Yes, IVF screening is costly; but it does reduce risk
(sz) Robert Winston’s attack on fertility clinics was misjudged and misleading, says Alan Handyside
Robert Winston’s attack on IVF clinics for exploiting patients for profit “out of their desperation to get pregnant”, and by offering tests for which “there was no clinical justification” is unwarranted, misleading and a disservice to patients (Winston: IVF clinics corrupt and greedy, May 31).
Lord Winston was particularly critical about a test for chromosome screening which “costs several thousands of pounds, [and] is routinely used to weed out unviable embryos”, adding that “most of the people who are doing this work are doing a form of cookery without understanding the science behind it”.
Abnormalities in the number of chromosomes an embryo inherits at fertilisation are the main cause of pregnancy failure. In IVF treatment, screening embryos before they are returned to the uterus is a well established method for identifying these abnormalities. Our own patients are always informed of the limitations of the test. Yes, we can only “interrogate a tiny portion of an embryo’s genome”, but there is no assertion that we are doing otherwise.
Contrary to Lord Winston’s claim that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has “not prevented the exploitation of women” nor “limited the number of unscientific treatments people have access to”, this and other similar tests on embryos are tightly regulated. more…
From: »The Guardian Unlimited« (comments)