Euronews Correspondent Aurora Velez lifts the veil on an EU-funded collaboration, treating and preventing infertility and related diseases.
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00:00In Scandinavia, between 15 and 25 percent of couples have difficulty conceiving a child.
00:09This was the case for Kasper and Drew.
00:12After months of trying, they agreed to take part in Repro Union, a Danish and Swedish
00:16project combining research, medicine and innovation to better prevent and treat infertility.
00:23And then Esther came along.
00:24We found out that, well, I'm 38, but my egg is a little older than they have, and Kasper's
00:34sperm is good for some months, really bad for some other months.
00:39And we found out through some of the trials that were taken.
00:47In this hospital near Copenhagen, some 7,000 children are born every year, or approximately
00:5312 percent of births in Denmark, a figure that is falling for several reasons.
00:58One of them is infertility.
00:59The World Health Organization recognizes infertility as a disease that affects the male and female
01:04reproductive systems, and Repro Union is analyzing its causes and repercussions.
01:10Infertility is a disease, and that's also recognized.
01:13What we know is that approximately one-third has a female cause, one-third has a male cause,
01:20and one-third is still unknown.
01:22We know that having infertility as a male poses a risk of later cardiovascular disease,
01:28and we also have some indication in the females for the same, and that's also one of the things
01:33we want to go deeper into understanding.
01:36And it's here at the Biomedical Center in Lund, Sweden, where we dig deeper using samples
01:41and data analysis.
01:43Repro Union is conducting an extensive study on infertility.
01:47Its aims are prevention, detection and treatment.
01:50More than two million samples are stored here at minus 80 degrees Celsius.
01:56These samples, it's a semen sample, it's blood, it can be hair, it can be urine, it can be feces,
02:02any kind of biological fluid or tissue.
02:07And after two hours, they are stored in small aliquots, 70 microliters, in this format,
02:14in the biobank.
02:16The total budget for the project is 6.7 million euros, 44% of which has been funded
02:22by the European Cohesion Policy, 16.77% by Høystedden, the capital region of Denmark,
02:29and another 16.77% by the region of Skåne, and 22.46% by Ferrying Pharmaceuticals.
02:36Thanks to this project, Kasper and Gru are hoping for a brighter future.
02:41Hopefully we will have one more. We have one more egg, so when Gru is ready,
02:46I think we will start again, so Esther can have a little brother, a little sister.