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Authors planning a systematic review may find it worthwhile to check not only the recent literature for similar published reviews but also review registries for ongoing, unpublished, reviews. At I Human Reproduction Update i , many review proposals are rejected because they focus on a study question on which a similar review was recently published. At I Human Reproduction Update i , we love reviews. [Extracted from the article]

More than 70 000 children are born annually in Europe as a result of assisted reproduction (ART). Concerning individual European countries, there is a large variation in the uptake if ART. In Denmark and Finland the number of ART treatment cycles is well above 1500 cycles per million inhabitants, while countries like Portugal, Spain, Ireland and the UK have only one third to one fourth as many ART cycles annually. Denmark is the country with the highest uptake of ART in Europe and currently about 6% of all children born in has been conceived by ART. If the rest of the European countries managed to increase their uptake of ART to the same level as Denmark, nearly 400 000 children would be born annually as a result of ART. The total fertility rate in all European countries has fallen below replacement levels and the old age dependency ratio will in many countries increase to a level which is not economically sustainable. It is obvious that Europeans need to address the demographic issue. Health economic studies indicate that increased spending on ART might be a very cost effective measure to increase the total fertility rate of a population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report summarizes the data collected in the European Collaborative Report on intrauterine insemination (IUI) with pretreated sperm. A questionnaire concerning methods and results of IUI was sent to European infertility clinics and evaluable data were obtained from 29 of these clinics. A total of 196 pregnancies was reported from a total of 20 clinics. Pregnancy rates per treatment cycle were on average 7.4% of all male infertility, 10.8% for infertility due to hostile cervical mucus and 12.9% for idiopathic infertility, giving an overall pregnancy rate per treatment cycle of 8.4%. The clinical abortion rate was on average 12.2%. The mean number of years of primary infertility in the patient group of the clinics reporting pregnancies was 4.8 years and the mean number of years of primary infertility in the patient group conceiving was 5.2 years. A total of 127 births was reported with a sex ratio (male/female) of 0.512. One congenital malformation was reported. In many clinics, treatment of male infertility with IVF or IUI gave comparable results per treatment cycle. No single factor in the procedure for performing IUI was identified accounting for the different pregnancy rates obtained in the clinics included in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fifty-six couples with infertility due either to subnormal sperm ( = 40), hostile cervical mucus ( = 5) or idiopathic infertility ( = 11), were treated with intrauterine insemination of washed sperm. A total of 78 treatment cycles were completed. Nine pregnancies resulted from these insemination cycles, giving an overall pregnancy rate of 8.3% per treat ment cycle. Eight pregnancies occurred In the andrologic group after 56 treatment cydes. One pregnancy was established in the patient group with idiopathic infertility after 15 treatment cycles, while no pregnancy occurred in the patient group with infertility due to cervical mucus hostility. The mean number of years of infertility in the couples conceiving following treatment was 7 years (range 3–11). The spontaneous pregnancy rate in this patient group is low. The data obtained in this study suggest that in selected patients intrauterine insemination will result in an acceptable pregnancy rate. There is a need for a randomized prospective study designed to compare the efficacy of intrauterine insemination with that of alternative treatment modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]