Have you noticed how every IVF story begins with a couple's "desperate bid" for a child? Perhaps that should be every cliche-ridden story, but it's such a horrible phrase. I desperately longed for a child, but I wasn't making a "desperate bid" for one by having IVF - I was having the treatment needed to sort out a medical problem. Do people make "desperate bids" for treatment for any other medical condition I wonder? Anyway, enough...
The newspaper story I've just been reading (which begins with the formulaic "desperate bid") is about a couple who had ICSI twins delivered prematurely, and it suggests that the problems they experienced must be down to the ICSI - without any consideration of the fact that they were multiples born prematurely when we know that multiple birth is the biggest health risk to IVF babies.
The article in question went on to catalogue virtually every scare story about IVF just in case you weren't sufficiently freaked out (with a small caveat admitting that actually there was some conflicting evidence). It even suggested that parents of IVF children were constantly worried about what their fertility treatment might have done to their children's health when they were much older, concluding that if you have fertility treatment it will always continue to cause you "unimaginable anxiety" - I interviewed dozens of IVF parents for my book Precious Babies and can assure you that this is simply not true.
Please don't get taken in by scare stories - talk to your fertility specialist and get an expert's insight into the situation. I'm not posting a link to the original story - if you've read it, I hope this reassures you - if you haven't, please don't bother.
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