More and more couples are seeing their dream of having a child come true with assisted reproduction methods. In addition, the number of couples from abroad traveling to Thessaloniki for this purpose is also increasing.

The recent scientific developments in this field were the focus of a Scientific conference on “2023… Goals and challenges in Assisted Reproduction” organized by the Medically Assisted Reproduction Unit FIVI.

The president of the National Authority of Medically Assisted Reproduction, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Medical School of the Greek University of Athens, Nikolaos Vrachnis, referred to the changes since the passing of Law 4958 on assisted reproduction. As he said, there are changes in the social cryopreservation of women’s schedules and now the specific procedure can be done for other reasons besides medical ones.

“Every woman can cryopreserve her genetic material and use it later. Women aged 33-35 who will proceed with this procedure will have an 80% chance of having a child. For women aged 40, the chances drop to 25% and for those over 45, the chance of having a child is almost 0%”, he said.

He even pointed out that the solar limit for assisted reproduction has been increased from 50 to 54 years, which means that a woman can have a child until the age of 54.

Moreover, he added that, as far as the genetic material is concerned, now the donor can also be named, that is, the parents can know the donor. In fact, it is possible for relatives to be able to give genetic material to a couple, if they so wish, as noted by Mr. Vrachnis.

Georgios Pantos, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, AUTH, president of the Hellenic Society of Fertility, Sterility, referred to the importance of assisted reproduction but also to its leaps and bounds.

“Today, with the liberal legislative framework in place, Greece is an attractive destination for IVF. We can apply all the new methods such as blastocyst transfer for quality transferred hours, carrying out screening in women over 40 years old. These combined with the fact that it has been proven that the transfer of an embryo is accompanied by excellent results. Life starts here, at FIVI,” said Mr. Pantos, pointing out that it is very important that women have the possibility to preserve their fertility.

He also emphasized that our country has everything that makes it an ideal destination that is chosen by more and more couples who wish to become parents.

“Greece is a model and attractive destination for IVF. We have scientific staff, managerial staff, there is a logistical infrastructure and therefore we can apply all methods of assisted reproduction”, he noted.

For his part, the professor of Obstetrics – Gynecology and Assisted Reproduction of AUTH, Stratis Kolymbianakis, underlined the importance of pre-implantation diagnosis, where by examining some cells it can be diagnosed if the embryo is healthy.

“One of the most important things is how we will manage to transfer to the uterus of women in order to achieve pregnancy chromosomally normal embryos, that is, free of abnormalities in the genetic material. If we don’t do this, then the woman won’t get pregnant or will end up having a pregnancy that will lead to miscarriage. Pre-implantation diagnosis is nothing more than the examination of a small number of cells from an embryo, in order to establish that these cells are normal, therefore the embryo from which they come is a normal embryo” he noted, stressing, however, that the legislation in our country it does not allow women under forty years of age, which they are trying to change.