The register of oocytes and sperm donors in Spain has started. Since the first law on Assisted Reproduction, 29 years ago, that declared the need for its existence, until today, there have been multiple projects that show the difficulty of its implementation.
Finally, in October 2017, at the Annual Meeting on the National Registry of the Spanish Fertility Society (SEF) on activity of Assisted Reproduction, which was held in the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, the General Deputy Director of NHS Services Portfolio and Compensation Funds, announced the launch of the Donor Registry, called the Information System of Assisted Human Reproduction (SIRHA).
This system will be implemented in Assisted Reproduction clinics for the registry and control of donors of gametes (sperm and oocytes) in all Spain. Socio demographic data as well as results of cycles carried out by these donors will be collected. This will allow to have global donor information, since up till now these data was hold exclusively by the clinics.
In addition, it was reported that this information system is intended to be extended to all future Assisted Reproduction cycles.
This ambitious project will require the effort of the clinics and the Ministry, but it will provide transparency and an extraordinary database to have precise information on Assisted Reproduction techniques and results in our country, which is a European leader in Assisted Reproduction.
At this annual meeting, is was also presented the work done by the members of the Committee of the Registry, which, together with the Ministry of Health, are responsible for collecting, audit, analyze and publish data concerning all cycles of Assisted Human Reproduction from across Spain.
There were talks about organizational updates of the registry, there were guidelines to fill it properly, and a review of all data collected from the last year´s results. In addition, Isabel Pons, Head of the IVF laboratory in URH Garcia del Real and member of the Registry Committee, gave a talk where she evaluated how the increasingly used “Freeze all” strategy affects the results of IVF with own oocytes, reception of donor oocytes and Preimplantation Genetic diagnosis (PGD) cycles. This protocol consists in freezing all evolutionary embryos to transfer them in a Frozen embryo transfer cycle.
It was a very interesting meeting which showed the importance of data collection, cycle by cycle, and the commitment of the Ministry to the traceability of Assisted Reproduction Treatments.
