A new Welsh MP is calling for the government to do more to regulate add-on treatments for people going through IVF
Alex Davies-Jones said in a statement given in the House of Commons that greater control was needed to stop clinics ‘taking advantage of vulnerable patients’.
The Pontypridd MP said she had to pay privately for IVF treatment as her partner had already had a child from another relationship.
She said she was concerned that vulnerable patients who had already been stretched were being ‘preyed upon’ and offered extra treatments that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds without being based on any proof of it working.
The mother-of-one was also concerned that the mental and emotional wellbeing of people was being tested on whether they should buy the add-on treatments.
She said: “These people are getting in debt and it’s playing with their emotions and it’s really cruel.”
Alex said current laws on fertility are ‘not fit-for-purpose’ and clinics need to be fined for pushing expensive add-ons on patients and, in extreme cases, they need to be banned from operating.
What are IVF add-on treatments?
Sometimes clinics will offer add-ons to IVF treatment which they believe could boost your chance of IVF working.
These can include embryo glue, endometrial scratch, and time-lapse imaging and can cost anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority(HFEA) introduced new legislation which came into force recently and means clinics must inform patients that any add-ons they purchase may not work and have no evidence or proof of enhancing their IVF cycle.
To read more about the new regulations and what the HFEA has said, click here.
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