Infertility treatment claims ‘ridiculous’
John Waterstone said the consensus among those attending the society’s AGM in Athlone this weekend was that the claims of a 300% improvement in birth rates on foot of the treatment were “utterly extravagant”.
“Nobody in the room, and the whole of the IVF society in Ireland is represented here, is saying that there will be a threefold increase,” said Dr Waterstone.
He said the “whole exercise” was a “marketing ploy” and was being done for commercial reasons.
Dr Waterstone, who runs the Cork Fertility Centre, was responding to reports that women undergoing IVF are three times more likely to have a baby through a technique that involves “time-lapse” imaging to monitor the development of embryos and identify those with chromosomal abnormalities.
The technique means that instead of the more conventional method, where embryos are removed from an incubator and development checked under the microscope up to six times over a five-day period, incubation is continuous and time-lapse imaging allows more than 5,000 snapshots to be taken over the same period.
Alison Campbell, Beaconcare Fertility embryology director, said this allows each stage of division and growth to be observed and measured more closely.
“As a result of continuous monitoring we have demonstrated that delays at defined time points indicate abnormal development,” said Ms Campbell.
Dr Waterstone said the technique was “promising” and “interesting” in showing how embryos behave, with a view to selecting the “best-looking”.
“But the question is, will it really allow us to pick out the best embryo? And at this stage, the most we can say is ‘maybe’,” Dr Waterstone.
He said the study that gave rise to the “breakthrough” claims was too small to be significant and that a randomised controlled trial was needed where the technique was used on some women and the traditional method on others and the results compared.
“It’s unfair to be pushing this as the hottest thing since sliced pan when it is unproven,” said Dr Waterstone. “That is ethically questionable until we have more information to show how successful it really is.”
