Bristol IVF Research Study
Valentine Akande is a lead researcher on the BRIST-IVF study, now re-open at the Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine.
A major study into the factors affecting IVF treatment success, led by NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) researchers at the University of Bristol, is restarting after a year-long pause due to COVID-19.
In April this year, the Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine, has started recruiting its first new BRIST-IVF study participants since March 2020, when the study paused as the UK went into its first lockdown. Women and their partners who are undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment at the BCRM are eligible to take part. We would like to collect information on all individuals involved in treatment, including male and female partners.
Due to the pandemic, the study information is now presented online. This minimises face-to-face contact and gives potential participants time to access the information at their own convenience before choosing whether to take part. Taking part involves answering a short questionnaire, having height, weight and blood pressure measured and providing blood and urine samples.
The findings from the BRIST-IVF research study aim to identify factors that increase live birth success. This innovative research study could also improve the quality of information offered to people undergoing fertility treatment, for example by identifying which types of IVF work best in which couples.
Because we will be collecting a lot of information – from more than 1,000 couples, hopefully – it will take a few years to analyse the data and get results. But we hope these results will help us to identify, at a population-wide level, the health factors that play a part in whether, or not, IVF is successful.
The more we find out, the more we can help people trying to conceive via IVF.
The BRIST-IVF study (www.bristol.ac.uk/ivf-study) is being carried out by the NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
For further information about how to take part, please watch our study video and express your interest:
https://is.gd/BRIST_IVF_Interest
We look forward to hearing from you.