Fertility clinics accused of covering up potentially fatal side effects of IVF

Fertility clinics are today accused of a cover-up over the number of women developing a painful and potentially fatal side effect of IVF.

Doctors are legally obliged to report ‘severe’ cases of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), when IVF drugs cause women’s ovaries to expand dangerously.

For at least six years, they have told watchdogs that between 16 and 60 women have been affected annually.

But figures uncovered by the Mail show about 800 women every year have to be taken to hospital after being injected with IVF drugs and developing the condition.

In one year, clinics reported just 16 cases of severe OHSS, which causes extreme back pain, stomach swelling, nausea, breathlessness and, in extreme cases, death.

However, there had been almost 700 emergency hospital admissions for the condition – more than 43 times the number declared by IVF doctors. There has also been a huge increase in the number of women suffering with the OHSS, the Mail has found. At least four women in the UK have died as a result of it.

Last night, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said it was asking urgent questions of IVF clinics. Chairman Sally Cheshire told the Mail that it was ‘very concerned’ fertility doctors might be under-reporting cases of OHSS.

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Three cheers for the Mail’s exposure of the ‘egg’ donation racket by Philippa Taylor, TCW