Fertility clinic - Institut MarquèsBefore the first appointment
Institut Marquès: Assisted Reproduction Reference Centre
Here you will find interesting information on technical and practical aspects before your first visit.
INFERTILITY OR STERILITY?
Mistakenly, in common parlance, the terms infertility and sterility are sometimes used as synonyms, but they are different concepts. Infertility is the inability to conceive a child, i.e. to fertilise. Infertility, on the other hand, is the inability to carry a pregnancy to term, for example in the case of repeated miscarriages. When a couple fails to become pregnant after a year of unprotected sex, either the man or the woman may have fertility problems.
ASSISTED REPRODUCTION
Assisted Reproduction can be carried out using different treatments; the choice of the most appropriate one will be determined according to the problems and the case of each couple.
Artificial Insemination
Artificial insemination consists of inducing multiple ovulation by means of hormonal drugs. The aim of the treatment is to develop 1 to 4 follicles to full maturity.
In-Vitro Fertilization
In Vitro Fertilisation involves fertilising an egg with a sperm in the laboratory and then transferring the embryo(s) (maximum two embryos).
ROPA Method
Both women are actively involved in the process of conceiving their baby by being its biological mothers: the first as the genetic mother and the second as the gestational mother.
Egg freezing
This is a new assisted reproduction technique that allows a woman’s eggs to be frozen so that they can be used when she decides to become a mother.
Embryo Adoption
Embryo adoption is the process of undergoing an Assisted Reproduction treatment to get pregnant with embryos that have been left unassigned by their biological parents.
THE EMBRYO ADOPTION PROGRAMME
Embryo adoption on the rise
More and more patients are coming to our centre to adopt embryos. This increase allowed us to reach the 1000th birth with this method in May 2017.
Frozen embryos: how do they live?
They live in compartmented tanks in which siblings are placed together in plastic tanks.
The fate of frozen embryos
Despite a law that allows all destination options, only 13.3% of people decide on their destination.
Fresh or frozen embryos
Pregnancy rates per transfer were the same with fresh and frozen embryos.
THE IVF PROCESS
After the embryo transfer you do not need to rest, nor do you need to rest for the next few days. Surprisingly, this is the case, and you should avoid creating stress by thinking about the rest you would like to take.
MALE FACTOR
When the time comes to give the sperm sample for IVF, the man is usually nervous, hypersensitive to the responsibility of doing it right. The amount of semen (volume of ejaculate), the quality of the semen and the level of orgasm depend on the degree of sexual arousal previously achieved. Once the sample is obtained, our biologists select the best sperm for fertilisation.
A good level of arousal improves the quality of the sperm and that is why we have incorporated different methods of stimulation with Virtual Reality adult films and vagina and anus shaped masturbators: the Erotic Personal System.
The male factor (male infertility) is associated with more than 50% of cases of marital infertility, in 30% of cases it is solely responsible, and in the remaining 20% it is associated with a female factor.
DONORS
Egg and sperm donors
We have our own egg bank and our own premium sperm bank with all phenotypes. The doctor chooses the best donor for each patient.
Personality Matching
We select the donors who most closely resemble you: we carry out the matching between patients and donors in a meticulous and totally personalised manner.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
Institut Marquès is consolidated in the world’s elite of the best Assisted Reproduction centres offering a technical level of excellence in its facilities, but above all in its laboratories; being able to offer the latest technology available for the improvement of all processes.
Embryoscope
It is an incubator that maintains the physiological conditions required by the in vitro embryo with a special feature: it incorporates a camera that continuously captures images of embryonic development. It is like the “Embryo’s Big Brother“.
Embryomobile
This is a totally innovative application from Institut Marquès that allows patients to see, via their mobile phone, the evolution of their embryos in the embryoscope, in real time and 24 hours a day.
Genetic compatibility test
Check whether you or your partner is a carrier of a hereditary disease before starting your Assisted Reproduction treatment.
Microsurgical fragment removal
It is a multidisciplinary science that aims to promote the birth of children free of chromosomal alterations or inherited diseases.
Preimplantation Genetic Test (PGT)
Previously known as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), it allows us to select chromosomally normal embryos and thus increase the chances of pregnancy at the time of transfer.
HOW TO INCREASE THE SUCCESS RATE OF A TREATMENT?
Hereditary diseases
Scientists have now developed genetic tests that make it possible to find out which hereditary diseases we are carriers of.
We keep on with your genetics
The risk of contracting almost all diseases is given by genetic predisposition and also by environment, and it is very interesting to see how this proportion varies for each disease.
How can you improve your chances of pregnancy?
There are now additional techniques that can increase the pregnancy rate during treatment.
Prices for Assisted Reproduction Centres
According to a study on the cost of having a child through assisted reproduction treatment, Institut Marquès is the best placed.
IVF LABORATORY
The IVF laboratory is a giant uterus
Our IVF laboratory is like a giant uterus. We reproduce the same conditions as those found in the womb to promote the development of the embryo: the same temperature, the same light and an absolutely sterile atmosphere. The embryos “feel at home”.
We have made the embryos dance
Since we discovered that musical vibrations improve the fertilisation rate, we have systematically integrated them into all our incubators. At Institut Marquès, we have made embryos dance!
Under natural conditions, oocytes and embryos travel through the fallopian tubes towards the uterus under conditions of continuous peristaltic movements that serve to move them, but also to surround them with the nutrients they need and to remove their metabolic waste.
These cell movements facilitate the exchange of substances, but in the laboratory they remain static in the culture media and, as a result, the toxic products they release – free radicals or ammonium – are stored in the culture medium itself.
Micro-vibrations stir the culture medium in which the oocyte is immersed, producing a more homogeneous distribution of the nutrients it needs and dispersing the toxic products, avoiding their accumulation.
Music is also present in all the laboratories of the Institut Marquès, including live concerts. Artists from all over the world, such as the singer Sharon Corr, Álex Ubago or Antonio Orozco, have performed for the embryos in these centres.