Private IVF clinics are ‘exploiting women’
(cz) Foetal medicine pioneer attacks unnecessary and expensive treatments
Britain’s leading foetal medicine expert has condemned the IVF industry, saying some private clinics are exploiting women desperate to get pregnant by offering them unproven and expensive treatments.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Professor Charles Rodeck, founder and head of the unit for foetal medicine at University College Hospital London, has expressed particular concern over some of the drugs and tests being offered to infertile couples.
‘The commercial world of IVF provision is a very competitive one, so some clinics try to keep a step ahead by offering more interventions than their competitors, even if they know those procedures might not work,’ he said.
Rodeck transformed the use of foetal medicine in Britain by initiating the use of ultrasound for foetal therapy and diagnosis of malformations in the late Seventies. He went on to set up the first foetal medicine unit in the early Eighties, as well as setting up clinics specialising in the care of young women.
‘Even though I have no evidence that the mothers or babies are being harmed by the extra hormones and steroids they are increasingly being given by these clinics, you can’t be sure what happens to a baby when you put unnecessary and unproven medicines into its mother’s body,’ he said. more…
From: »The Guardian / The Observer«