Frustrated by the high costs and long waiting lists associated with in vitro fertilization treatments, more and more infertile couples in the developed world are seeking assisted reproduction services abroad. Such ‘procreative tourism’ might save time and money, but, with only around one in three countries regulating their fertility clinics, crossing national borders to conceive can result in inadequate treatment and increased health risks. Aiming to protect couples and would-be donors of sperm and eggs, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) yesterday outlined the first-ever international guidelines for cross-border reproductive care.

The ESHRE recommendations “will provide guidance for clinics treating foreign patients and it will help regulators and policy makers to create a framework to enable centers to abide by these rules,” Françoise Shenfield, a medical ethicist at University College London and the coordinator of the ESHRE task force on the issue, said in a statement.

In Europe, tens of thousands of infertile couples cross the border each year to receive reproductive care, often to dodge legal restrictions in their home countries on gamete donation or the number of permitted attempts at IVF. Individuals willing to go to such extremes to conceive can be vulnerable to coercion and manipulation, so the ESHRE task force recommends that people are told upfront about the costs and risk of fertility treatments in different countries. The new guidelines also call for the implementation of national donor registries to ensure that those who provide eggs or sperm are protected.

Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, fertility clinics are under attack for short-changing egg donors. As The Economist reports this week, an egg donor in the US has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology alleging that these organization’s pricing guidelines keep reimbursement rates for eggs artificially low.

With so many young women undergoing the lengthy and often painful procedure of egg donation for extra pocket change and an increasing number of couples traveling for the privilege of IVF services, the new best practice guide is a step in the right direction toward better care for all women.

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