The European Fertility Society is turning 2 years old! Today we are celebrating the second anniversary of our society, founded exactly two years ago, on the 8th of December 2020. It was during the challenging pandemic period that we realised there was space and need for an evidence-based society that provides tools, support and education to patients, fertility experts and clinics.
The mission of the European Fertility Society is twofold: to educate, support, and help fertility patients make their fertility journey more friendly and care-based; and, to also support fertility clinics through training sessions for their health and patient care staff, setting patient care guidance, recommendations, and certification of their processes.
The value of the European Fertility Society is the people who make it happen. We would like to thank all the members who decided to support our mission: individual and clinical members of the society, the Committee of Representatives, Fertility Care Guidance Development Group and its Chairwoman Dr Giuliana Baccino, Fertility Care Awards Judging Panel and its Chairwoman Andreia Trigo, Certification Committee and its Standard Development Group with the Chairwoman Dr Claudia Mika, Vice Charwoman Lynda Mikalauskas and Senior Advisor Dr Zuber Shaikh. We would also like to thank all hosts of the EFS fertility webinars (held in English, Italian, Spanish and French) as well as authors and coaches of the Fertility Patient Care Training Programme. Lastly, we would like to thank the Executive Committee who brought us all together and turned the idea of the European Fertility Society into reality. Thank you!
During the second year of its existence, the EFS has successfully achieved several goals. The most important one took place at the beginning of 2022 – the publication of the Fertility Patient Care Guidance and its Pocketbook version. The guidance development group has worked tirelessly throughout 2021 to prepare a unique, practical, and user-friendly tool to help fertility clinics provide holistic care to their patients. The other achievement is the participation at prominent scientific events where we promoted the EFS mission and the Fertility Patient Care Guidance.
This year we have also introduced the professional webinar series for fertility experts, patient care staff and clinics. Every webinar was led by an outstanding fertility field expert(s) and touched upon the arguments related to patient care, staff training, online communications, artificial technology and more. In addition to professional webinars, 4 MyIVFanswers fertility webinar platforms have successfully grown and performed a total of 26 webinars in Spanish, 47 webinars in Italian, 14 webinars in French and 453 webinars in English. We will soon open the fifth myIVFanswers platform – Ukrainian – to support all fertility patients during this exceptionally distressing time.
During 2022, the EFS has been continuously developing and forming new valuable partnerships, including Vmarsh Healthcare, Fenomatch and Aura Fertility, as well as welcoming new individual members – today we have nearly 800 members from around the world! In September, we introduced the Members’ Platform to bring all our members closer together and to provide them with educational resources.
The Committee of National Representatives has expanded and the team of 9 representatives promotes the EFS mission in The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Nordic Countries, Ukraine, Spain, MENA Region, The United States and Latin America. In the last 12 months, we added four more Training Programmes for fertility clinics and now offer 10 Online Fertility Courses. In October 2022, we announced the 12 Fertility Care Awards Winners and 5 Highly Commended individuals, clinics and organisations.