Some IVF clinics are offering ‘vulnerable’ older women false hope, warns UK watchdog

Older women seeking to have a baby are being taken advantage of by certain IVF clinics with "aggressive" sales tactics.

That's according to the head of the UK's fertility industry regulator. These clinics are offering women who have low chances of conceiving false hope by making unrealistic promises, said Sally Cheshire of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The likelihood of having a baby through IVF decreases dramatically in a woman's 40s. Just two women over the age of 44 conceive in Britain each year using IVF with their own eggs - a success rate of around one percent. For women aged between 40 and 42, the success rate is around nine percent. For those between 42 and 44, it falls to three percent. Despite this, the number of 40-something women in the UK having IVF treatment has doubled since 2004. Ms Cheshire said that some clinics had become very commercial and that the industry should be realistic with women about their chances of success. She said that she herself had been offered IVF by a clinic that wasn't aware of her role in the HFEA, despite being 50 years old. UK fertility guidelines that only women under the age of 43 should be offered IVF, but there is no legal upper age limit. "We now see things like ‘guaranteed baby or your money back,’’’ she said. “I would like our clinics to be honest about the success rates. They are catering to a bunch of vulnerable women.” “What the clinics shouldn’t be doing is trading on that hope." Here in Ireland, there is no official body to regulate the fertility industry.