Our history

Genea Hollywood is one of Australia’s leading providers of treatment for patients experiencing infertility problems.

Hollywood Fertility Centre opened in 2000 under the lead of Dr Simon Turner as Medical Director, Phil Matson as Scientific Director and Catherine Meunier as Nurse Manager. In 2006 the clinic partnered with Genea to offer patients access to their pioneering treatment and laboratory technologies. The clinic has now grown to be one of the leading providers in Western Australia with four Fertility Specialists, two Fertility GPs, two counsellors and more than 30 staff.

Genea has long been a fertility pioneer, with research and technologies developed in-house virtually doubling IVF success rates in the mid-nineties and continuing to improve outcomes today. Recognised as an innovator, we are currently listed as the top Healthcare company at number 25 on the Australian Financial Review’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies List.

Our history as fertility pioneers

Routine Day 5 embryo transfers

Genea was the first clinic in Australia to introduce the gold standard of routine Day 5 (blastocyst) embryo transfers. Growing the embryos in the lab a little longer before transferring allows us to determine which embryos have the highest development potential and increases success rates. The time between Day Three and Day Five in an embryo’s life is critical because it is when an embryo switches genetic control from the maternal genome to the embryo’s own genome. This culture process is more difficult than it sounds and simply cannot be done successfully without highly experienced embryologists and a leading incubation system as part of the lab process. We have given our patients world leading success rates with this advancement for years, some other Australian clinics still routinely transfer embryos earlier than Day Five.
 

Single embryo transfers

We were also the first clinic in Australia to introduce routine single embryo transfer. While many clinics worldwide transfer more than one embryo to try to improve their chances of success, our technology allows us to achieve high success rates while transferring a single, carefully selected embryo. Having a patient-focused team of clinicians and scientists allowed us to achieve this faster than other clinics in Australia. And patients have benefited greatly through improved pregnancy safety as a result of this process.
 

Culture medium

Culture medium are the vital solutions that nurture and support eggs, sperm and embryos outside the body. Genea has been developing and using its own culture medium for more than two decades. Exclusive to Genea in Australia and used by more than 600 clinics around the world, our experience in culture medium development is world leading. More recently, we have developed and released a continuous culture medium which means that precious embryos can develop undisturbed in the same liquid for the five or six days they spend in our labs.

 

Incubators

Genea’s embryologists are experts in what embryos need to grow and survive. So before our current incubator, Geri^®, back in the 1990s we developed a mini incubator that simulated the natural environment of human fallopian tubes by using low oxygen levels and introducing just the right amount of carbon dioxide to help embryos grow. The mini incubators known as MINCs also maintained the optimal temperature to reduce stress on the embryo. These incubators continue to be used across other Australian clinics and the world today. We’ve moved on and now only culture patients’ embryos in the latest time-lapse incubator, Geri^®.
 

Vitrification

Genea was the first clinic in Australia to develop and routinely replace the old slow freezing method for embryos and eggs with the more efficient and successful vitrification process. The latest technology, which is similar to snap freezing, has dramatically increased survival rates for thawed embryos. We’ve been using it routinely for more than ten years.

More recently, we have proudly developed and introduced Gavi^® into our labs. Exclusive to our clinics in Australia, Genea’s automated vitrification instrument is the first in the world to automate and standardise key stages of the vitrification process. We ship Gavi^® internationally and it is used by top clinics around the world.
 

PGD and PGS

Genea pioneered pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and our expertise and techniques are among the best in the world. Many clinics have followed our lead and modelled their approach to embryo biopsy on ours. In 2015, Genea conducted 47% of all pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT, including both PGD and pre-implantation genetic screening also known as PGS) embryo transfers across Australia and New Zealand, which resulted in 56% of all the PGT live births in the region^*.

The latest next generation whole-genome sequencing has seen further improvements to the service. Not only does this assist patients with known genetic conditions, our PGS option is available for patients who want to screen all 23 pairs of chromosomes – often after recurrent miscarriage or recurrent IVF failure. Through the use of PGS we are seeing double the live birth rate per embryo transfer and half the miscarriage rate in women over 38 years^**.