INFORMED CONSENT

Informed consent is essential in any area of medicine and particularly in Assisted Reproductive Medicine where many stages or invasive procedures might be involved - this inevitably means that difficult decisions/choices might  need to be made.  This section will in the near future feature samples of consent forms from around the world. Examples of stages where either separate or integral consents will be require are:

• Initial screening for hormone activity
• Investigative procedures such as laparoscopy, hysterosalphingograms to determine tubal patency
• Semen analysis
• Stimulation with drugs and hormones
• Egg pickup/recovery
• Fertilisation which might involve donor sperm or donor eggs
• Embryo transfer at an early stage (2-3 days) or at a later blastocyst stage

Additional procedures may be indicated:

• Sperm retrieval by PESA, TESA, TESE etc. where sperm is not present in sufficient numbers for conventional IVF or ICSI
• Microinjection - ICSI
• Pre implantation genetic diagnosis and screening
• Cryopreservation of embryos, eggs or sperm
• Laser techniques - assisted hatching, pre-implantation biopsy, sperm immobilization