International reproductive medicine symposium “From Science to Practice” was held in Kyiv on April 5-7, 2012. It was an annual meeting of reproductologists, embryologists, obstetrician-gynecologists, paramedical personnel in the filed of ART organized by Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine with assistance of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine. This year the event was sponsored by leading pharmaceutical companies “MSD” and “Merck Serono”.

Symposium was attended by about 300 delegates from Ukraine, USA, France, Italy, Finland, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other countries. Vyacheslav Kaminskyi, Chief Obstetrician-Gynecologist of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine, Oleksandr Iuzko, President of Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine (UARM), Fedir Dakhno, Director of the Institute of Reproductive Medicine and Vice-President of UARM; Valeriy Zukin, Vice-President of UARM, were among honourable guests.

Symposium was organized in several sections by particular problems of human reproduction:

1. Science Symposium of the company “Merck Serono” included several lectures on folliculogenesis, individually controlled ovarian stimulation and genomics of embryo selection. This section also brought an opportunity for discussions of individual clinical cases of infertility.

2. Speakers of the Science Symposium of MSD Company “New Philosophy of IVF” highlighted such topics as testing of patients with numerous unsuccessful IVF attempts; embryo morphokinetics as a method of embryo selection; vitrification of oocytes in comparison with slow freezing and keeping an egg donation bank.

3. A special English Workshops was organized by UARM clinics, whose specialists reported, in particular, on single sperm cryopreservation in alginate microgranule; prognostic value of scanning electronic microscopic eudiometry after unsuccessful IVF-attempts; metrorrhexis in the pregnancy after IVF; comparative genomic hybridization in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD); role of hereditary thrombophilias in case of negative IVF-attempts.

4. Joint meeting of Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine, Russian Association of Human Reproduction and Kazakhstan Association of Reproductive Medicine focused on organizational aspects and development prospects of reproductive care in the post-Soviet space.

5. Original presentations brought up such clinical aspects of reproductive medicine as restoration of male reproductive function with azoospermia in IVF clinics; preparation of a patient for IVF procedure; the role of hormonal stimulation of spermatogenesis; analysis of IVF complications within Ukraine; IVF risk minimization in protocols with antagonists of Gn-RH and using antagonist as trigger of ovulation; modern aspects of clinical embryology.

The superb program of symposium and colorful social activities provided an excellent framework for scientific dialogue among leading fertility specialists to enrich their knowledge and improve daily practice, being at the same time a good tradition of annual UARM meetings.