Fertility Research & Development

All our clinics invest a percentage of their income in the IVI Foundation, which manages our research activity. The Foundation aims are to improve the results of current assisted reproduction treatment by developing new techniques and minimising the adverse effects of treatment. 

Our investment in global research has enabled us to improve significantly the techniques we offer and increase success rates in IVI clinics year on year. 

We have received some of the most prestigious awards in the profession, given by highly respected organisations such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Gynaecological Investigation, and the Jaume I Award in Clinical Medicine.

In 2016, four of our doctors were among the top six researchers in Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology in the world, according to h-Index

Our research has allowed us to offer the option of parenthood to people who would otherwise have been denied it. Some of the key innovations at IVI that have helped our patients are:

• 1996: The first babies in the world are born from frozen semen obtained from the testicular tissue of their fathers.
• 1997: The embryo co-culture technique – in vitro cultivation of embryos with maternal cells – is developed, giving better embryo quality and increased pregnancy rates for fertility treatment.
• 2002: For the first time in Spain, and thanks to preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a healthy baby is born to parents who are carriers of cystic fibrosis.
• 2003: The first child is born to a couple in which the father has the HIV and the mother does not. The baby girl was born free of the virus after the father’s semen underwent sperm-washing before in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
• 2005: We introduce egg vitrification in Europe.
• 2006: For the first time in the world, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is diagnosed in embryos where the parents are carriers of this condition, enabling them to have a healthy pregnancy. 2006 IVI achieves the first pregnancies using vitrification in Europe.
• 2007: IVI’s andrologists develop a technique for diagnosing male infertility using semen biochips, and the first babies in the world are born using vitrification of both egg and embryo.
• 2009: IVI Valencia’s Dr Peset is the first doctor in the world to successfully implant ovarian tissue and oocytes.
• 2012: Research that discovers two new biomarkers involved in embryo implantation is selected for the ASRM scientific award.
• 2014: IVI develops a new genetic test (the CGT) to avoid the transmission of 600 different genetic diseases.
• 2015: IVI demonstrates that the molecules secreted in the uterus can modify the genetic information of the future child, even in case of donated eggs or surrogacy.
• 2016: Birth of the first baby using the new Anevivo device at IVI.