ESHRE goes to ASRM

In addition to the joint meeting of the two organisations, the two scientific communities often hold exchange sessions on each other’s educational activities. The next exchange is the participation of ESHRE’s faculty at the ASRM scientific congress and expo this month. Two sessions have been designed for ASRM 2024, which will take place in Denver, Colorado, from 19 to 23 October. Both discussions are aligned with the theme of the ASRM 2024 meeting: “Equity, Access, and Innovation.”

Starting with the postgraduate session “Genetic Testing in Assisted Reproduction”, ESHRE’s faculty will address the need to understand key genetic testing approaches in reproductive medicine and discuss issues associated with their implementation. Nicolás Garrido Puchalt will aim to demonstrate how the diagnosis of male and female infertility can be improved by current screening techniques and which tests should be used based on an individual patient’s phenotype. As an increasing number of couples go through medical assisted reproduction, new pathological endophenotypes have been uncovered that may disrupt the development of gametes and embryos, and their investigation encourages a better understanding of the role of genetics in infertility.

Later on, Antonio Capalbo will present evidence on both currently available and innovative approaches for preimplantation genetic testing, analysing their advantages and limitations. Dr Capalbo will also describe how to scrutinize scientific data to assess the clinical utility of pre-implantation genomic tests. Finally, Efthymia Constantinou will provide a summary of expanded carrier screening (ECS), focusing on the test’s aim and main features: to whom it should be offered, by whom and how. Moreover, she will present the results of the ESHRE- ESHG an ESHRE and European Society of Human Genetics survey on the current practices and views on ECS by addressing emerging points for consideration.

In the second session titled “Polygenic Embryo Scores,” Anja Bisgaard Pinborg will address the need to understand key aspects of polygenic inheritance and testing by providing scientific knowledge on polygenic risk scoring and its implications for diagnostic capability and efficacy. Professor Pinborg will also discuss core concepts for counselling on polygenic conditions, and the advantages and limitations of current technologies used in polygenic embryo screening .

ESHRE is looking forward to participating in this year’s ASRM and hopes to meet many colleagues from around the world to exchange views and ideas.