Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to link the human fertilisation and embryology authority registry with the hospital, cancer and death registries to record the links between IVF treatment cycles and the incidence of (a) severe or moderate ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, (b) cancer and (c) mortality among women.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 requires the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to investigate all serious adverse events that take place in its licensed establishments and all serious adverse reactions to treatment suffered by patients. The conditions of a HFEA licence require Persons Responsible at licensed establishments to report all serious adverse events, including near misses, and reactions to the HFEA. Licensed establishments are required to report any serious adverse reactions to treatment, that they are made aware of, even if the patient is no longer receiving fertility treatment. There is no duty on any other medical establishment to make reports to the HFEA.
Cases of severe or critical Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) are considered to be serious adverse reactions to treatment. The information requested is shown in the following table:
| Mild* | Mild/moderate* | Moderate* | Moderate*/severe | Severe | Critical |
2011 | 96 | 21 | 65 | 9 | 46 | 0 |
2012 | 41 | 20 | 93 | 10 | 33 | 0 |
2013 | 40 | 22 | 85 | 7 | 46 | 0 |
2014 | 41 (one intrauterine insemination) | 8 | 50 | 14 | 34 | 0 |
2015 | 20 | 8 | 42 | 11 | 56 | 0 |
2016 | 29 | 12 | 46 | 5 | 40 | 0 |
2017 | 24 | 11 | 42 | 7 | 47 | 0 |
2018 (to 14 November 2018) | 14 | 7 | 27 | 5 | 75 | 0 |
Source: HFEA
Notes:
Identifying patient information, held on the HFEA’s register, can only be disclosed without the patient’s consent in very limited circumstances. The Government has no plans to lift those restrictions to enable the data to be routinely linked with other health or mortality registers.