ECTOPIC 17 TIMES HIGHER WITH IVF

Ectopic Pregnancy - Higher Incidence With IVF and Frozen Embryos

Wow, I was astounded to read this article about how frozen embryos increase the chance of ectopic pregnancy.
 I had two ectopics, which both were the result of IVF. Statistically, there is a higher risk of ectopic with IVF, but frozen embryos have a 17 times greater risk! If ectopic pregnancies rupture, it can be life threatening. Read more:

Using frozen embryos in fertility treatment raises the risk of a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy by 17 times, researchers have found.


Using frozen embryos in fertility treatment raises the risk of a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy by 17 times, researchers have found.

Scientists had thought that the risk of ectopic pregnancy was only slightly increased for frozen embryos compared with the use of "fresh" embryos. The American researchers said they had been surprised by the results and were not sure of the reason.

Alison Cook, a spokeswoman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility treatment in Britain, said the study was a "serious concern". "We have never come across these figures before. We will be studying the research," she said.

When a woman first has IVF treatment, doctors usually transfer between one and three "fresh" test-tube embryos into the uterus.

In the past 10 years technology has meant that increasing numbers of couples are choosing to freeze some of the created embryos, giving them a chance of trying further IVF cycles if the first one fails. After the first attempt, women can use the frozen embryos without having to go through the painful process of hormone treatment, egg retrieval and fertilisation for a second, third or even fourth time.

Frozen embryo storage also allows patients having chemotherapy treatment and other women to create fertilised embryos and delay motherhood until they want to try for a family.

 Doctors are becoming increasingly concerned at the effect of the freezing process on embryos. Last month, the fertility expert Lord Winston called for more research, and warned that some women were, in effect, being experimented on before the dangers were known.

A study carried out by Lord Winston's team at the Hammersmith Hospital in west London has shown that some types of embryo freezing may alter behaviour of a gene that supresses tumours. Delaying the transfer of embryos to a mother - another technique used in some clinics - also seemed to interfere with genes in animal experiments, he said.

The new study by scientists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, to be presented to the annual confe- rence of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Texas today,has revealed more concerns. The researchers compared 2,452 cycles of IVF using fresh embryos, with 392 using frozen transfers. They found that 1.8 per cent of the fresh cycles led to an ectopic pregnancy, compared with 31.8 per cent of the frozen attempts.