IVF strategy to reduce number of hazardous multiple births
(cz) Better NHS funding of fertility treatment will be crucial to the prevention of hazardous twin and triplet births, the IVF watchdog said yesterday as it announced a national strategy to reduce rates of multiple pregnancies.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) expects clinics to cut the proportion of twin and triplet pregnancies from one in four to one in ten over three years. Multiple births are the biggest health risk in IVF.
Instead of backing the target with the threat of restrictions on the transfer of multiple embryos, the regulator has chosen a voluntary approach by which professional groups will draw up guidelines on how it should be achieved. It called on the Government to pay for more free cycles of treatment to make the plan work.
Walter Merricks, the interim chairman of the HFEA, has written to Dawn Primarolo, the Health Minister, to press the case for better access. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends that three cycles of IVF should be offered to women under 40, yet the Government asks primary care trusts to offer just one and many have imposed restrictions on which patients qualify. more…
From: »The Times«