Are Milder IVF Methods the Way Forward?

Crystal the chihuahua is a reminder to Mandy Bond of how she almost gave up on becoming a mother. She and her husband Tim bought the little dog to help ease the pain of spending £43,000 on four rounds of fertility treatment at two different clinics, without success. At the age of 40, with her expectations at rock bottom, Mrs Bond gave it one last shot at a third clinic specialising in “natural” IVF, in which doctors use no or very low doses of fertility drugs.

“I’ll never forget the phone call from the clinic nurse two weeks after I’d had the treatment,” said the 44-year-old who lives near Bristol. “The nurse said 'guess what?’ and I knew then that I was pregnant. I started laughing, then I started crying and then I started laughing again. I rushed upstairs to tell Tim. He just couldn’t compute that it had finally worked.”

Taylor was born the following spring, weighing 6lb 6oz, and has just celebrated his third birthday. He is one of more than five million people worldwide born through IVF...