Should we Cut Back on IVF?
By Lara Salahi,
The Boston Globe
| 01. 29. 2014
In vitro fertilization (IVF) has given about 5 percent of couples who suffer from infertility a shot at parenthood. But are we overusing the technology without clearly understanding its risks? Yes, say a group of European researchers who came to the conclusion by reviewing studies on women who underwent the procedure and the health of children born using the technology.
IVF was originally approved for use in women with fallopian tube disorders and men who suffered with infertility. Today IVF is used with couples with other types of
infertility-related disorders -- including unexplained infertility. In their analysis
published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, the European researchers say we may be overusing IVF to treat an expanded list of conditions without clear evidence that it will be effective. Even if it does work, the procedure is performed without knowing what the risks may be for the women or IVF-born children later on.
Although it’s has been around since the late 1970s, there’s a lot we still don’t know about IVF. More than 60,000 children with born through IVF...
Related Articles
By Anna Collinson and Jo Adnitt, BBC | 08.18.2026
At least 30 children, most of them British, are feared to have been conceived by IVF treatment in northern Cyprus using the wrong sperm or egg donors.
In each case, the parents suspect they did not get the donors they...
What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko; and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden have a great deal in common, with substantial differences in style and emphasis. Both books attempt, in different ways, to show the reader just where current research into human genomics stands, where that might be going, and why the authors are interested. In short, the influence of genomic research on our societies is already large and seems likely to change them in ways...
By Dan Falk, Nautilus | 08.20.2026
The pseudoscience of eugenics, founded on the mistaken notion that nature envisions some “right” combination of genes, and that selective breeding can improve the human race, is making a comeback. While the heyday of eugenics was a century ago, the...
By Emily Packard Dawson and Lainie Friedman Ross, MedPage Today | 08.18.2026
Few things evoke a greater sense of desperation than a parent seeking an experimental treatment for their child. That desperation can make even extraordinary risks seem worth taking. This dynamic has come into stark relief after Mei, a 6-year-old girl...