensure the product continues to deliver results for  patients and clinics. A new version of the tool is planned for the end of 2023. Our moto remains –  if we can find a way of helping patients find the best egg donor or sperm donor, we will do it.

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