Move to restrict IVF treatments could hurt many women

LONDON - The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF treatments in the UK, is to place restrictions on the number of embryos that can be implanted in women. Instead of the current two embryos, officials are planning to implant just one because of fears that IVF treatments would lead to a surge in multiple births.

The Observer reported that only those women who do not respond to treatment and older women would be eligible to receive more than one embryo. Some 30,000 women undergo IVF treatment annually in the country.

Critics said the new rules would halve the chance of successful conception in women. HFEA is also thought to be on the verge of instructing doctors to cut the incidence of multiple births through IVF from the prevailing 25 percent to around 10 percent.

The new policy is supposed to receive backing from fertility organizations like "Tamba, the Infertility Network UK, the Multiple Births Foundation and the British Fertility Society," the Observer reported.

The BBC though reports that the HFEA has denied reports it was about to bring these restrictions in place. It said the decision was yet to be made and if it is to be made then a public consultation would be launched first.