Exclusive Clinic Interview with dr. Visnova, IVF CUBE (Czech Republic)

CUBE IVF Prague, infertility centre from the Czech Republic was opened in 2011. EggDonationFriends have interviewed Dr. Hana Visnova, who is a medical director and owner of IVF CUBE. Dr. Visnova has more than 17 years of experience in the area of assisted reproduction. EggDonationFriends know that patients love short, content-packed answers. That is why the interview below is a straightforward question-answer interview.

Why seek treatment in the Czech Republic?

Question: What makes the Czech Republic stand out from other egg donation destinations? Answer: Broad experience in the field of reproductive medicine, excellent standards of treatments at a reasonable cost. Advantageous location in Central Europe. Question: What are the standards of treatment in the Czech Republic? Answer: Infertility treatments in the Czech Republic are performed in accordance with EU Directives and guidelines of ASRM (American Society of Reproductive Medicine). The Czech Republic has strict implementation of EU Tissue and Cells Directive in comparison to other European countries to assure the highest quality of care and safety for our patients. Question: Which countries do your international patients come from? Answer: CUBE IVF Prague is visited by patients from many countries: Germany – 30%, Ireland – 30%, the UK – 20%, US – 8%, Italy – 4%, Norway, France, Netherlands, and other. Question: Do patients expect treatment in their own language? Answer: Yes, they do, in most cases. Question: What percentage of international patients are treated in their own native language? Answer: More than 95% Question: What languages do your staff speak? Answer: English, German, French, Italian, Russian, and Ukrainian. Question: Which services do patients most frequently use at IVF CUBE? Answer: Techniques of Assisted Reproduction including IVF ICSI, genetic testing of embryos, egg donation and sperm donation. Question: How long do patients need to wait for donor eggs? Answer: At IVF CUBE there is no waiting list.

Treatment range

Question: Do you offer egg donation with fresh eggs? Answer: Yes, we do. Question: Do you offer egg donation with frozen eggs? Answer: At IVF CUBE we prefer only fresh eggs to achieve higher pregnancy rates. Our fertility specialists use egg freezing only in rare cases. Question: Do you offer IVF for single women? Answer: No, we are only allowed to treat female-male couples. However, they do not have to be married. Question: Do you offer IVF for same-sex parents? Answer: Unfortunately not. As mentioned above, we are only allowed to treat heterosexual couples. Question: Do you offer sex selection/family balancing? Answer: No, this is not legal in the Czech Republic, despite X-linked diseases. Question: Do you offer sperm donation? Answer: Yes, we offer anonymous sperm donation. Question: Do you offer embryo donation? Answer: Yes. Question: Do you offer surrogacy? Answer: Yes, however, this procedure is limited to patients who have their own surrogate mother from their home country. We are not allowed to recruit surrogate mothers. Question: Do you offer PGS? Answer: Yes, we perform NGS. Question: Do you offer PGD? Answer: Yes, we do.

Costs & success rates

Question: What do you think about the standard price of services provided in the Czech Republic, in comparison with other countries? Answer: At IVF CUBE the IVF treatment cost is definitely lower in comparison to Germany, the UK or Spain, however, the quality of services is comparable. Question: Is success rate data monitored? By whom? Answer: Success rates and safety criteria are closely supervised by certain authorities on a yearly basis, namely SUKL and CIA. We take part in mandatory reporting to the National Registry of ART. The head of our laboratory is monitoring complexity of values at 6 month intervals. Question: If so, how does this monitoring take place? Answer: Mandatory reporting to National registry is performed online, SUKL as a licencing body of Czech Ministry of Health and CIA (Czech Accreditation Institute) carries out site inspections and interviews professionals on a yearly basis. Question: What do you think about treatment success rates in the Czech Republic? Answer: Average success rates in the Czech Republic are above standards. IVF CUBE benefits from more than 20 years of experience of our head gynaecologist and head embryologist. Question: How do you think success rates might be improved? Answer: At IVF CUBE we think infertility treatment should be tailored to individual needs and medical conditions of the patient together with close monitoring of embryos.

Law & legislations

Question: What laws regulate IVF treatment in the Czech Republic? Answer: There are four regulations that are valid for each EU country. Question: Are there any organisations monitoring IVF centres’ quality? Answer: There is State Institute for Drug Control (the Czech Republic). Every IVF centre in our country has to have an authorisation to treat people, which is given by this institute. Besides the authorisation, our clinic has Certificate of Accreditation CSN EN ISO 15189:2007 and Certification no. 74/2016 from the Czech Accreditation Institute. Skills of medical doctors and laboratory personnel are examined according to rules of the Medical Chamber and Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education. Question: Which procedures may be legally performed in the Czech Republic? (Please specify which are legal and which are not.) Answer: Broad spectrum of infertility treatments such as IVF, ICSI, IUI including genetic testing of embryos. Egg donation, sperm donation and embryo donation are legal. Only anonymous donation is available. Gender selection is not allowed. Treatment is available only for heterosexual couples. Question: Is the treatment legally limited by any factors? (e.g. female age, marital status, a max. no. of embryos transferred in one cycle, etc.) Answer: Yes, there are, we are often contacted by single women, women over 49, or lesbian couples – however, we are only allowed to treat heterosexual couples and the woman’s age has to be max. 48. The max. number of embryos transferred according to the law is 3, but standard approach according to medical guidelines is max. 2 embryos for transfer. Open identity donation programmes are not allowed and not available. Commercial gestational surrogacy is not allowed. Question: What laws regulate the donation of eggs? Please specify. Answer: The one that I have already mentioned, the State Institute for Drug Control which, besides other activities, administrates surveillance over donation of human cells and all the procedures associated, and aims to guarantee their quality and safety. Question: What are the rules of egg adoption for patients? Answer: The rules for receiving egg donation treatment are the same as for any other treatment. The age of the woman cannot be over 48 and there needs to be a male-female couple to receive therapy. We also cannot treat patients that were diagnosed HIV positive.

Final thoughts

We have presented you with extensive information on IVF treatment in the Czech Republic. If you are interested in this clinic, contact IVF CUBE by hitting the Contact Clinic button in their clinic profile.