A Spanish fertility clinic that plays music to foetuses has bought a surgery in Kildare

ONE OF SPAIN’S most prestigious medical centres, which is renowned for its gynaecology and obstetrics services, has acquired a fertility clinic in Kildare.

The Institut Marquès (IM), which was founded in 1941, has acquired Clane Fertility Clinic in Kildare. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.

A study carried out by the Barcelona-based facility found that incorporating music in embryos’ incubators helped improve in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a process used to boost fertility, by around 5%.

The company has developed a device called a Babypod which can be inserted into the vagina much like a tampon and play music directly to the foetus. IM claims that it has a success rate of 89% for IVF treatments with donor egg treatments.

The Babypod device

Music in Clane

The business already has consultation offices in Dublin and London, where patients could start their treatment before travelling to Barcelona to carry out the embryo transfer in the case of IVF.

The Spanish firm will now offers all treatments in their Irish facilities, eliminating the need to travel. The company said that its facility in Ireland will also use music in the process of assisted reproduction.

IM Ireland is currently processing the appropriate authorisation with the Health Products Regulatory Authority.

Director Marisa López-Teijón said that the goal of the company “is to help families with fertility issues to fulfil their dream of parenthood and we look forward to bringing our services to Ireland”.

Until now, the Clane Fertility Clinic has worked as a unit of the privately owned Clane General Hospital.

Founded in 1986 as a joint venture between the hospital and Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, the clinic offers several reproduction treatments in the field of IVF.

The facility, which also has its own reproduction laboratory, will continue to work with the the hospital after the deal is completed.