Christina Bergh
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Christina Bergh
A Gothenburg professor whose trial showed a whole country that one embryo at a time could be enough.
Gothenburg roots. Christina Bergh built her career at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the University of Gothenburg. Her research in the early 1990s studied the cells of the ovarian follicle and hormone treatments in IVF. She is now professor emerita of obstetrics and gynaecology at the university.
The Scandinavian trial. Bergh was senior author of the large randomised trial described in Room 7, with Ann Thurin as first author. It enrolled 661 women under 36 who each had at least two good embryos. One group received a single fresh embryo, followed if needed by a single frozen one. The other received two fresh embryos. Live births were 38.8 and 42.9 per cent, and multiple births fell from 33.1 to 0.8 per cent. It appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2004.
A national change. With Per Olof Karlström she then traced what happened across Sweden as clinics moved to fewer embryos. Between 1991 and 2004, delivery rates stayed at about 26 per cent while multiple births fell from about 35 to around 5 per cent.
Counting carefully. Bergh started and leads Q-IVF, Sweden's national quality register for assisted reproduction. She also helps lead a Nordic collaboration that follows the health of IVF children and their mothers through national registers. In 2024 the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology made her an honorary member.
About the sources
- University of Gothenburg news, 'Revolutionerade IVF i hela världen, nu prisas Christina Bergh' (professor emerita; ESHRE honorary membership 2024; Q-IVF; Nordic register collaboration), 20 August 2024, https://www.gu.se/nyheter/revolutionerade-ivf-i-hela-varlden-nu-prisas-christina-bergh
- University of Gothenburg staff page, Christina Bergh, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/christinabergh
- University of Gothenburg staff page, Ann Thurin Kjellberg, https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/annthurin
- Karlström PO, Bergh C. Reducing the number of embryos transferred in Sweden: impact on delivery and multiple birth rates. Human Reproduction 2007;22(8):2202–2207. PubMed 17562674, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17562674/
- Thurin A, Hausken J, Hillensjö T, Jablonowska B, Pinborg A, Strandell A, Bergh C. Elective single-embryo transfer versus double-embryo transfer in in vitro fertilization. New England Journal of Medicine 2004;351(23):2392–2402. Affiliation: Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg. PubMed 15575055, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15575055/
- Bergh C, Hillensjö T, Wikland M, et al., Hamberger L. Adjuvant growth hormone treatment during in vitro fertilization: a randomized, placebo-controlled study. Fertility and Sterility 1994;62(1):113–120. PubMed 7516295, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7516295/
- Bergh C, Olsson JH, Selleskog U, Hillensjö T. Steroid production in cultured thecal cells obtained from human ovarian follicles. Human Reproduction 1993;8(4):519–524. PubMed 8501177, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8501177/
The IVF Museum · The Modern Laboratory · People
Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
