Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.As society in Britain gets older, the age at which people marry and start families, or have children without partners, is also rising.
One consequence of this trend towards women having their first child on average in their late 20s or early 30s is growing difficulties in conceiving and the rapid growth in demand for assisted reproduction services, such as IVF. Over 45,000 women were treated with IVF in the UK in 2010 and the number goes up each year.
But as we report today, some experts fear that in a largely commercially driven industry, where the pressure for results in terms of pregnancy is enormous, the long-term safety of many women is being put at risk through the use of what appear to be unnecessarily high doses of drugs and risky interventions. According to Professor Geeta Nargund, high-dose stimulation can lead to a condition known as Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, OHSS, which at its most severe can cause kidney failure and death and is now one of the biggest cases of maternal mortality in England and Wales.
This is not the case in some other European countries, or in Canada, where milder, less toxic drugs are usually used to stimulate the ovaries, producing lower pregnancy rates but also safeguarding women's health and allowing them to recover faster and repeat the same treatment within a month if they wish.
Most IVF treatment in Britain is private – but this is not a simple case of evil private versus good state medicine. The demand for results and for the use of strong drugs often comes primarily from lobbies representing infertile couples, whose desperation to have children is heartbreaking and whose pressure on the industry to "deliver" – emotional pressure as much as anything else – is relentless.
Nevertheless, there is surely a warning for the rest of the health service here about what can happen when commercial principles are introduced into health, which is that safety concerns can start taking a back seat. At a time when there is much talk of introducing more competition into the health service, we need to be vigilant in ensuring that patient safety continues to trump any other considerations.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments