Woman claiming to be pregnant with 'duodecaplets' exposed as a fraud

A Tunisian woman in her 30s who earlier this month claimed to be pregnant with 12 babies, has been exposed by the country's health ministry as a fraud. The woman, from the town of Gafsa told hospital workers that she was expecting six boys and six girls.

'Our staff interviewed her at length, but her pregnancy appears to be in her imagination', said a spokesman in Tunis. 'She's claiming to be nine months pregnant...but there's absolutely nothing about her appearance which indicates this. The woman has point blank refused to undergo a medical examination. She's gone into hiding'.

A doctor at the No'man al Adab Hospital, Gasfa, confirmed that the woman had never been in their care, speculating that she may have been trying to make money from the media. The woman, a teacher, is thought to have turned to IVF treatment after having two miscarriages since her marriage in 2007. Her husband, known only as Marwan, indicated that the couple were excited about the impending births and said that 'the medical team told us my wife would give birth naturally'.

British medics had expressed their concerns about the case. Peter Bowen-Simpkins, a fellow at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists told the Daily Mail that 'the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks. I wouldn't even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It's frightening'.

It was suspected that the woman had been given fertility drugs to stimulate her ovaries into releasing several mature eggs at a time in order to maximise conception. Some women using this treatment can develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, in which the ovaries produce too many eggs, but experts cast doubt on this being the case.

'How could you get 12 babies into the womb at the same time?' questioned Mr Bowen-Simpkins. 'The womb just doesn't expand that much. She would have to be about seven feet tall'.

In January of this year, Nadia Suleman, a US divorcee, attracted worldwide media attention after giving birth to the world's longest-surviving octuplets. The record for multiple pregnancies was set in 1996, when a 23-year old Greek Cypriot woman had to abort nine of her 11 fetuses in order to save two.

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Lord Winston, Labels Egg Feezing As "Expensive Confidence Trick"

Lord Winston, emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London and pioneer of IVF, has criticized fertility clinics for over-hyping egg freezing services. In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper he accuses providers of creating false optimism in the effectiveness of the procedure particularly where signing up patients for purely 'social' reasons. Before use of egg freezing grows further he calls for more research into both the effects of egg freezing on the ability to later conceive and into the long-term health implications for those born
from frozen eggs.
The comments come in response to calls, made at last week's European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual conference, for greater availability of egg freezing as an option for women who are postponing pregnancy until later in their lives. Lord Winston's comments partially mirror a joint statement made in February by the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Fertility
Society (BFS) which also called for women not to freeze eggs for social reasons.
Lord Winston noted that the production of six to ten eggs for freezing involves both the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome for the woman and an increased likelihood of chromosome defects in the eggs produced. Producing such a quantity of eggs he sees as dangerous yet also inadequate to ensure a viable embryo is produced. The BFS has stated that the average chance of success for any individual frozen egg is six per cent and only four children have been born from frozen eggs in the UK to date.
Additionally, the lack of data on the long term health effects - the first children conceived with frozen eggs are only now five - is provided as reason enough for adopting a cautious approach towards increasing availability of egg freezing and makes encouraging those without a pressing need (such as impending cancer treatment) all the more dubious. Lord Winston states, in unequivocal terms, 'in my view it is irresponsible [for clinics] to egg freeze until long-term animal research has been done'. The most detailed research to date is due to be published next month.
Describing the procedure as a 'quick fix', Lord Winston sees the best path forward for prolonging the ability to have a child, for social reasons, is to attempt to develop better means of postponing the menopause. Though the procedure can be justified for those with serious medical conditions it is not be encouraged as a means of delaying motherhood. The provision of egg freezing for social reasons, available for between £2,500 and £5,000 at 45 clinics in the UK, is in his view simply an 'undesirable commercial activity' and should not be encouraged.

Fertility "Fingerprints"

Scientists in Ireland have discovered a group of genes that could potentially be used to predict the success of IVF treatment. The prospect of a clinical test for IVF success was raised at the annual conference of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), in Amsterdam.
The group, led by Dr Cathy Allen at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, examined the genetic profiles from blood samples taken at eight different stages during the period around conception and the early stages of the IVF cycle to analyze what differences in gene expression were seen at certain points before, during and after pregnancy. The blood samples were from five women who achieved clinical pregnancy, three women who had implantation failure and three subfertile women who conceived spontaneously.
The findings showed that activity levels of genes controlling the growth of new blood vessels, inflammation and the supply of energy to cells were different in women undergoing IVF. There was a marked difference in the expression of 200 genes at the beginning of fertility treatment between women who became pregnant and those who did not. The group concluded that this gene 'signature' was highly predictive of whether IVF worked or not, and could be used to develop a clinically useful predictive tool.
Dr Allen thinks that one of the most difficult decisions to make when undergoing IVF treatment is whether to continue with treatment after a failed attempt, as this can be emotionally and physically draining, as well as expensive. A reliable blood test could help patients and doctors with this decision.
She said: 'This work has generated a unique profile for IVF success and failure... As a practicing clinician, I think this might have a use for patients trying to decide whether they should undergo IVF or not. It's going to be a while before we have a clinical test but my gut feeling is it will be useful for identifying the unfavourable profile - those who won't get pregnant'.
Currently, advice from doctors on this decision is based upon factors such as age, lifestyle and hormone levels, but these are not often reliable. A separate team of scientists at Cardiff University has developed a questionnaire, called the FertiSTAT. Based on questions about a woman's menstrual cycle, reproductive health, lifestyle factors, age and length of time for which they have been trying for a baby, the test can be used to judge whether a woman will have fertility problems, and whether changing
their lifestyle could improve their chances of pregnancy.
Professor Luca Gianaroli, the ESHRE chairman, said of Dr Allen's findings: 'this test could save a lot of unnecessary treatment. You have to balance the cost of research and the benefits of research.'