News

LWC wins g3 Reader’s Award for Gay Initiative of the Year

The London Women's Clinic has won the g3 Reader's Award for Gay Initiative of the Year.  The awards, voted for by lesbian and bisexual women readers of g3 magazine, vary in category from bars and clubs to websites, travel and charities.

To view the list of winners and full article about the awards visit g3 magazine

Latest news from the LWC Wales Laboratory

Electronic Witnessing and Sample Tracking

LWC Swansea and Cardiff give you peace of mind by using the latest in technology to eliminate human error in sample identification.  All your tubes and dishes are labelled with an electronic tag which eliminates sample identification errors and mix ups.  It tracks your sperm, eggs and embryos throughout your entire IVF procedure and generates a report at the end of your cycle.  The report includes the date, time and embryologist who performed each procedure.  The technology does not allow different patient samples in the work area meaning peace of mind for you.

Embryo Glue

LWC Swansea and Cardiff are now routinely using Embryo Glue to help implantation of your embryos.  The "Glue" is used during embryo transfer and works by promoting implantation by containing a high concentration of hyaluronon and recombinant albumin molecules normally found in the fallopian tubes and uterus at the time of implantation.  

At a recent conference in Sweden, a prospective randomized study showed a significant increase in the take home baby rate.  An independent stufy group, the Cochrane Collaboration, have published a meta-analysis looking at 13 good quality studies.  They have stated that there is clear benefit to embryo development in embryos grown in medium containing hyaluronon.

For more information on Embryo Glue please click here

The Two Week Wait: A new fiction book exploring egg-sharing

In a new novel, The Two Week Wait brings to life the highs and lows of fertility treatment and the altruistic nature and emotions behind egg-sharing. The author, Sarah Rayner, hopes to raise awareness of egg-sharing in her new novel out in early 2012, a sequel to her best selling book "One Moment, One Morning":

After a health scare, Lou is forced to consider that the time to have a family is running out.  The problem is that even though her eggs are viable, she doesn't have enough money for the necessary fertility treatment.

Meanwhile, up in Yorkshire, Cath who is a little older than Lou, is longing to start her own family with her husband, Rich.  But she's recovering from cancer, and as a result of chemotherapy is infertile.  

Lou and Cath, brought together by a fertility clinic, end up egg-sharing - a process where a woman who has good eggs can donate them to another woman who needs them, in return for free IVF.  As both women simultaneously try to conceive, with the same woman's eggs, the novel follows their parallel journeys to have a child - and as the foetuses grow, so does the novel. 

Find out more about The Two Week Wait and the author Sarah Rayner

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: why the HFEA should leave the gamete donation process alone

Dr Kamal Ahuja, the LWC's Scientific and Managing Director, comments on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's public consultation and review of gamete donation in the UK. 

Article from Bio News

The perfect man to father your child?

He's 25, handsome and a vet.  If you want to have his children look him up at the sperm clinic.

Featuring the London Sperm Bank

Article from The Times

The Alternative Families Show 2011: Another great success

With over 40 exhibition stands and 20 seminars this year, The Alternative Families Show at the Grand Connaught Rooms on 17th September was another great success.  As headline sponsors the London Women's Clinic featured three exhibition stands at the show and a wide programme of seminars for over 3,000 visitors.

The London Women's Clinic was once again privileged to be the headline sponsor of the Alternative Families Show 2011.  Fertility for "alternative" families continues to be a special interest of ours, with new treatment developments in 2011 allowing us to meet even better the needs of same-sex couples and single women.

At the Alternative Families Show 2011 we spoke of the shortage of sperm donors in the UK.  This had left thousands of women denied the chance of conception, or with the only option of travelling overseas for treatment. It was thus a great pleasure for us to launch at the Alternative Families Show 2011 a new website, londonspermbankdonors.com, which lists more than 100 sperm donors who are available online for search and selection for treatment at our dedicated London Women's Clinic centres.  Both Toyin Jegede's seminar and the London Sperm Bank exhibition stand were well received with hundreds of women queuing up to view the catalogue on the big screen available.

The LWC's two INSEMINAR events were both full of women listening to Zeynep Gurtin-Broadbent from the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge talk about her recent egg-sharing study.  The three LWC exhibition stands proved to be popular with visitors taking advantage of the medical staff available to talk about various treatment options.  Staff from all four LWC centres were available to discuss treatment across the UK.  

Also at the show were the British Surrogacy Centre which proved very popular among the male gay visitors; Stonewall, who provided useful information to gay parents to be; and a number of law firms including a seminar by Natalie Gamble regarding the legal aspects surrounding alternative families.

