A FERTILITY clinic is appealing for egg and sperm donors as it celebrates almost four decades in operation this week and formally becomes part of NHS Grampian.
While colleagues from the NHS and University of Aberdeen have worked in partnership for many years at the Aberdeen Fertility Centre, the move will bring the centre in line with Scotland’s other fertility centres.
The centre aims to be recognised as the best in Scotland for patient outcomes by the time it moves into its new home as part of the Baird Family Hospital in 2024.
Founded primarily as a research facility in 1985, its role is as a provider of clinical services to NHS Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and self-funding patients.
Director of the facility, Professor Abha Maheshwari, said: “We are here to provide the best possible treatment we can and support the creation of families. We have an excellent team who are always willing to go that extra mile to support your journey.
“Every healthy live birth is a huge achievement for us. In some cases, people undergoing fertility treatment cannot use their own sperm or eggs but need help to start a family using eggs or sperm donated by others.
“Donation has the power to give the gift of becoming parents to those who need help to conceive. I would urge anyone who is interested to learn more about donating eggs or sperm to get in touch.”
The team at Aberdeen Fertility Centre helped the first Scottish baby to be born following egg donation in 1993 and the first after surgical sperm retrieval in 1996. Since then they have innovated on diagnostic semen analysis and recently led a trial evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of freezing all embryos.
Adam Coldwells, director of strategy and deputy chief executive of NHS Grampian added: “Our strong partnership with the University will continue as we bring the facility under the NHS Grampian umbrella.”
