Pregnancy & Birth

IVF: Get in the know

Around 6,000 babies a year are born in the UK to otherwise infertile couples as a result of in vitro fertilisation.

The first British test tube baby was Louise Brown, who was born in 1978.

What is IVF?

IVF was developed in the 1970s. It involves the women taking fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are then harvested and fertilised in the laboratory.

The woman is given hormone drugs to prepare her womb to receive the fertilised eggs.

The fertilised eggs are placed inside the womb and a normal pregnancy follows.

What are the risks?

The fertility drugs used to stimulate egg production can produce side effects.

In rare instances, the ovaries cannot cope with the increased number of eggs, leading to a condition known as ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome.

In mild forms this causes pain and bloating, but more severe cases can lead to blood clots, and kidney and ovary damage.

Some assisted conception techniques carry an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilised egg implants in the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus.

Are there other problems?

IVF is only successful in 15% of cases and success rates vary widely across the country from clinic to clinic.

Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published in 2004 recommend that suitable couples receive up to three cycles of IVF treatment on the NHS

However, several studies suggest that provision on the NHS is much more patchy.

Private treatment can cost many thousands of pounds.

Opponents of IVF argue that it falsely raises would-be parents' hopes that they will be able to have a baby when the chances are not that high.

They also argue that it can be a traumatic experience to go through repeated IVF attempts, only to find that the woman does not get pregnant.

There have been concerns that, to increase the chances of a successful treatment, IVF clinics have been too reliant on using several embryos per treatment cycle.

This increases the risk of a multiple pregnancy, which is associated with a higher risk of complications, both for mother and baby.

Measures have been introduced to limit the number of embryos which are implanted during each IVF treatment to minimise this risk.
Miracle

Source: BBC