IVF Issues – Facts, Figures, Ethical and Emotional Issues

 

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European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology 2008 REPORT for 2005 data

Please note the current success rate for IVF in Ireland is only 21.1% (in keeping with the European-wide average). This figure is reported as “deliveries per IVF cycle started in Ireland Table VI, page 8 of the attached report.

The study abstract fails to report this figure and confusingly reports “clinical pregnancies per aspiration or per embryo transfer” ranging from 26.9% up to 30.3%. It is important to realise this is not the success rate per 100 people who started treatment but selective reporting of a sub-group within the study.

According to ESHRE’s data 15 to 24% of all IVF pregnancies ended in miscarriage! Only 21.1 per hundred couples achieved a successful delivery, for the most recent data available in Ireland.

Interestingly Italy only have an 8% live birth rate, where they have legal guidelines to protect the embryo from conception. This shows that to achieve a reasonable success rate with IVF, you must be prepared to produce excess embryos over and above the one or two you intend to replace. This is problematic if one considers the scientific evidence that human life begins at conception.

Link to ONLINE ARTICLE