What does IVF treatment involve?
Usually two or three embryos are placed into the womb. If any extra embryos have been created, these can be frozen and used in future cycles of IVF if the first does not work. One cycle of IVF takes around four to six weeks to complete. However, the HFEA has just proposed that certain groups of women should have only one embryo implanted in each IVF cycle. Criteria could include age – women under 35 have a better chance of conceiving with one embryo – and whether the patient has previously been pregnant. The proposal comes at the start of a three-month consultation about multiple births resulting from IVF. One in 80 natural pregnancies result in multiple births, whereas one-quarter of deliveries following fertility treatment involve more than one child. Up to half of the 100,000 multiple births in Britain every year are the result of assisted conception. How successful is IVF? IVF is only successful in 15% of cases and the outcome varies depending on the type of fertility problem invol
