Sirpa Vilska
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Sirpa Vilska
A Helsinki infertility doctor who showed, in 1999, that choosing one embryo could keep pregnancy rates up and twins away.
A Helsinki clinician. Sirpa Vilska is a Finnish gynaecologist who worked at the Infertility Clinic of the Family Federation of Finland in Helsinki. Her early papers, from the 1980s, studied hormone therapy after the menopause. One, from Turku, followed growth and hormones in young people treated for cancer.
One embryo, by choice. Vilska was first author of the 1999 study that opens Room 7. With Aila Tiitinen, Christel Hydén-Granskog and Outi Hovatta, she looked at every fresh IVF cycle in two Helsinki clinics during 1997. Where couples had at least two embryos but transferred only one, the pregnancy rate per transfer was 29.7 per cent. With two embryos it was 29.4 per cent, but almost a quarter of those pregnancies were twins. The team recommended a single embryo for women of 35 or under with good quality embryos.
Following the families. She stayed with the subject for years. She took part in a Finnish randomised trial of one versus two embryos. She also helped study single transfer for women aged 36 to 39. Later she led a study of parents of twins born after fertility treatment. It followed their mental health from pregnancy to the children's first birthday.
That study found that twin parenthood itself, rather than fertility treatment, weighed most on parents in the first year. It was quiet evidence for the case she had helped to make in 1999.
Also see: Aila Tiitinen, Christel Hydén-Granskog, Outi Hovatta
About the sources
- Vilska S, Unkila-Kallio L. Mental health of parents of twins conceived via assisted reproductive technology. Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology 2010;22(3):220–226. PubMed 20305559, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20305559/
- Vilska S, Unkila-Kallio L, Punamäki RL, et al., Tulppala M. Mental health of mothers and fathers of twins conceived via assisted reproduction treatment: a 1-year prospective study. Human Reproduction 2009;24(2):367–377. Affiliation: Infertility Clinic, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki. PubMed 19043082, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19043082/
- Veleva Z, Vilska S, Hydén-Granskog C, Tiitinen A, Tapanainen JS, Martikainen H. Elective single embryo transfer in women aged 36-39 years. Human Reproduction 2006;21(8):2098–2102. PubMed 16740524, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16740524/
- Martikainen H, Tiitinen A, Tomás C, Tapanainen J, Orava M, Tuomivaara L, Vilska S, Hydén-Granskog C. One versus two embryo transfer after IVF and ICSI: a randomized study. Human Reproduction 2001;16(9):1900–1903. PubMed 11527895, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11527895/
- Vilska S, Tiitinen A, Hydén-Granskog C, Hovatta O. Elective transfer of one embryo results in an acceptable pregnancy rate and eliminates the risk of multiple birth. Human Reproduction 1999;14(9):2392–2395. Affiliation: Infertility Clinic, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki. PubMed 10469718, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10469718/
- Vilska S, Lähteenmäki P, Kaihola HL, Salmi TT. Endocrine status and growth after malignancy treated in childhood or adolescence. International Journal of Fertility 1988;33(4):283–290. Affiliation: Turku University Central Hospital. PubMed 2902044, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2902044/
- PubMed author search, Vilska S[au] (30 records, 1980 to 2014), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Vilska+S%5Bau%5D
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
