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IVF treatment can have serious health issues

Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:56 am

Many studies have been conducted researching the safety of IVF treatment. In 2002, an Australian survey reported birth defects in babies from IVF treatment had a two fold increase. Two years later a different study showed a near 30 per cent increase in such defects. In 2009 a recent study has lead to the UK government issuing a health alert.

The United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention conducted research which showed that IVF births were two times more likely to have defects and near five times as likely to have digestive disorders. Bowel disorder risk is increased 3.7 times and cleft lip 4 times.

The study, which caused the UK to issue the health alert to be issued, found that IVF babies will have more heart valve problems too. Additionally, but unusually, there is also an increased risk of genetic disorders which may lead to developmental delays or learning difficulties. Even with relatively low risks, those seeking treatment should be informed of the potential problems as when a child has difficulties it is the parents who suffer as well as the child.

Richard Kenney from the British Fertility Society (BFS) has said that, “IVF treatments carry some risks and patients must be informed. The fact that HFEA is renewing its guidelines is a very good thing but we also must remember that while the risks are there they are relatively small, even though patients must still be told about these risks.”

An estimation by the BFS put the figure at 3.5 per cent of IVF babies will suffer a defect, whereas 2.5 per cent is the figure for the general population. The Comment of Reproductive Ethics group has stated that, “IVF is not where people trying and failing to conceive should automatically go, and more money must be put into funding research into the restoration of natural fertility.”

One theory on why there are increased birth defects is that nature prefers healthy people as their children will have the best chance at survival. For those who don’t meet the requirements nature makes it harder for them to conceive, in a pre-historic environment those with birth defects would not survive so nature prevented their birth.

Modern medicine has overcome nature in this regard and children with birth defects do survive with treatment and the use of modern technology. Although IVF has helped thousands to conceive, it still should be considered as a last resort after all other avenues have been explored.

Many see IVF on the NHS as a right

Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 2:48 pm

Women over forty may now be able to seek IVF treatments on the NHS; the organization has taken this decision in order to avoid being sued for ‘age discrimination’ according to new reports.

There is a difference between procedures that are life enhancing and those that are life saving, which most parents seemed to recognize until recently, but now the greedy IVF industry has turned parents into comparing infertility with cancer.

At one time, infertility was referred to as an unfortunate occurrence, but now it is seen as a disease, which means that instead of being perceived as something out of one’s control, it is seen as something that with enough money and technology can be addressed.

As a result, IVF is fostering false hopes, with many clinics promising that conception can be achieved one out of every three times, but the national average is actually quite a bit lower.

The IVF debate has also created a new issue of entitlement as people now think of a child as a right instead of a blessing and as many couples now feel that it is their right to have a child the same as it is their right to live the NHS must provide treatments.

Roughly translated, this means that one in seven couples that face infertility are entitled to receive treatment that costs £2000 a cycle, and usually takes at least three cycles before conception is achieved.

Cynics are raising questions given that the NHS is supposed to help prevent premature death and illness, but the fact that the trusts turns down cancer drugs requests that are too expensive it seems that its focus may be misaligned.

New hope with new IVF treatment

Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:03 am

Women battling infertility may have new hope after British scientists had a breakthrough with IVF treatment.

The new technique involves embryo screening that makes it much more likely that a woman using IVF will not only get pregnant, but also have a full term birth.

The trial of the new technique showed that the treatment doubles the likelihood of conception, even for women who are well into their late thirties.

In over two thirds of the cases the embryo was successfully implanted, and over 80% of those women were able to follow the implantation through into a live birth.

The results make the treatment three times as effective as standard IVF in the UK, in which only a quarter of treatments result in conception, and a third of those follow through into live births.

At the moment, 20 babies have been born using the new programme.
Dr. Dagan Wells from Oxford University who developed the embryo screening technique called it ‘astonishing’ and expressed hope that private and NHS clinics will make it standard practice.

Susan Seenan from the Infertility Network in the UK said that any improvements in the success rates of IVF are always important, and even more so when patients are only able to receive one cycle on the NHS.

Last year alone over 37,000 British women underwent IVF treatment, however in standard treatment many of the cycles do not make it through into a live birth, because the foetus miscarries or the embryo does not properly implant itself.