Why sextuplets are not a good idea...

If you've thought about travelling abroad for fertility treatment and have maybe wondered whether the relaxed regulations in other countries might be part of the attraction, think again... I've just been reading an article about a woman in the States who has given birth to sextuplets after fertility treatment - ten weeks early. Five of them are apparently doing "as well as can be expected", which given their prematurity and very low birth weights will undoubtedly mean problems ahead. The sixth baby faces "greater challenges". Their mother was offered "selective reduction", which is a way of dealing with bad decisions made during fertility treatment, but felt unable to take that option. In this particular case, it wasn't that too many embryos had been transferred during IVF. These sextuplets were the result of IUI. In this country, when a fertility specialist stimulates the ovaries during IUI, the treatment is tailored to aim to produce one or at most two eggs. Any responsible specialist would immediately stop treatment if there was a danger of this this kind of risky high-order multiple pregnancy. According to the article I read, there are as many as 2,000 cases of selective reduction each year in the States, and it's little wonder that there is sometimes such vehement opposition to fertility treatment. The fact that it is "hard to regulate" IUI seems to be the excuse - but surely it is time for fertility specialists to face up to the consequences of the treatments they are offering. Our system in the UK is not without faults, but it's only when you see what can happen in other places that you realise quite how lucky we are. See the article in question here