IVF patient new era. Patient-centered fertility care. What should you expect?

We are working on it, we are trying to solve that kind of issue because we’d like to do it right. We are going step by step with this, we will do it, but for now, we need to work on that.

When we’re doing an egg donation treatment, we are looking for an egg donor that is more or less physically the same as you, as the patient. We will look for the same physical characteristics, and if you want to have the same blood group, and when we have that egg donor, we will proceed with your treatment. It depends on certain things like if you need surgery, we will just follow the steps I’ve mentioned before, we will organize the surgery with the previous diagnostic test, and after the surgery, two or three months after that, we will organize embryo transfer as if those were your own eggs, so it’s the same, and if you don’t need surgery, it’s just organizing the embryo transfer with the correct preparation for each case, and it will be the same.

We do want to expand it with the ultrasound machine so that the patients could do ultrasounds themselves in their own houses, but we have to go step by step, as I’ve mentioned. We will obtain it, but for now, when we are talking about telemedicine, we mean that we offer skypes and online consultations.

If the surgery is not needed, we will need you to come to the clinic at least twice. Once for the egg retrieval and then for the embryo transfer.

Yes, you can stay, of course. If surgery is not needed and we do the egg retrieval, and all follow up with embryo transfer, fresh embryo transfer, of course, you can stay here without any problem.

Yes, it is. You can adopt an embryo and go ahead with embryo transfer. The embryo is already formed, there is no waiting time. If the patient’s requirements fit the embryo that we have, we will go ahead instantly.

We are working 100% like always. We are doing PCR COVID tests in case we need to do them, and for sure, if we go ahead with embryo transfer, we will ask the patient to do that test, but obviously, we are taking care, and we are taking the necessary measures to be safe, and we definitely make sure that the patients are also safe. We are receiving a lot of international patients, we are starting with online skypes, consultation, so every day, we are having new patients and undergoing treatments and organizing egg retrievals, and embryo transfers, and surgeries.

The only information that we can say about the egg donor is the age and the blood group, that’s all.

No, but it depends on the stage of the treatment. As a patient coordinator, we are not going to call the patient every day, but if you have any questions, we will answer you as soon as possible, and in every step in the treatment, we will speak with the doctor, we will talk to the patients, and we will be informing them about everything.

We can transfer an embryo from other countries, so that’s not a problem. If you have embryos frozen in other clinics and if the doctors confirm that we are able to move it, we will do it, of course.

We would like for all the patients to have just one patient coordinator, but that’s quite impossible because we can’t be there 24 hours per day, so you will have one patient coordinator that is your go-to person, but if, for example, I’m that person, and I’m not at the clinic, and you have any questions, one of my colleagues will answer that for you or they will call you and help you with anything you need.

It has been studied with different organizations that COVID-19 is not found in eggs, or sperm samples, so we don’t ask for the test unless we want to do the embryo transfer to a patient because we don’t want a patient that is going to be pregnant to have any temperature because that may not be really safe for the baby, but that’s not because of the COVID-19. It’s because of the temperature, so we don’t want that, and that’s the reason why we prefer doing the test before that moment.

As you’ve already written, it is changing every day, and for now, we don’t need a quarantine. You just come here, and there are no restrictions on going to Spain and travel between the cities, so, for now, it’s not demanded. We will see how this develops, but for now, it is okay to come.

There are so many things that can impact this kind of problem, and that also helps patients with going ahead with IVF treatments. Food and vitamins and the hormone levels, all of that can be really important, so of course, we will recommend doing some kind of changes in your diet or maybe in your daily life.

As I said, I’m not a doctor. What I can say is that in sperm samples and women’s eggs there is no possibility to have COVID-19 in those aspects as of now. That’s why we are studying it daily, and all the news about this virus that we have. We will see, but for now, that’s all that I can say, we need to wait for some more evidence.