| The
truth about IVF treatment
Infertility clinics have become big business over
the last two decades with 20% IVF growth every year, but the technology
has failed to deliver. Explore this busy IVF site for more - many
pages and video.
IVF couples want
human cloning for infertility - video
 Ever
since the first test-tube baby was born in 1978 there have been
hopes that almost every couple could one day have their own children,
but the reality is far different. The failure rates with IVF can
be appalling in some clinics, yet couples continue to spend a small
fortune seeking help because they see it as their only hope.
The IVF industry is powered by photographs of beautiful
babies held by proud parents, and being childless is so traumatic
for many that almost any cost can seem worth paying. And indeed
the birth of a desperately wanted child is a priceless miracle for
a couple who have otherwise given up all hope apart from IVF. Every
year many thousands of couples become delighted parents through
IVF. This is a trully wonderful thing.
Two mums and one
dad make one baby
However there have been growing rumbles for some time
that parts of the IVF industry are running out of steam with low
success rates in some centres, high costs, serious drug-related
side effects and poor regulation in some nations, for example over
persuading women to "sell" their eggs for free treatment.
Now these fears are confirmed in a damning IVF report
by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy published.This follows
a fierce debate on health rationing with at least one health authority
banning infertility treatment on the NHS.
Critics of this decision may be forced to think again.
After all, what is the point of pouring large amounts of money into
IVF techniques which hardly work? Of course the answer is to invest
in clinics that are getting the best results.
For more read on - also see The
Rising Price of Love - true cost of sexual revolution - whole book
free on net - made banner headlines when first published - 270
page book by Dr Patrick Dixon out of print and therefore available
here as a public service. Superbly indexed - easy to find
your way around. Full
text of The Genetic Revolution - by Dr Patrick Dixon also on
this site.IVF latest news - summary
of 100,000 publications
Infertility is common and distressing. One in six
of all couples seek medical help because of childlessness, and one
in twenty will never have a child despite all that medicine can
offer. Thus it entangles the emotional and physical lives of tens
of thousands of people every year, affecting their sex lives, causing
tension in relationships, creating guilt, embarrassment and feelings
of shame or inadequacy.
 The
commonest reason for infertility in women is Pelvic Inflammatory
Disease (PID) which now accounts for one in five of all gynaecological
admissions.
This chronic and sometimes silent infection is often
caused by ly transmitted organisms such as gonorrhoea or chlamydia
which can damage the fallopian tubes.
Other causes include infection from abortion, contraceptive
coils or giving birth.
Even where damage is slight, surgical repair has a
success rate that can be as low as 10-20%. The alternative is IVF
where the ovaries are simulated, eggs are collected through an endoscope,
fertilised, cultivated and replaced.
Such treatment cycles take place around 30,000 times
a year in Britain, at a cost of up to £2,500 each. The industry
has a £75 million turnover, yet success rates are so low that if
this were any other area of medicine, the IVF clinics would probably
be closed down.
Pregnancy rates per IVF cycle of 25% or more are quoted
by Dr Mercia Page, Medical Director of Serono Laboratories, which
has 80% of the market in infertility drugs. However she admits that
this figure is achieved only by "good" clinics with women
under forty and men with normal fertility. She said last week that
live birth rates "are as good or better per cycle as nature".
Similar claims are made by others in the industry
but the reality is that a mere 12.7% of treatment cycles in many
clinics actually result in a live birth of a baby, as thousands
of couples are discovering to their cost. Even more disturbing is
the fact that the birth rates for individual IVF clinics over a
six month period can vary from 0% to 50% according to recent reports
of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
There is nothing at all controversial in medical treatments
with low success rates: indeed we see it all the time for some kinds
of cancers but of course we plough on, striving for better. The
difference is that when it comes to IVF in countries like the UK,
the treatments are usually private, not covered by state care nor
by medical insurance, the couple are paying out of their own pockets,
and the pressures are there for clinics to keep busy even when their
own success rates are not as good as the people they treat may be
hoping. And the treatments are very expensive.
Two mums and one
dad make one baby
There are more than sixty clinics and each is required
to supply figures for treatments and outcomes, but despite many
requests the HFEA has until very recently refused to publish a league
table. The official reason was that the type of people treated varies
between clinics so comparisons would be meaningless. However there
is also growing evidence that HFEA data is incomplete and inaccurate.
There is "wastage" at every stage in IVF
cycles: one in five yield no eggs at all; where eggs are removed
some do not get fertilised, and 90% of embryos replaced do not survive.
Of those that do, a few develop into life-threatening ectopic pregnancies
requiring urgent abortion, while others miscarry.
IVF latest news
- summary of 100,000 publications
The number of perinatal deaths is also double the
national average, partly because multiple pregnancies are so common
with IVF and often result in premature delivery.
Severe drug reactions from hyperstimulation of the
ovaries are also a real problem. One woman in twelve per cycle has
mild symptoms, but two in every hundred are so ill that they need
hospital admission with severe pain and sometimes shock from loss
of blood volume.
However the biggest costs of all are not money nor
health risks, but the emotional roller-coaster with drug treatment,
egg removal, sperm supply, embryo replacement, freezing of surplus
embryos, high hopes and crushing disappointment. Once again, these
are often played down when clinics are advising couples for the
first time.
It
is a strange irony that while more and more couples cannot conceive
naturally, some 170,000 pregnancies end in abortion and a generation
that would have been offered for adoption after birth are no longer
available. Therefore IVF for many is a last chance.
Adoptions have fallen rapidly from 23,000 a year in
1974 to 6,500 in 1990 while demand has soared. The supply has almost
ceased for white couples wanting a normal baby.
While the stigma of single parenting is fading, society
as a whole is still very unforgiving of a brave mother who decides
that her unwanted foetus will continue to live, to be cared for
after birth by adoptive parents.
Any woman who dares admit that she recently gave her
baby away for adoption is likely to be met with a stunned silence.
The acceptance of single parents has actually made it more difficult
for mothers who do not wish to parent their children at all.
The result is that many couples wanting to adopt are
now facing a second nightmare: having waited years before trying
to have a family, lost several more hoping for a natural pregnancy,
and spent their life savings on IVF, they only turn to adoption
in their mid to late thirties.
Faced with a waiting list of up to ten years for a
healthy baby, many are being offered older children in care instead.
Since the government spends £1 billion a year looking after such
children, and since adopted children are fed, clothed and housed
by their new parents, there is a financial logic to this, as well
as improving child welfare.
But emptying children's homes is no answer to the
epidemic of childlessness.
Part
of the solution to the pain of infertility is to get across the
message that having a child adopted after birth can be a socially
responsible and loving step to take.
In the absence of a medical breakthrough there needs
to be a complete rethink about social solutions to childlessness,
rather than just expensive techniques. And more attention must be
given to health, preventing Pelvic Inflammatory Disease in the first
place.
* Dr Patrick Dixon is author of The Rising Price of
Love published by Hodder £6-99. Full
text available free on the web - press here.
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