Baroness Deech – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Deech on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made, in the light of the costs and risks borne by the NHS with regard to multiple births resulting from multiple embryo transfer in private fertility treatment, of whether savings could be made by funding single embryo transfers on the NHS.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government has not made an assessment of the potential savings to the National Health Service from the use of single embryo transfer in fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Multiple births present significant health risks to mothers and babies. Over recent years, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has worked to drive down multiple birth rates whilst maintaining consistent treatment success rates.
To minimise the risk of multiple pregnancies, there has been a growing trend for IVF providers to only transfer one embryo, even when more are available, in patients who have a good chance of successful treatment. Elective single embryo transfer is the most effective way of reducing multiple pregnancies. The HFEA has advised that most clinics have shown significant progress in reducing multiple births without compromising pregnancy rates. In 2008 nearly one in four IVF births resulted in a multiple birth but now, with a concerted multiple births reduction policy, this number is one in six.
Although progress has been made, this number is still higher than the rate in conceptions that do not involve assisted reproduction treatment. The overall goal is to reduce multiple births to one in 10.
