With this month’s commemoration of International AIDS Day, attention has returned to the Hadassah AIDS Center’s special fertility laboratory for couples where the male is a HIV carrier. According to Dr. Keren Olshtain-Pops, Coordinator of the Hadassah AIDS Center program, “since the HIV virus is only present in the fluid, the fluid is separated from the sperm cells in the lab. Then using a special process, the sperm cells are washed and frozen until they are injected into the woman on the day she ovulates. Couples can use the frozen sperm cells for five years and several pregnancies.”
The Hadassah University Medical Center is the only place in Israel that provides this unique treatment. Applicants for the fertility program, most of them in their 30s, come from all sectors of the population, Dr. Olshtain-Pops said. “Most couples have been waiting for a child for a long time, and were very excited close to the birth. Some wait in anticipation of the next birth. Women usually come to us ready and anxiously awaiting pregnancy. On the other hand,” she noted, “many of the male partners are worried at the beginning and request as many details as possible about the process. They relax a bit after understanding that the procedure is completely safe.”
Prof. Shlomo Maayan, head of Hadassah’s AIDS Center, initiated the project in collaboration with Prof. Alex Simon, Director of Hadassah’s In Vitro Fertilization Center, Dr. Yoel Shufaro of the IVF Center and Prof. Dana Wolf, Head of Hadassah’s Clinical Virology Unit.