IVF safety

If you've read the story in the papers today about the increased risk of defects for babies born after IVF treatment, don't panic. Some of the reports make it sound as if huge numbers of IVF babies are being born with serious defects, providing the opportunity for those who "don't agree" with IVF to have a field day, explaining that messing with nature or attempting to play God was always bound to lead to disaster and that it's only our own selfish desire to have children by IVF on the NHS rather than adopting one of the millions of unwanted babies that has led to this...

Where to start... IVF has been around for 30 years. If there was really a huge risk of children being born with serious defects, we would have seen the evidence from the start. The reality is that there is a slightly higher risk of having some very rare conditions if you have an IVF baby - but the fact that these conditions are very rare to begin with means that the chance of having these defects even with IVF is still extremely low. What isn't clear is whether some of this increased risk may come from the underlying fertility problems or the fact that IVF mothers are often older, rather than the IVF process itself.

It's sad the way a story like this brings out so much misinformed opinion about IVF and infertility - why do people seem to think that most IVF is funded by the NHS in the UK ? And have they any idea how few babies in the UK are waiting for adoptive parents? Why does the desire for a child suddenly become selfish if you need IVF to do it?

What we really need is some good, solid research to clarify the truth about the risks for IVF babies. Only then will we see an end to the scare stories.