IS IVF SAFE?

Patients ask if IVF is safe. I advise them there are two primary risks associated with the procedure – ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and a multiple pregnancy.

Ovarian hyperstimulation is a condition where the ovaries get too stimulated resulting in leakage of fluid from blood vessels into various body spaces including the abdomen and lungs. Most cases are mild and resolve spontaneously over a period of days. In moderate to more severe cases draining of the fluid from body spaces is required. In rare cases pulmonary emboli and death have occurred. At the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine we have not had to tap a patient in the last ten years. We attribute this to our close monitoring of patients and the use of the safest stimulation protocols possible. 

A multiple pregnancy is caused almost always by the transfer of more than one embryo. A multiple pregnancy poses numerous risks to mom and babies primarily associated with premature delivery. Risks include blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy. Almost all multiple pregnancies are delivered surgically posing risks of bleeding, infection and anesthesia for mom. The risk of multiple pregnancy have been greatly reduced by the transfer of a single day five or day six embryo. At the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine the great majority of our transfers are single day five blast embryos that have been genetically tested providing high pregnancy rates, i.e., comparable to the transfer of two untested blast embryos. There has been criticism of the accuracy of pre-embryo genetic testing, but in the great majority of cases this technology is accurate. Pre-embryo genetic testing, while a significant cost, has proven to be cost effective in the sense that couples are not storing abnormal embryos and coming back for repeated transfers of chromosomally abnormal embryos. 

In short, IVF is a safe procedure, if performed with up-to-date optimal protocols.   

– Kevin L. Winslow, M.D.