Monday, March 13, 2017

IVF doctors should stop advising unproven treatments to their patients

An excellent paper, authored by some of the world's leading IVF clinicians, appeared in Human Reproduction, the leading IVF medical journal, in Jan 2017.

Adjuncts in the IVF laboratory: where is the evidence for ‘add-on’ interventions?

"Those advocating and recommending unproven procedures to their patients must ensure that they fully inform the patient of the evidence for its safety and effectiveness orally and in writing to ensure that people considering treatment using adjunct therapies are in a position to make an informed decision. It is also important that all procedures performed, including the adjunct treatments, are well-documented and followed up."

The unproven treatments described in the paper include:

Embryo glue
Sperm DNA fragmentation
Time-lapse imaging
Preimplantation genetic screening
Mitochondria DNA load measurement
Assisted hatching

The problem is that most IVF clinics are private, for-profit businesses, which are happy to exploit their patient's ignorance. This is why they merrily continue to offer expensive , unproven treatment options, in order to maximise their profits.

If your doctor prescribes these " treatments" , without telling you they are experimental and unproven, then he is using you as a guinea pig. If you don't want to pay for the privilege of being one, then you should refuse these.

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