Single embryo success

Doctors at a London hospital have proved that putting back just one embryo during IVF doesn't have to reduce your chances of getting pregnant.

The team at Guys and St Thomas' managed to increase their pregnancy rate from 27% to 32%, whilst cutting their multiple birth rate in half. They did this by using more developed embryos, or blastocysts, and their newly published research shows that putting just one back at a time really does work.

For too long, the risks involved in multiple pregnancies have been played down by many fertility doctors, who don't have to see the pain and anguish of miscarriage, of premature, sick babies or of children who will have health problems for the rest of their lives. Of course, not every multiple pregnancy is problematic, but the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has estimated that more than a hundred IVF babies die every year as a result of multiple embryo transfers, and this is not a risk patients should have to take.

The new research shows that fertility clinics can move to single embryo transfer without cutting the chances of success, and others should be encouraged to follow this lead so that fertility patients no longer have to take unnecessary risks with their own health, and that of their future children.

You can read a report on the study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in The Independent