IVF Clinics Told to Cut Multiple Births to 10%
By BBC,
BBC
| 02. 09. 2012
IVF clinics have been told that no more than 10% of births should be twins or triplets by regulators.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) set the target in order to cut the number of multiple pregnancies from fertility treatment.
Such pregnancies carry significant risks to mother and babies, and a policy of single embryo transfer was introduced in January 2009.
The new rules come into effect in October this year.
Multiple-birth pregnancies have a higher chance of miscarriage, and of leading to premature birth and of babies with cerebral palsy.
Single embryo transfer (SET) is particularly recommended for women having IVF who are under 37, having their first cycle of treatment, and have "excellent quality" embryos.
Currently, clinics offering fertility treatment have a target of no more than 15%.
Embryologists say clinics are generally achieving that rate, or somewhere near it.
That is down from 23.6% at the beginning of 2008.
Best Chance?
Writing to clinics to announce the latest change, Alan Doran, chief executive of the HFEA, said: "The sector as a whole has responded very...
Related Articles
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 09.25.2025
In the leadup to the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF more accessible. He made the commitment central to his campaign, even referring to himself as the “father of IVF.” In his first month in office, Trump issued an executive order promising to expand IVF access. The order set a 90-day deadline for policy recommendations for “lowering costs and reducing barriers to IVF,” although it didn’t make any substantive reproductive healthcare policy changes.
The response to the...
Sir Francis Galton, 1890s, by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant)
npg.org
Public Domain via Wikipedia
As has been discussed in recent issues of Biopolitical Times (1, 2), there are, increasingly, companies that claim to be selling parents better babies by selecting the “best” embryos. These services don’t come cheap – think $50,000, or even more, for embryo testing, plus perhaps as much again for IVF and concomitant services. To most of us, that is extremely expensive...
By Margaux MacColl, The San Francisco Standard | 09.17.2025
Designer babies are coming soon to an IVF clinic near you.
Nucleus Genomics, founded by Kian Sadeghi in 2020, when he was just 20, got its start analyzing genomes to weigh a person’s risk of everything from cancer to ADHD...
By Marianne Lamers, NEMO Kennislink [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 09.23.2025
Een rijtje gespreide vulva’s gaapt de bezoeker aan. Zó ziet een bevalling eruit, en zó een baarmoeder met foetus. Een zwangerschap, maar dan zonder zwangere vrouw, gestript van zorgen, gêne en pijn. De zwangerschapsmodellen en oefenbekkens, te zien in de...