Seoul Sets Advisory Limit on IVF Embryo Transfer

South Korea’s Health Ministry is revising its guidelines for in vitro fertilization, discouraging medical professionals from transferring more than three embryos in a single procedure to prevent possible adverse birth outcomes and unwanted multiple births.

Until now, the guidelines had stated that transferring as many as five embryos per IVF cycle was encouraged to maximize a patient’s chances of becoming pregnant.

However, both overseas and local studies have shown that transferring multiple embryos is associated with a higher risk for low birth weight and premature births.

“Preterm delivery and high risk pregnancies can become additional financial burdens to the patients,” said the Health Ministry in a statement explaining its reason for the revision. 

The number of Koreans who sought medical help for infertility has increased significantly in recent years, from 178,000 in 2007 to 215,000 last year.

With more Koreans opting to have children later in life, the number of pregnancies after age 35 is also increasing here, which is considered one of the biggest contributing factors to the rising number of preterm births in the country.

The number of...