I had dinner last night with among others Sean Tipton, press officer for ESHRE’s American rival, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). He’s here to persuade delegates to attend the ASRM’s own meeting, to be held in New Orleans in October.

The ESHRE meeting is slightly bigger than ASRM’s in terms of attendance, but the Americans tip the balance (just) on the number of abstracts. Sean told me he was taken by surprise yesterday, when two Iraqi delegates asked him whether it is safe to go to New Orleans. I’m not familiar with what it’s like there at the moment, but it’s hard to imagine the security situation could rival that in Iraq. Sean says New Orleans is hosting its first really big conference since hurricane Katrina this week, however, and he’ll be watching with interest how that goes.

He also mentioned how sperm and particularly egg donation are becoming more common in celebrity births, especially among the set of female stars having babies into their mid-40s. Some feel such celebrities could do a lot towards removing the stigma of infertility by talking about their treatment. But perhaps not surprisingly, few are willing to do so.