We recently came across a story in the New York Times Magazine and felt the need to respond.

Earlier this week, New Hope highlighted the benefits of single embryo transfers as expressed in an article over at the Fertility Authority.  As longstanding advocates of single embryo transfers with IVF treatments, it is our belief that unwanted multiple births can be easily prevented in the fertility field by trending away from multiple embryo transfers.  Not only is single embryo transfer less risky for both mother and child, but generally more healthy and cost effective in the short and long-term.

“The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy” profiles a woman pregnant with twins via donor egg IVF who plans to reduce her pregnancy to a single fetus.  The decision for a pregnancy reduction was made by her and her husband to alleviate the financial weight of twins along with the potential emotional weight of balancing two newborns with other children to concentrate on already.

While we understand and take into consideration the issue of reproductive rights, pregnancy reduction as a result of IVF treatment is avoidable.  The processes behind IVF, and any type of care associated with treating infertility, are already understood to be both physically and emotionally challenging for women (and couples) undergoing treatment.  When the issue of pregnancy reduction comes into the equation, this additional concern unquestionably adds more stress to an already stressful situation.

It is clear that a more customized fertility plan would have been more effective in this case.  Rather than implanting multiple embryos as practiced under conventional IVF protocols, this unwanted multiple pregnancy could have been avoided with the application of a single embryo transfer and an understanding between doctor and patient that a multiple pregnancy was not the desired outcome.

You can read the full story here.

Amidst ongoing efforts in China to bypass the “one-child only” law, private fertility clinics have started to push “multiple-baby pills” under the guise of general infertility treatment campaigns.

As China’s one-child policy remains unchanged, it is not yet clear whether or not fertility care will reach popularity levels like those in the United States and elsewhere; however, it is becoming more common for clinics in the country to announce how fertility drugs can increase the chance of multiple births.

While it is understandable for women and couples to desire more than one child, especially if they want to add to their current family or provide a sibling, the current fertility campaigns taking place are in danger of neglecting to provide important information about the potential side effects of fertility drugs and multiple births (ie. overmedication, polycystic ovarian syndrome, low birth weights).  Current trends among fertility care specialists is the US consistently suggest a shift towards more physiologically sound and natural treatments.  Minimally evasive protocols, such as those at New Hope Fertility Center, avoid the overuse of fertility drugs that can lead to high risk multiple births that put stress on both mother and child.

According to the recent report in the Wall Street Journal, family planning laws were enacted in 1980 as a way to control the population that grew under Chairman Mao.  Today, however, concerns are growing around the fact that the now shrinking (and aging) population may significantly affect the country’s economic and social growth.  Officials in Guangdong, China’s most populated province, recently requested China’s central government to waive the one-child rule under certain circumstances, including if the parents in question grew up as only children.  The same province is home to leading private hospital’s in China who are participating in the advertisement of multiple-baby pills, like Guangzhou Women’s Hospital, which currently is running an ad that states the pill “helps women address infertility” and adds “you may get twins” (source: WSJ).

While concrete statistics are not yet available regarding multiple births and the fertility campaigns, there is no question that accessibility and awareness surrounding the availability of fertility care treatments in the country is rising.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on the development of fertility care in China and news regarding the country’s one-child policy.

Last month we mentioned the possibility of Nadya Suleman’s fertility doctor getting his license revoked due to negligence.  As of Wednesday, the Medical Board of California has gone through with the revocation (source: NYTimes).

Better known as the “octomom,” Suleman became pregnant with eight children through the fertility treatment of Dr. Michael Kamrava, who admits to implanting the then 33-year-old with 12 embryos.  As reported previously, Suleman’s case is not an isolated incident – two other patients have suffered complications from Kamrava’s IVF treatments.

Already the mother of six children as a result of IVF treatments through Kamrava, Suleman’s case is a prime example of the importance of standards in dealing with women’s reproductive health.  Conventional IVF treatments, coupled with high doses of medication and multiple embryo transfers, has consistently proven to be a high risk treatment that leads to multiple child pregnancies that carry risk for both mother and child.  Suleman is only the second mother in the US to give birth to octoplets alive, with many other instances leading to low birth rates and other complications.

At NHFC, we take pride in treating each patients individual needs with an emphasis on taking the most natural and minimally evasive routes in the quest to get our potential mother’s pregnant.  For more information on our natural and Mini-IVF protocols, click here.

A Pennsylvania couple has recently become new parents — of sextuplets.  Stacey and Brendan Carey of Feasterville, PA gave birth to the newborns through cesarean section this past Monday.  Carey delivered at 27 weeks, meaning the tiny infants were born nearly 10 weeks premature.  They remain in critical condition, some of them weighing just one pound one ounce.

As the media begins to swarm around the family, the couple and the hospital staff involved are exhibiting an everlasting pride towards the ‘miracle’ while the six babies still face the road to recovery; all are still hooked up to ventilators and receiving IV support (source: CNN).  The couple has vaguely emphasized that they “did not get pregnant through IVF, but through regular ovulation induction” (source: Fox 29).

Although the aforementioned statement downplays their procedure, it sounds likely that this situation came about as a result of hyperstimulation, and while not involving IVF, is still the kind of irresponsible over-medication that we discourage with our Natural IVF and Mini-IVF protocols.

Among fertility specialists, ovulation induction and IUI treatments, though effective in some cases, raise concerns when combined with hyperstimulation protocols. Hyperstimulation can cause high-risk pregnancies that are both dangerous for the mothers and result in dangerous conditions for multiple birth infants, and in worse case scenarios, can lead to Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHS).

We will continue to follow this story and the health of the six newborns as it continues.