The thirty-eighth European congress of the society of human and assisted reproduction 2022 is back in attendance after two years and is a triumph for Italy. Not only for the chosen site – Milan – but for the scientific contribution. The inaugural reading – dedicated to the most read article in the Eshre newspaper of the previous year – is Italian and is dedicated to the quality of spermatozoa in men recovered from severe Covid. The largest assisted procreation centers are Italian (and Spanish) (GeneraLife in Italy, Ivi and Eugin the Spaniards with offices also in Italy).
Chi sono i young ambassadors
And three of the five Eshre young ambassadors are Italians, young people under the age of 35 to whom the European congress that gathers in Milan over 7000 assisted procreation operators from all over the world – in reality it is the only world congress dedicated to assisted reproduction – delegates the role of “explorers” of the novelties presented in Milan: Attilio Anastasi, Irene Gazzo and Tullia Penna (with the German Rebekka Einenkel and the Indian Prateek Makwana).
Attilio, from Wiesbaden to Ferrara
Three young people who trained in Italy and Europe, in different fields that this year the Eshre has decided to reward by focusing on multidisciplinarity. Attilio Anastasi, 34 years old from Caserta, is the oldest of the three, 34 years old. “I entered Eshre 5 just in time – he admits laughing – and I’m delighted”. Married, two lilies both born in 2020, one in January and the other in December, a Golden retriever considered the first daughter, Attilio graduated in Embryology at the Second University of Naples, specialized in Teramo, then at Sant’Anna in Rome and finally five years in Germany, in Wiesbaden. Finally he returned to Italy in Bologna, and then won the competition in Ferrara where he works at the Center for Physiopathology of Human Reproduction of the Delta Hospital – AUSL in Ferrara with the role of Laboratory Supervisor and Head of Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis.
A public reference center for pre-implantation analyzes
“Our Center – he says – is one of the very few Public Centers to offer the pre-implantation genetic diagnosis service in its entirety (PGT-M, PGT-SR, PGT-A) and is increasingly establishing itself as a point of reference In particular, PGT-A is a test that is used to identify aneuploidies, as do villus centesis and amniocentesis and is therefore indicated in cases of advanced maternal age, let’s say over 38 years “.
It does not increase the pregnancy rate, but the speed at which it is achieved
The age of the patients in our center is on average 39.5 years, and we have many of them at 44. It is an exam that we insistently propose over the age of 40, it does not increase the pregnancy rate but certainly reduces the time to get pregnant because it allows us to identify and transfer only the healthy embryo. Avoiding failures and abandonment of the path. Some women refuse the examination, which is invasive because it is a biopsy of the embryo cells, but in expert hands the risk is very low “.
Irene, who loves her Genoa
Irene Gazzo, 29, is nailed to her Genoa where she graduated in Medicine, coming into contact with the world of Assisted Reproduction working in the field of Fertility Medicine, for the preservation of fertility in cancer patients, with lupus or multiple sclerosis. For three months, and for the next six, she has been working in the Reproductive Medicine center of the San Martino university hospital in her city. “It is nice to be in the delivery room – he specifies – but taking care of Pma is my dream”. This year is her first Eshre. “And I got off to a great start – she admits – I almost didn’t believe I was selected for the Eshre 5 ambassadors. And next year in Copenhagen they will give all joung ambassadors the opportunity to participate for free, so see you in Denmark in 2023”.
And Tullia, from Turin to Paris and back
She is 31 years old, and a black cat named killer, Tullia Penna from Turin, graduated in Philodophy of law. “It is my third Eshre and every time I ask myself” What am I doing here? “And the answer is that the Eshre looks ahead, and a philosopher who has also studied Medicine and has written a book on PMA and the donation of gametes and gestation for others has an important place here: and it is a place where we talk about bioethics, anonymity in the donation of gametes, about problems that the PMA poses and that legislation does not solve “. Tullia Penna graduated in Turin, at the University’s Fernando Rossi High School, then two years in France. Here in Milan, with the other joung ambassadors, you tweet incessantly about polls, studies, comments. But also with advice for other congressmen. And yesterday Anastasi even tweeted the recipe for the real Negroni, with the bar where to taste it: a shower of likes, from foreign delegates.