In Vitro Fertilisation

(asked on 13th November 2018) - View Source

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.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 19th November 2018

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:

  1. The HFEA only requires clinics to report cases of severe or critical OHSS, although some clinics do report mild through to moderate cases. For that reason, this is not a complete picture of the occurrence of OHSS.
  2. The HFEA has advised that it believes the increase in the number of reports of severe OHSS in 2018 is the result of clearer guidance in its code of practice, linking to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ “Green Top” guidance on OHSS that includes a severity grading definition

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.

Reticulating Splines