More than 6,000 children have been born in the last 20 years thanks to our center, whose treatments have now achieved pregnancy rates of over 50%. Our clinic, under the guidance of the General Director, Dr. Andrea Barlocco attributes this success to the high level of preparation of its operators as well as the use of cutting-edge technologies. In fact, for more than 20 years, the Center has been at the forefront in providing solutions to couples with infertility problems. Always keeping attention to the patient as a priority.
“Every person is unique” is one of the maxims that best represents our clinic and our approach to the patient. Moreover, in the field of infertility this phrase is even more true: there are no pre-packaged solutions to achieve pregnancy and there are no recipes that are good for everyone. We need to understand the causes to identify the path to take together.
Having started in Bellinzona in 1999, the ProCrea center was transferred at the beginning of the 2000s to Lugano where in 2009 it created the new and modern headquarters in via Maraini. In this growth path, one element has never changed: the quality of assistance to couples. In fact, in ProCrea we have been witnesses of social changes and protagonists of the evolutions that have affected medically assisted procreation. In 20 years the picture has changed radically: the average age of the couples who have turned to our Center has increased significantly. For women, we have gone from 36.5 years at the beginning to the current 39; for men the transition was from 39.6 years to 42.4. However, this is not just a statistical phenomenon, but involves growing challenges both for couples and for our Specialists.
In fact, faced with the growth of infertility problems, ProCrea’s response concerned two areas: the expansion of the proposed techniques, from egg donation to oocyte cryopreservation, and the development of genetics. This last field, in particular, has always been one of the flagships for ProCrea. «We were the first in Switzerland to develop pre-implantation genetic tests since 2012, in order to obtain the first pregnancies the following year» say our specialists. Pre-implantation genetic tests mainly concern women of mature fertile age, i.e. from the age of 36 when embryos with chromosomal anomalies can reach 63%. «The genetic test for chromosomal aneuploidies (PGT-A) allows us to identify the “healthy” embryo, therefore with a greater probability of starting a pregnancy. And we achieve success in over 71% of cases.” This continuous research work has allowed ProCrea to improve the success levels of therapies and reduce reproductive risks, but there is still a long way to go: despite the steps forward in diagnostics, there is still 15% of idiopathic infertility , or not attributable to any of the known causes.
For the future, the ProCrea center is already ready. With a new path that continues in the direction of the ProCrea philosophy: offering the patient not only the best of science and medicine, but also putting him in a position to be cared for, accompanied on what is a wonderful journey towards life.
The end of 2017 marks the beginning of a new era for ProCrea: the integration of our Clinic into the large Next Clinics family, an international group of 21 clinics for medically assisted procreation, 8 laboratories and almost a thousand workers in 7 European countries .
The Group’s strategic objective is to create a European network of innovative clinics with laboratories specialized in assisted reproduction and genetics, the differentiator of which is the quality of patient care. This is why the Group’s acquisitions in Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland specifically concerned clinics with more than twenty years of experience in the fertility sector.
The management of Next Clinics assures that “The integration of these prestigious clinics within the Next Fertility Group determines a clear advantage for patients. The clinics, in fact, can access the most advanced technologies and resources of an international group that constantly invests in improving services and above all results. At the same time, Next Fertility is enriched by the experience and professionalism of PMA experts who have twenty years of leadership behind them.”
Next Fertility’s watchwords: “Science and Professionalism”. The Next Fertility network team is in fact made up of healthcare sector specialists such as gynaecologists, embryologists, geneticists, urologists, psychologists, nurses and clinic assistants, with years of expertise in assisted reproduction. The quality of work, innovation, experience and attention to the patient are what distinguishes the Group.
Today, Next Fertility ProCrea, like the other clinics of the Group, has Time-Lapse incubators, a technology that allows you to see the development of embryos in real time without the need to expose them to additional manipulations, improving the success rate. In addition, Artificial Intelligence systems are being adopted that will help identify the embryos most likely to implant. Furthermore, as regards safety, we have the Ri-Witness system for automatic sample traceability, which excludes any possibility of human error in the handling of the samples themselves. Last but not least, in Italy, the network of Next Lab laboratories is an active part of the Next Clinics Group, specializing in preconception and prenatal genetics with solid experience in the prevention of hereditary diseases. Next Lab, in collaboration with the Next Fertility clinics, is also developing further new tests specific for the PMA process of patients.
“We are proposing a new model of assisted procreation clinic which does not believe in miracles and magic formulas, but which is based on the transparency of data and the human relationship with patients, on the constant updating of our professionals and our technologies, up to to arrive at measurable and objective results.”
Today Next Fertility ProCrea, after over 20 years of experience, remains one of the major international reference centers for reproductive medicine in Switzerland.
