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It's been four decades since Louise Brown became the first human to be been born after conception by IVF, and since then, there have been well over a million 'test-tube babies' born worldwide. But Professor Robert Winston, whose multi-award winning work on fertility treatments helped thousands of women give birth to happy and healthy babies, says the 40-year anniversary should be a time to re-evaluate its successes.
"The 40th anniversary is a time to celebrate the great happiness of millions of couples. But this achievement of Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards [who developed the IVF technique], and many other pioneers, is also a moment for most serious reflection," he says.
The leading fertility expert believes that many couples who are struggling to conceive and shelling out thousands of pounds on private treatment are being exploited by misleading statistics.
"Most people who go in for IVF are over the age of 35 and have a lower success rate than the national statistics show," says Winston. Yet despite this, he describes a "major problem" with private clinics "selling the dream" to desperate...