Next year's show, to be known as the Alternative Parenting Show, will take place on Saturday 15th September 2012 at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden. 

For more information please visit www.alternativefamiliesshow.com 

The family, but not as we knew it

A new show celebrates single, adoptive, gay and blended families, we meet the parents

Article from The Times

The London Women's Clinic are the headline sponsors of the Alternative Families Show 2011.  For more information visit their website www.alternativefamiliesshow.com 

New top embryologist at LWC Wales

The London Women's Clinic Wales have a new embryologist, Mr Peter Sprober.  Peter has left the Kaali Institue in Szeged, Hungary to join the team in Wales.

LWC Wales sponsors Cardiff Mardi Gras

The London Women's Clinic Wales is proud to be sponsoring Cardiff Mardi Gras for a second year.  The event is taking place on Saturday 3rd September in Coopers Field. For more information visit their website http://cardiffmardigras.co.uk/

Sperm sample, GSOH, softly spoken, would like to make a baby

British sperm bank is set to launch a catalogue listing the attributes of donors in an attempt to give couples more information.

Article from The Times

LWC nominated as shortlist finalist for European Diversity Awards

The London Women's Clinic has reached the final shortlist of the European Diversity Awards, a competitive programme set up this year to recognise those organisations and individuals who have shown innovation, creativity and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion during 2011.  The awards thus recognise excellence in the areas of gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, age, culture and religion across Europe.

The LWC's nomination recognised that for many years the clinic has championed fertility treatment for same-sex couples and single women.  Treatment has always been offered and undertaken without distinction or discrimination, often in the face of hostile public opinion and restrictive legislation.  Today, thanks in no small part to the pioneering efforts of the LWC, fertility treatment for single and lesbian women is fully intergrated into the legislation of the Human Fertilisation Act and widely accepted by the public.

The short lists for the awards have been launched by Time Out

LWC Wales launches Low Cost Price Packages

The London Women's Clinic Wales have launched new low cost price packages to make treatment available, affordable and accessible to the entire community of patients.  Packages include IVF Lite, 3 cycle IVF and IUI and of course egg-sharing in which the egg-sharer received FREE IVF treatment.  To find out more please contact LWC Wales.

LWC Wales sponsors the Iris Film Festival

The London Women's Clinic Wales are delighted to be joining the Iris film family! The clinic will be sponsoring a new award for acting at The Iris Prize Film Festival 2011.  The Iris Prize is the only LGBT short film prize in the world which allows the winner to make their own film.  For more details on the Iris festival and to get involved, visit their website http://www.irisprize.org/index.html

LWC Wales launch ‘IVF Lite’

The LWC Wales has seen a fantastic response to its launch of IVF Lite early in 2011.  IVF Lite, a milder form of IVF uses a lower dose medication as a fixed price package.  The package includes medication, HFEA license fee, ICSI, Blastocyst, Assisted hatching and Embryo freezing at a cost of £3,354.  IVF Lite offers a low cost, low risk treatment with great success rates!

My father, donor 150

JoEllen Marsh always wondered about her biological father - a sperm donor.  Was he famous? A tycoon? After turning 18, she found out

Article from The Guardian

Sex with a sperm donor - the latest “fertility” treatment

How far would you go to have a baby? Despite the risks, single women are bypassing clinics and seeking donors online.

Article from The Times

Banking on the Future

A pioneering scheme to store tissue from breast cancer patients could give research a vital boost and save thousands of lives. 

Article from The Times

Fertile Ground for Abolition

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is set to close.  Will IVF patients suffer as a result?

Article from The Times

LWC gains National Quality Accreditation

The London Women’s Clinic (LWC) and London Sperm Bank (LSB) are proud to announce they have achieved the ISO 9001:2008 accreditation through British Standards Institution (BSI), a world authority of management systems.

This significant stamp of approval shows that the systems and processes in place, are dedicated to improving the patient experience. This means that patients will benefit from a high standard of quality and care throughout all of the LWC clinics and the LSB.

The accreditation took months of hard work and dedication by the teams in London, Cardiff, Swansea and Darlington to ensure best practice was met and that all processes are geared towards improving both customer experience and organisational effectiveness. The LWC and LSB will continue to work on maintaining this accreditation through continuous review and optimisation of processes and systems.

The ISO 9001:2008 awarded by BSI is a significant achievement, with few other clinics holding this accreditation.

Are you my sister?

This woman had 15 half-siblings she had never met.  The Sunday Times explores the new rules that allow donor-conceived children to trace their brothers and sisters.

Article from The Sunday Times