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. 2024 Jan 5;22(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s12958-023-01179-2.

Diagnosis and management of infertility: NICE-adapted guidelines from the Italian Society of Human Reproduction

Stefano Palomba  1   2 , Paola Viganò  3 , Sandrine Chamayou  4 , Zaira Donarelli  5 , Maria Paola Costantini  6 , Roberto Marci  7 , Paola Piomboni  8   9 , Egidio Fino  6 , Luigi Montano  10 , Antonino Guglielmino  4 , Edgardo Somigliana  3   11 ; and the SIRU Working Group on Italian Guideline for Infertility
Collaborators, Affiliations

Diagnosis and management of infertility: NICE-adapted guidelines from the Italian Society of Human Reproduction

Stefano Palomba et al. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. .

Abstract

In Italy the fertility rate is very low, and an increasing number of patients are infertile and require treatments. The Italian Law concerning the safety of patient care, and the professional liability of health professionals, indicates that health professionals must comply with the recommendations set out in the guidelines developed by public and private bodies and institutions, as well as scientific societies and technical-scientific associations of the health professions, except for specific cases. Unfortunately, no guideline for the diagnosis and the management of infertility is currently available in Italy. In 2019, the Italian Society of Human Reproduction pointed out the need to produce Italian guidelines and subsequently approved the establishment of a multidisciplinary and multiprofessional working group (MMWG) to develop such a guideline. The MMWG was representative of 5 scientific societies, one national federation of professional orders, 3 citizens' and patients' associations, 5 professions (including lawyer, biologist, doctor, midwife, and psychologist), and 3 medical specialties (including medical genetics, obstetrics and gynecology, and urology). The MMWG chose to adapt a high-quality guideline to the Italian context instead of developing one from scratch. Using the Italian version of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II scoring system, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines were selected and adapted to the Italian context. The document was improved upon by incorporating comments and suggestions where needed. This study presents the process of adaptation and discusses the pros and cons of the often-neglected choice of adapting rather than developing new guidelines.

Keywords: ARTs; Guidelines; IVF; Infertility; Management; Sterility.

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Conflict of interest statement

P.V. declares that she received an honorarium speaker from Merck-Serono, that her Institution received research support funding from Theramex, and that she is Section Editor of Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. S.C., Z.D. and A.G. declare that that their Institution supported travel and accommodation expenses for the meetings related to this project. A.G. declares that he received an honorarium speaker from Ferring which he has fully donated to the Guidelines Fund. M.P.C. declared that on March 8th, 2017, at the request of the 12th Hygiene and Health Commission of the Senate, she participated in the hearing on the bills 1630 and subsequent relating to medically assisted reproduction (amendment of law 40/2004). E.S. declares that he received fees from Human Reproduction (years 2012-2018), Human Reproduction Open (year 2019-2021), Merck-Serono (year 2018), and Theramex (year 2018); and his Institution received research support funding from Ferring (years 2016-2020), Theramex (year 2019).

All other Authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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