Rethink your fertility clinics cryo storage space
About the author
James Ryan is the Speciality Gases and Biomedical Business Development Manager at Air Products for the Southern region of the UK. With over 15 years’ experience in technical sales, including 6 years in the speciality gases and biomedical sectors, James focuses on understanding the unique challenges of his customers and delivering customised solutions to meet their needs
One of the primary roles of a fertility clinic is the safe storage of the samples they take. And all too often I’ve seen backrooms with every square inch of space taken up with dewars containing those valuable samples – but stored in such a way that they’re being put at risk through poor access, manual LN2 filling and random monitoring. And with narrow passageways, trip hazards everywhere and alarm wires draped across the available space, the health and safety of staff is equally at risk.
The crux of the matter is, many fertility clinics are simply running out of space – even if it’s not a problem for you right now, there’s every chance it soon will be, and here are the reasons why.
The rapid growth of fertility clinics in the UK
Pressure is being put on fertility clinics by the boom in demand for their services.
Around 1 in 7 couples in the UK and a total of about 3.5 million individuals face challenges conceiving naturally. The number of fertility treatment cycles has risen steadily, with 80,000 cycles in 2023 – 13% up on 2022. At the same time, NHS-funded IVF cycles in England declined 17% between 2019 and 2022 (and a 36% drop in Wales), resulting in patients increasingly relying on private fertility clinics.
Social changes have also played a large part in the rise in demand. Egg, sperm, and embryo freezing are very much on the increase, as people choose to have children later in life, or preserve their fertility for medical reasons. In July 2022 the regulations changed to allow storage for up to 55 years, rather than the 10 years allowed previously.
While all that means fertility clinics can benefit from a rapidly growing market sector, it’s put enormous pressures on clinics to find the additional storage space they need.
Social changes have also played a large part in the rise in demand. Egg, sperm and embryo freezing are very much on the increase, as people choose to have children later in life, or preserve their fertility for medical reasons. In July 2022 the regulations changed to allow storage for up to 55 years, rather than the 10 years allowed previously.
While that all means fertility clinics can benefit from a rapidly growing market sector, it’s put enormous pressures on clinics to find the additional storage space they need.
Finding space where there is none
For many clinics though, finding that extra space is proving difficult. Town and city centre locations, while convenient for patients to get to, make expansion difficult both in terms of physical space and high rental costs.
Moreover, I find many clinics just carry on doing what they’ve always done – using simple dewars to store samples, which may have worked in the past but isn’t geared to the much higher numbers clinics are dealing with now. And if they like to split samples to prevent the risk of catastrophic loss, that only piles more pressure onto an already inadequate system.
That’s why situations like those shown at the start of this piece arise, with rooms full of manually filled dewars only capable of holding a limited number of samples; and with further growth forecast, the problem can only get worse.
In such cases, what’s needed is a re-think – a fundamental change to allow more samples to be stored in less space – which is where many customers find our help invaluable, as we have a broad knowledge of all the options available, and how they could work for each unique situation.
Ways to increase capacity
We find clinics are constantly surprised by just how much extra storage they can achieve in the same floor space. Truth is, there are many more options out there now to help you maximise your sample storage, but many of those working in clinics just aren’t aware of them.
For example, a simple switch to high capacity dewars might allow you to store many times more straws than you do currently – at Air Products we often suggest the MVE XC Series, which offers capacities of up to 5000 straws.
Moving to larger freezers would always be preferable, and there are plenty of options available, - for example, we recently installed an MVE CryoSystem 6000FA in a Scottish hospital that used cryoboxes for sperm storage, which can also be adapted with racks suitable for holding straws; the MVE 816P-2T, specifically designed for the IVF market, uses a two-level arrangement to store thousands more straws; and the MVE 616 can take up to 63 taller canisters to hold more goblets and increase capacity that way.
These larger machines are generally more efficient, with integrated alarms and autofill, doing away with dangerous wires and the need to carry LN2 across rooms, down corridors, in lifts or up and down stairs (believe me, I’ve seen them all!). And perhaps most importantly, they’re all designed to optimise the space you have available.
While a move to bigger premises – offering you the chance to improve your cryo storage with all the capacity you’d need – may not be an option, even simply reconsidering the layout of your current premises can help. Moving your cryoroom to a room that can be closer to an external LN2 tank with access for delivery vehicles gives you the opportunity to optimise your installation, with large, highly efficient freezers, minimised pipework and the ideal storage for your needs now and in the future.
Ask the experts
While future increases in demand point to a healthy future for fertility clinics, it’s important to take action now to make sure your sample storage can continue to grow with your needs.
As you’ll have gathered by now, every clinic is different, and so is the right solution. At Air Products, we work with leading manufacturer MVE to provide a wide range of cryo freezers of all shapes and sizes, so we can assess your premises, location, current and future needs and make the right recommendation to optimise your space and efficiency. Just as we have done for many other IVF clinics across the country.
Contact Air Products Biomedical now to discuss how we can help optimise your storage.
