Test tube babies reach 5 million
The background
The number of IVF babies has reached five million worldwide, according to new research. The world’s first “test tube baby”, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 in the UK.
The new figures were presented at a fertility conference in Turkey. “This technology has been highly successful in treating infertile patients. Millions of families with children have been created, thereby reducing the burden of infertility,” said Dr David Adamson, chair of the organisation that carried out the research, reported the BBC.
IVF is not an insurance policy
“If people delay childbirth they may view IVF as an insurance policy that they can access at any stage,” Stuart Lavery, director of IVF at Hammersmith Hospital, told the BBC. “Unfortunately the facts still suggest that IVF success rates in women as they get older are not fantastic.”
IVF increase among over-forties
“Over the past 20 years, the number of IVF cycles undertaken by women in their forties has increased by more than 500 per cent – the biggest increase of any age group,” reported Rachel Ellis for The Daily Mail. “Doctors say working women who put off having a family to pursue a career are largely responsible for the massive increase.”
Britain restricts access to IVF
Stephen Adams wrote in The Telegraph that Britain has been ranked third from bottom in a list of nations offering access to IVF. “In Belgium, one of the most generous countries, there were 2,479 cycles per million people. In the UK there were only 825,” Adams said.
