I'm never sure whether to call him Lord Winston, or Professor Robert Winston, or Professor Lord Winston (does Professor go before Lord or after it?). Anyway, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about - the friendly TV fertility expert with the moustache... He's hit the headlines again after a speech at the Cheltenham Science Festival in which he claimed that the pregnancy and birth rates after IVF are too low.
Apparently, he said IVF success rates were disappointing, that there was not enough research looking at how to improve them, and that doctors were too complacent. He's also reported to have said that the chances of success could be doubled with new methods.
From a patient perspective, imagine what a difference it would make if he's right. The heartache, the time and the money that might be saved if treatment were twice as likely to work. It does sometimes seem that there is still so much we don't know about fertility, and the further down the line of tests and treatment you get, the more you realise how true this is. Neither doctors nor scientists can say why some embryos implant and others don't, and IVF appears to be a rather blunt instrument to solve very subtle problems.
I'm sure our fertility specialists would have a swift response to claims that they were complacent, and Lord Winston has rocked the boat before by challenging others in the field. It doesn't always make him popular with fellow clinicians, but if this ends up making a difference, he could be about to become even more popular with patients.
You can read about his comments online in The Telegraph at www.telegraph.co.uk
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