Education, education, education: now more than ever?

A whole generation of young scientists and medical doctors enthusiastically entered the field of assisted reproduction and infertility treatment after the birth of the first in vitro fertilized (IVF) child Louise Brown in 1978. A new paradigm for treating infertility opened and created unprecedented room for research and development. Indeed, the first years of the IVF era was characterised by a huge research effort understanding follicular development including ovarian stimulation and developing robust methods in the laboratory. Thus, many young clinicians and scientists found a significant career opportunity in the field. Their efforts and successes resulted in a logarithmic increase in activity. The SART register in USA have reported that the US had around 25 clinics performing a few thousands cycles annually in 1985, which today has risen to a little less than 400 clinics doing more than 200,000 cycles (SART, 2015). It is estimated that currently over 5 million IVF children have been born worldwide contributing significantly to the next generation (Fauser et al, 2013). Several of the clinicians and scientists who entered the field in the 1980’ties have been leading figures in IVF treatments but now 30-40 years later they have or are about to retire. This implies that the profession faces a massive transgenerational transition. This in itself calls for a strong educational effort of the new and coming generations, but a number of other factors also highlight the need for continued and expanded education in the field of reproduction.