A reluctance to be vaccinated against COVID-19 persists in some population groups, raising fears of infection among pregnant women. Yet the evidence in favour of the vaccines’ safety and efficacy continues to grow.

Almost four years after ESHRE and Alpha Scientists reported their indicators for laboratory performance in ART, a new consensus has now been published by an ESHRE working group on indicators of clinical performance in ART.

New legislation in France will provide fertility treatment to single women and same-sex couples, making it free under the country's national health insurance system; fertility preservation for non-medical personal reasons is also allowed.

A survey of more than 1500 IVF patients in Australia has found that most had used adjunct treatments alongside their standard treatment – and usually at additional cost.

A retrospective study of almost 10,000 ICSI cycles from the Italian national registry suggests that fertilisation rate may predict cumulative LBR as strongly as female age or the number of eggs retrieved.

The latest impact factors, calculated for 2020 and released at the end of June, find Human Reproduction Update once again leading by far the categories of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, while Human Reproduction and Molecular Human Reproduction both make further gains.

Consensus from a lively coffee-break at the Annual Meeting concluded that abnormally fertilized oocytes can be rescued for clinical use and result in healthy live births. Efthymia Constantinou, Junior Deputy from the SIG Reproductive Genetics, reports.

An algorithm for selection of ICSI sperm by computer vision firstly confirms that a sperm cell’s motility and morphology reflect its DNA fragmentation, and further suggests that selecting sperm quantitatively may mitigate the risk of DNA fragmentation.

With the slides produced a few days in advance of this Annual Assembly of Members, the Society’s Chair, Cristina Magli, in presenting ESHRE’s 2021 report via a live link was able to update members on registrations for the annual meeting, which stood at 9244 for the main programme and 3021 for the precongress courses. The Chair said she was ‘absolutely happy’ with these registrations and expressed her gratitude to all who had made the meeting possible.

With fertility rates in most developed countries now at their lowest ever level, one Thursday presentation at this meeting asked what many are thinking: can ART compensate for these declining fertility rates and the continued postponement of childbearing.