Desperate would-be parents charged up to £8,000 for IVF extras ‘despite NO good evidence they work’
The extras offered by UK clinics range from £50 blood screening tests to £8,000 egg freezing - often without evidence they will improve pregnancy chances
EXPENSIVE private fertility treatment sold to would-be parents on top of standard IVF could be a waste of money, a study has found.
Some UK fertility clinics are charging couples for “add-on” packages.
These include £50 for a single blood screening test and £8,000 for egg freezing.
But Oxford University researchers suggest in many cases there is no scientific evidence to prove the benefits.
The findings are part of a Panorama undercover investigation which will be broadcast tonight at 8.30pm on BBC1.
Investigators found 26 out of 27 treatments offered as “add-ons” have no good evidence from trials that they improve the chance of getting pregnant.
The treatments range form £50 blood screenings to £8,000 egg freezing
Just one treatment - called endometrial scratch - had research backing up claims it could increase the chance of getting pregnant, but it still has question marks surrounding its effectiveness.
In 2007 a trial for one “add-on” treatment called Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS), which tests embryos for abnormalities, discovered that an earlier version of this process may have lowered birth rates.
Many clinics sell newer, more accurate versions, in some cases for up to £3000, researchers found.
One Panorama investigator, aged 38, asked 18 clinics if PGS would improve her chances of having a child on top of IVF.
Just five of the clinics said they would not recommend PGS because it lacked evidence, another five clinics surveyed replied positively about the benefits.
A linked study by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) uncovered that only 13 fertility centre websites out of 74 included any references explaining the chances of improved fertility outcomes.
The BMJ concluded: "Our findings demonstrate that whilst many claims were made on the benefits of fertility treatments, there was a lack of supporting evidence cited, with the majority of the websites providing no sources for claims made."
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