Some fertility clinics exploit vulnerable couples: expert

Men and women desperate to have a child are being exploited by fertility clinics, quoting inflated success rates and suggesting expensive tests that will not increase the chances of having a baby.

The president of the Irish Fertility Society (IFS), John Waterstone, has said the “increasing commercialisation” of assisted reproduction urgently needs to be tackled through regulation.

“It is all too easy to attract patients by quoting inflated and unsubstantiated ‘success’ rates and then relieve them of thousands more euro than they had anticipated spending,” said Dr Waterstone.