Financial compulsions lead to patients asking for more Embryos

Birth rate of twins and triplets is set to increase as more Australian women undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) insist doctors to implant multiple embryos to reduce the cost of fertility treatment.

Despite multiple births carrying a five-fold greater risk of death, premature delivery or other complications, clinic chiefs say more couples are taking the chance.

According to experts, cuts to health care rebate have pushed up patient costs by about $1500 for each IVF cycle, forcing many to delay or abandon attempts to conceive. There is more pressure from cash-strapped patients to implant multiple embryos to boost chances of pregnancy in one cycle, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

'They're saying, we understand that it's more dangerous but we can't afford to do another cycle so we'll have two embryos put back and we'll deal with the consequences. If our (premature) baby... has to have eight weeks in intensive care, well medicare pays for that,' said Gab Kovacs, international medical director at Monash IVF in Melbourne.

Medical director of Fertility First in Hurstville, Anne Clark, said while some patients asked for more than a single-embryo transfer, more opted out of having a second child through IVF.

IVF Australia medical director and Fertility Society president Peter Illingworth said the trend would affect the health system.

'There can be long-term health complications for twins born as a result of IVF,' he said.

'Ideally, we would like to put one embryo in at a time because of those risks but we are getting more pressure from patients to do two.'

In January, federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon capped Medicare safety net payments - which paid 80 percent of the gap between doctors' fees and the Medicare rebate - after a review found specialists were charging patients excessive fees.

According to government, patients would be no worse off if specialists charged $6000, the cost of a typical cycle. But doctors said the average cycle cost up to $7500, or higher if patients required extra treatment.

Sandra Dill, from infertility support group Access Australia, said it had been receiving 30 to 40 calls and e-mails a week since the changes, from patients complaining to be under increased financial stress.

IVF blunder couple left devastated

A couple who underwent fertility treatment have spoken of their devastation at their last embryo being accidentally implanted in another woman. The couple said they had been excited about trying for a second child with their only remaining embryo when the IVF Wales clinic, in Cardiff, admitted the mistake.

The Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust has apologised to the pair, from south Wales, and said changes have been made in a bid to prevent such a mistake happening again.

A heavy staff workload is understood to have been a factor in the human error being made.

The woman, a 38-year-old hospital worker, said nine embryos were created using IVF in 2000 and she gave birth to a son three years later.

The remaining embryos were stored until 2007 when she and her husband, a 40-year-old printing plant manager, decided to try for a second child. One of the embryos had survived and they travelled to the clinic for treatment only to be told the devastating news.

"In less than ten seconds our wonderful world was shattered when the senior embryologist stood in front of us and said, 'I'm very sorry to tell you, but there's been an accident in the lab. Your embryo has been destroyed'," the woman told the Mail on Sunday.

"We were both rooted to our seats. We were stunned and trembling. We held each other tightly, and sobbed and sobbed. It was like water from a tap. I kept thinking, "They've killed our baby! Killed our baby!"

She said it was not until later they discovered the embryo had been implanted in another woman who elected to have a termination when she found out what had happened.

The Trust has admitted liability and the couple have been paid an undisclosed sum of money. Ian Lane, the Trust's Medical Director, said: "We apologise unreservedly for this mistake."