New IVF Study Reveals Hypocrisy
IVF Industry Markets Babies, Blames Patients For Expecting One
A curious thing happened at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual meeting this week. The organization issued a press release on a new study with a headline that essentially blamed IVF patients for coming into IVF clinics with out-sized expectations of success.
What makes this press release so unusual is that researcher, Johanna Devroe, a Senior Clinical embryologist from the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium, included as part of her presentation a clear admonition: “the message to clinics is, work on setting realistic expectations.”
Fertility Clinics Hype Hope
The ‘fertility’ industry has a long track record of wanting it both ways — being both a trusted branch of medicine and a hawker of baby dreams. Clinics and their Big Pharma partners absolve themselves of responsibility for any IVF failures while at the same time wrap themselves in the cloak of ‘miracle baby’ providers. The world’s largest IVF trade group, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), even has the image of a baby’s hand on its homepage.
