Fertility clinics urged to cut number of multiple pregnancies

Fertility clinics were issued with fresh guidelines yesterday to help reduce the number of women who have multiple pregnancies after IVF treatment.

Britain has one of the highest rates of multiple pregnancy in Europe, with doctors warning that they put women and their babies at far greater risk of medical complications. Under the guidelines, clinics will be encouraged to transfer only single embryos to the womb whenever the procedure is likely to be successful.

At the moment most clinics transfer two embryos at once, which boosts a woman's chances of becoming pregnant, but also increases her risk of having twins.

Women who fall pregnant with twins have a greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or having a baby prematurely.

Twins are also more likely to face longer term medical problems, such as cerebral palsy. Multiple pregnancies can be problematic for mothers too, who face a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

The guidelines were drawn up by the British Fertility Society and the Association of Clinical Embryologists in response to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which has called on fertility clinics to cut multiple birth rates from 24% to 10% within three years.

The proposals, published in the journal Human Fertility, set out ways for clinics to reduce multiple pregnancies. In the UK, 87% of multiple pregnancies are in women under 37 and having their first cycle of treatment. A key recommendation is for women who are younger than 37 who have several good-quality IVF embryos, to have only one transferred at a time.

Tony Rutherford, chair of the British Fertility Society's policy and practice committee, said hopes to reduce multiple pregnancies would only be possible with substantial extra funding from the NHS. At the moment, few primary care trusts offer the recommended three free cycles of IVF, and have the ability to store frozen embryos for use if the first does not produce a pregnancy.

"We need a sea change in the attitude to funding these extra cycles of IVF, because if we don't, we will inevitably see a reduction in live birth rates," said Rutherford.

In Belgium, where similar guidelines have been introduced, multiple pregnancies have dropped to about 7%, with triplets births almost completely avoided.

Claire Brown, of Infertility Network UK, said it was important for single embryo transfers to go hand in hand with guidance already issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.