Spain

Most people as­so­ciate Spain with va­ca­tion and sun. Ho­wever, the country does not only at­tract va­ca­tio­ners — Spain has, among other things, the most com­pre­hen­sive re­pro­duc­tive me­di­cine offer in Eu­rope.

Ac­cor­ding to the Eu­ro­pean So­ciety of Human Re­pro­duc­tion and Em­bryo­logy (ESHRE), just over 120,000 IVF tre­at­ment cy­cles took place in Spain in 2015 [1].

This makes Spain the clear leader in Eu­rope, fol­lowed by Russia (110,000 cy­cles), Ger­many (97,000 cy­cles), and France (94,000 cy­cles) [1]. There are more than 180 fer­ti­lity cen­ters th­roug­hout Spain, and this number is con­ti­nuously in­cre­asing [2]. Among these, the ma­jo­rity of cli­nics are of me­dium to large size with ap­pro­xi­m­ately 200 — 1,000 cy­cles per­formed per year [3]. Most of the tre­at­ments are ICSI pro­ce­dures — which is about 10 times as many as IVF pro­ce­dures [3].

Ac­cor­ding to a 2015 study, around 25% of Ger­mans who opt for in­fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment ab­road choose Spain as their de­sti­na­tion. But what makes the country so po­pular?
The study re­sults sug­gest that Spain is par­ti­cu­larly high-de­mand de­sti­na­tion due to its li­beral le­gis­la­tion which al­lows the country to offer many tre­at­ment op­tions. In ad­di­tion to he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples, Spain is espe­ci­ally po­pular with les­bian cou­ples and sin­gles. Among other things, Spain also of­fers shared mo­ther­hood (so-called ROPA me­thod) for les­bian cou­ples, as well as the la­test me­thods in the field of pre­implan­ta­tion ge­netic dia­gnosis (PGD/PID).

In order to fulfil your de­sire to have a child, you should choose a fer­ti­lity clinic that meets your spe­cific re­qui­re­ments and im­portantly where you feel com­for­table. When choo­sing a clinic, there are a number of aspects to con­sider to en­sure that the the­rapy goes as smoothly as pos­sible. The suc­cess of a the­rapy de­pends on va­rious fac­tors. Both the ex­pe­ri­ence and qua­li­fi­ca­tions of the me­dical team and the tech­no­lo­gical status of the la­bo­ra­tory equip­ment (for ex­ample, whe­ther the clinic has a clean room la­bo­ra­tory) can have an im­pact on the suc­cess rate.

In ad­di­tion to the suc­cess rate, there are other is­sues that can be de­cisive in the sel­ec­tion pro­cess. Good coun­sel­ling on the choice of the­rapy, as well as per­sonal care and the avai­la­bi­lity of the doctor can help en­sure all your ques­tions and con­cerns are ans­wered. Hea­ring from the ex­pe­ri­ences of pre­vious pa­ti­ents can also give an in­di­ca­tion of the qua­lity or short­co­mings of a prac­tice, this can also pro­vide a level of con­fi­dence du­ring the clinic sel­ec­tion pro­cess.

An­o­ther aspect to con­sider are the costs. To avoid sur­prises, fer­ti­lity cen­tres that main­tain a high de­gree of price trans­pa­rency are re­com­mended. In the case of tre­at­ments with donor sperm, en­sure that there is a co­ope­ra­tion bet­ween the clinic and an ex­pe­ri­enced sperm bank, as they often offer a larger sel­ec­tion of donor pro­files and have many years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the field of sperm do­na­tion.

When sel­ec­ting our partner cli­nics, we al­ways make sure that both he­te­ro­se­xual and ho­mo­se­xual cou­ples, as well as single women are treated.
Are you strugg­ling to find a fer­ti­lity center that is right for you or do you have ques­tions about available the­ra­pies and tre­at­ment me­thods? Our fri­endly team are happy to help you in a free con­sul­ta­tion.

Sources:

1. Künst­liche Be­fruch­tung: Acht Mil­lionen Babys in 40 Jahren. Phar­ma­zeu­ti­sche Zei­tung  (2018) ‑https://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/2018–07/kuenstliche-befruchtung-acht-millionen-babys-in-40-jahren/
2. Com­pa­ra­tive Ana­lysis of Me­di­cally As­sisted Re­pro­duc­tion in the EU: Re­gu­la­tio­nand Tech­no­lo­gies. ESHRE (2008) — https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/blood_tissues_organs/docs/study_eshre_en.pdf
3. Human Re­pro­duc­tion. Sup­ple­men­tary Data (2016)4. Fer­ti­lity Re­port Eu­rope. Eu­ro­pean Market Land­scape (2015)