But this is not enough when you consider the percentage of couples who cannot have children. We should be striving for about 4 to 6 percent. Johannes Evers, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Academic Hospital in Maastrict, the Netherlands, added that the scale of the problem is often ignored. But as many as one in five couples in Europe present to their GP with infertility clinics.
Infertility is a relatively large problem, and it is increasing.
However, widening the availability of IVF depends on adequate supplies of the necessary hormonal therapies. The only way that we can meet this demand adequately and safely is by relying on the manufacture of gonadotrophins by recombinant DNA technology. Recombinant FSH gives us a preparation free of other hormones, urine proteins and bacteria and viral contamination. And it allows us to produce a pure preparation on an industrial scale. But both he and Professor Edwards pointed out that many further challenges lay ahead.