Publications by authors named "Racich P"
Objective: How do numbers of oocytes retrieved per In vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycle impact on the live birth rate (LBR) and multiple gestation pregnancy (MGP) rates?
Design: Retrospective observational longitudinal study.
Setting: UK IVF clinics.
Population: Non-donor IVF patients.
The global increase in subfertility diagnosis and treatments and the rise of private equity investors concentrating on high profits based on in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments raise profound societal and economic questions for stakeholders and patients. The question remains as to whose benefits will ultimately be greater when promoting high margins treatment options resulting from cross-border mergers and acquisitions of IVF clinics.This paper covers wide-ranging issues from the erroneously constructed UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) guidelines on treatment choices, the cost-effectiveness of treatments, the promotion of IVF, and add-ons where evidence remains minimal, the commercial size of the fertility industry.
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- The study checks how effective and risky two fertility treatments, IUI and IVF, are and how much they cost in the UK from 2012 to 2016.
- It finds that even though IVF has a higher success rate for getting pregnant (about 27% compared to IUI's 11%), IUI is safer and costs less overall.
- IUI treatment is cheaper and leads to fewer complications, like multiple pregnancies, making it a better choice for many people compared to IVF.
The advent of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has contributed to a significant growth in the delivery of assisted conception technique, such that IVF/ICSI procedures are now recommended over other interventions. Even the UK National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines controversially recommends against intrauterine insemination (IUI) procedures in favour of IVF. We reflect on some of the clinical, economic, financial and ethical realities that have been used to selectively promote IVF over IUI, which is less intrusive and more patient friendly, obviates the need for embryo storage and has a global application.
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