Pregnancy Tests

(asked on 2nd April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for peer review the report of the Commission on Human Medicines Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 9th April 2019

The Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group (EWG) review into Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPTs) was comprehensive, scientifically robust and independent. Based on the totality of the data, the review concluded the available scientific evidence did not support a causal association between the use of HPTs during early pregnancy and birth defects or miscarriage. All evidence considered by the EWG has been published online.

The EWG did not undertake a meta-analysis as part of the review. The EWG examined a large number of epidemiological studies, many of which were conducted under different designs. The EWG considered whether meta-analysis was possible and ultimately concluded that because the studies were so different such an analysis would not be informative. Meta-analysis was also not considered appropriate because the studies were not sufficiently robust and suffered from extensive limitations.

The EWG comprised independent experts from a wide range of relevant specialisms and its report was further scrutinised by the Commission on Human Medicines, the Government’s independent scientific advisory body on the safety of medicines. There are no plans for further peer review of the report. The Government is committed to reviewing any important new evidence that arises.

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