A country-by-country review of policies and funding in ART finds that only four of 43 countries surveyed are rated as ‘excellent’ according to a nine-point list of treatment criteria; Fertility Europe and the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights call for a ‘game-changing’ shift in policies.

A wide-ranging ESHRE Campus workshop organised by the SIGs Andrology and Reproductive Genetics looked at current and emerging approaches for the characterisation of various causes of male infertility, including tests in the genetics of idiopathic conditions, chromosomal anomalies – notably Klinefelter syndrome – and new molecular methods for investigation.

A September ESHRE Campus workshop organised by the SIGs Fertility Preservation and Stem Cells featured current and emerging approaches for fertility preservation, including oocyte in vitro maturation, cell therapy, reproductive tissue engineering and organ-on-chip approaches. Mina Popovic and Christiani Amorim from the SIG Stem Cells report from the two-day programme.

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 Campus workshop on the long-term impact of ART on the physical and psycho-social well-being of patients and children conceived through ART was held online in December; updates, from different perspectives, were largely reassuring.

New guideline presents evidence on assisted reproduction in cases of six prevalent viruses - Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV), HIV, Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV I/II), Zika and HPV – with recommendations on virus transmission and prevention, and on factors affecting reproductive outcomes in couples with or without fertility problems.

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.

ESHRE took part in the annual meeting of the UK’s Progress Educational Trust, publisher of the internationally read BioNews (www.bionews.org.uk). The ESHRE-sponsored and presented session was one of four on the meeting’s theme of regulation in fertility.

Findings from the first analysis of ESHRE’s registry of COVID-19-affected ART pregnancies ‘offer reassurance’ that outcomes are similar to those found in spontaneous pregnancies.

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.