{"id":420,"date":"2008-07-09T06:45:57","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T06:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2008\/07\/a-premature-recommendation-for-ivf.html"},"modified":"2008-07-09T06:45:57","modified_gmt":"2008-07-09T06:45:57","slug":"a_premature_recommendation_for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2008\/07\/a_premature_recommendation_for.html","title":{"rendered":"A premature recommendation for IVF?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week fertility experts have descended on Barcelona for the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction & Embryology<\/a>. Thirty years after scientists created the first \u2018test tube\u2019 baby Louise Brown, the discussion among these experts is not just about the ability to achieve pregnancy through in vitro fertilization (IVF<\/span>) but also access to such treatment.<\/p>\n

Many women in parts of Africa have inadequate access<\/a> to cheap fertility treatments, including IVF<\/span>, according to Willem Ombelet, head of an ESHRE<\/span> task force at the focused on infertility in developing countries. Crucially, infertility can carry a huge stigma in Africa, causing women to lose inheritance rights and suffer accusations of witchcraft, for example.<\/p>\n

One solution to the problem suggested at the conference was the development of low-cost clinics that substitute traditional IVF<\/span> incubators with a water bath for the cells. This revised procedure could, if supported by the right infrastructure, potentially reduce the cost of IVF<\/span> to around $200, claim its developers.<\/p>\n

But women living in certain developed countries also suffer from a lack of access to fertility care, according to Guido Pennings, who recently published an ESHRE<\/span> task force paper on cross-border reproductive care<\/a>. One might also call this \u2018reproductive tourism\u2019, though Pennings voiced his dislike for this phrase. Essentially he and the other members of the task forced reached a conclusion that when a woman cannot receive the fertility treatment she wants in her country \u2013 for example because the waiting list is too long or the type of treatment she needs is forbidden by law \u2013 her physician has a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d inform her about the option of seeking fertility care abroad.<\/p>\n

The recommendation seems relatively harmless, until one considers that given the current demands of health care systems it\u2019s unlikely that physicians have the time to closely track the success of uncertified foreign clinics. Pennings notes that ESHRE<\/span> can certify clinics as meeting certain standards; but it will take years for such certifications to be widely adopted. For now, many women and doctors must rely on word-of-mouth and internet searches to choose the right fertility clinic abroad.<\/p>\n

In my view, these recommendations supporting cross-border reproductive care come too soon. In fact, with the current lack of monitoring, increased reproductive tourism could create an environment where local women are exploited in egg donation and surrogacy. Pennings, meanwhile, maintains that it\u2019s best for physicians to advise their patients on reproductive care abroad since these women will likely seek it anyway. Do you think the recommendations are premature?<\/p>\n

\"baby.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo by Morten Liebach via Flickr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week fertility experts have descended on Barcelona for the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction & Embryology. Thirty years after scientists created the first \u2018test tube\u2019 baby Louise Brown, the discussion among these experts is not just about the ability to achieve pregnancy through in vitro fertilization (IVF) but also access to such treatment.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-womens-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}