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Single Embryo

 

Health Sciences News

May 22, 2009

A growing number of fertility experts say implanting a single embryo during in vitro fertilization is better for mothers, babies and the public health system.

Most in vitro fertilization procedures in Canada involve implanting a patient with at least two embryos to improve the chances of a pregnancy. But some fertility doctors say transferring a single embryo can be just as effective and less risky in healthy women under the age of 35.

"With elective single-embryo transfer in the appropriate patients, the success rates are over 60 per cent," said Dr. Jason Hitkari of the Genesis Fertility Centre in Vancouver.

But women are often reluctant to try single-embryo transfer since they're paying $10,000 for IVF and they want the best odds of becoming pregnant, Hitkari added.

Single pregnancies are also easier on the health-care system, since caring for low-birth weight babies costs 11 times more than caring for full-term infants, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Several European countries have legislation banning multiple-embryo IVF. In those countries, pre-term births have dropped dramatically while the IVF success rate has stayed the same, said Dr. Shoo Lee, head of neonatology at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

"What this means is that you can actually legislate this, have a better outcome for mothers, for babies, for families and for society and without incurring the kinds of problems we are seeing."

The Quebec government is currently considering introducing such a bill.

If single-embryo transfers were the norm, complication rates and hospital costs would drop, said Beverly Hanck of the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada in Montreal.

"Overall in Canada, they will save over $200 million annually if we can get these multiple births down," Hanck said.

Hilary Brooker of Vancouver was initially looking forward to the possibility of having twins from multiple embryo transfer. Single-embryo transfer worked for her.

"I have an amazing daughter, she's absolutely great," said Brooker, adding that once she understood the benefits of having one baby at a time, it was an easy decision.

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