First mission at the Pentecost Fertility Center

Recently, from November 18th till November 30th, an international Walking Egg expert team was at the Pentecost Fertility Centre, Accra, Ghana where a first cohort of about 20 patients was treated with the simplified TWE-IVF-method. Prof. Jonathan Van Blerkom, Prof. Willem Ombelet, Prof. Hassan Sallam, Dr. Nathalie Dhont and embryologist Mrs. Brigitte Vandamme, guided the local team through the different stages of the IVF-treatment. In the weeks before the team’s arrival, a day-by-day screening of the patients was done and all of the patient files were carefully scanned and sent to Belgium. A low-cost ovarian stimulation scheme with Tamoxiphene was used to prepare the women. Despite very good results in London and Copenhagen with the same stimulation protocol there was a very poor response to this medication for a (so far) unknown reason. The fertilization rate of the collected eggs was excellent (more than 90 %). However, at the end, it didn’t result in pregnancies. Needless to write that both for the Ghanaian team and the Belgian team this was very disappointing, despite the accurate preparation. The Walking Egg team wishes also to express its appreciation for the fantastic work that has been done by the Ghanaian team. The dedication of this team was exemplary and confirms once again that the choice for a corporation with this team was the right one. The Pentecost Fertility Centre may be considered as a high standard center where the simplified IVF-technique can be applied in the best possible conditions. During the next few weeks we will try to find out what went wrong and how we can increase our success rate at affordable prices. Whilst research is done on the causes of the current situation, a new mission to Ghana is being prepared within a very short delay: all patients will get a free new treatment.