The Hidden Side to IVF?
IVF is big business
Not only is it big business, it is also one of those subjects (along with others, such as vaccinations and “normal” birth) that promotes strong feelings amongst people on both sides of the fence.
So it is with a little trepidation that I write this blog about what I have found to be the hidden side of IVF.
However, let’s start with the positives. As a result of IVF technology, approximately 3.5 million babies have been born to parents who are over-joyed at being able to have their own children in spite of them having some sort of fertility problems.
This is surely fantastic news? If we can enrich a couples lives by giving them the children they really wanted, can IVF be so bad?
Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. I had a teacher many years ago who had a wonderful expression that has stayed with me. He used to say:
“Every Front Has A Back”
What this enigmatic statement means is that everything has two sides to it, whether we want to call them front and back, positive and negative or light and dark is a personal choice. However, in our culture we tend to focus on what is obvious, what is up-front, what is positive about any particular issue and we forget that it also has a back to it. We can, in fact take this statement one step further
“The Bigger The Front, The Bigger The Back”
What this means is that the greater the benefit something seems to bring to life, to society etc. the larger the down-side as well. An example would be the multi-faceted benefits that our high-tech society have brought us. However, we are also noticing significant downsides as well. These include a numbing down of our internal sensorium and a lack of face to face communication, which has significant impacts on human relationships (not to mention the adverse effects that EMF pollution has on us).
Back to IVF. We know that it has a huge plus side in the lives of many people (as well as in the profit margins and shares of the large IVF companies).
.
What about the Hidden, Dark Side of IVF?
.
There are actually a great many conflicting studies which show, on the one hand that IVF is completely safe with no adverse effects whatsoever, and on the other hand that it has the potential to create a variety of different health problems.
Only a few days ago, a study was published by a group of Danish scientists at the University of Aarhus, which showed that babies conceived through IVF treatment had almost double the risk of cerebral palsy as those conceived naturally. This is a very worrying, and somewhat unsettling finding. What makes it much more worrying is that this is only the latest in a series of different scientific findings that shows that IVF can have significant detrimental effects on babies. Some of these findings include the following:
- Children conceived through IVF have a greater chance of being born prematurely and with a low birth weight, both of which can create significant health problems e.g. diabetes, later in life.
- Their overall health is not so good as they tend to have more hospital admissions than those conceived naturally.
- They are more at risk for a number of different health conditions, including certain infectious diseases, respiratory disorders, inflammatory diseases as well as a variety of neurological problems which can lead to learning difficulties
- Increased risk of a variety of cancers.
- There are also fears that these children may themselves be infertile. What the effects of second-generation IVF would be on a baby no-one knows because we haven’t got to that stage yet.
- Increased risk of major birth defects, including heart problems and uro-genital defects.
- Increased risk of autism
- IVF babies also tend to be multiple pregnancies (due to the implantation of multiple embryos in the hope that at least one will survive), which also tend to be higher risk for both mother and baby.
There is also evidence that the IVF process itself is producing non-hereditary genetic disorders such as Beckwith-Wiedemann and Angelman Syndromes which both have significant consequences for the children and families effected. It is thought that it is due to the intense “manipulations” of the embryo during the IVF process that certain genes are being switched on or off.
The Psychology of IVF
As well as physically, the IVF process also impacts babies and children emotionally, psychologically andspiritually. This is a much harder statement to quantify as these attributes do not lend themselves so well to scientific verification. However, over the past 50 years or so, researchers in the field of Prenatal & Birth Psychology have been investigating the physical and psycho-spiritual effects that our earliest experiences have upon us.
What they have discovered is that the way we experience our birth has profound impacts upon how we develop and who we become. Not only that, but the experience of our conception and our implantation into our mothers uterus sets up profound psycho-spiritual imprints that can stay with us throughout our lives.
This is particularly relevant to IVF, since these earliest stage take place in vitro and involves intense screening, processing, manipulation and objectification. Is it possible that these qualities get “imprinted” in some way into the developing embryo? Clinical evidence seems to suggest just that.
.
Holistic IVF?
As practitioners, teachers and individuals practising a more holistic orientation to life IVF can seem to create a dilemma. On the surface, we have a new baby for a couple who were struggling with fertility issues, and that is genuinely a positive thing. Many therapists and practitioners even specialise in helping improve the success rates of IVF.
However, as we begin to delve more deeply we recognise that this comes at a cost.
These costs are not only borne by the baby and the family but also by society as a whole if we are to believe the research that many of these children will have increasing health-care costs as they grow older.
This Is The Hidden Side To IVF!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Having gone the route of IVF after trying many, many other routes, I find this post particularly interesting. I agree that it is not the rainbows and sunshine solution, although I feel that it was my path to walk for whatever reason.
I’m curious though about the scientific findings – for instance, IVF babies being at greater risk for being born prematurely – is this because of the higher incidence of multiples? Is this because of other pre-existing risk factors that impacted fertility in the first place and increase the risk of prematurity (uterine anomalies)? Or is it because of doctors having a twitchy trigger finger for these “premium” pregnancies?
We were fortunate – our daughter is very healthy and has at this point experienced none of the detrimental effects of IVF that you listed. The problem she did experience after birth was due to c-section complications. In our case the c/s was not related to how she was conceived although I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the rate of c/s is higher for IVF moms.
It is a complex situation, venturing into the land of IVF. Certainly one that I never, ever thought I’d journey through.
As an acupuncturist specialising in infertility, I see many patients undergoing IVF. I have a number of concerns.
Top of the list is how readily patients are put forward for IVF when they may well have underlying biomedical/psychosocial conditions that could easily be addressed if someone took the time and care to do so. For example, women with irregular/heavy/scanty periods; periods often indicate the health of a woman’s reproductive system, and any problems with them can often be cleared up using so-called alternative therapies. Similarly, diets frequently need changing, or lifestyles adjusting.
I say, so-called, because I personally don’t consider myself to be ‘alternative’ – I am a practitioner of Chinese Medicine and that is NOT an add-on or frivolous extra, and that is my second concern. It stands alone. However, I DO think CM can be used in conjunction with biomedicine if every one involved gets off their high horses and works together. I have resolved many menstrual problems, with happy patients, only for them to be told by a doctor that they are imagining it or that what I did is actually useless.
Third; pressure from all sources creates a sense of lack or deprivation in many women which is not the same as wanting a baby (a fairly natural urge), but is nevertheless hitched onto normal emotions and made abnormal. Women (and men) are being made to feel they have failed in some way, and this clearly causes additional distress. We all recognise stress and anxiety do not help conception, so taking some of this pressure off might help some couples conceive naturally.
IVF, and it’s associated interventions, is big business and too many people have vested interests by increasing the programme availability. I, too, earn a living from it but, would much rather be spending my time and skill helping people with normal pregnancy and childbirth. I would also like to offer free treatments but, as the NHS won’t employ me (and I am a registered nurse as well as LicAc) I have to earn my living somehow.
IVF and the machine driving it is rapidly becoming a monster. In the middle of it are distressed, hopeful, worried people, wanting to become parents and being pushed into schemes without the benefit of decent information, proper pre-treatment counselling, and the chance to take the control back into their own hands.
You are right to raise these concerns, to flag up the hidden, dark aspects. Your trepidation is unfounded, and I look forward to more musings from you.
Hi
Thanks for your comments on this post. Isobel – You are right, IVF has become a monster that seems to disregard the effects of the treatment on mothers, fathers and also on the babies produced as a result of it.
Lisa – unfortunately, the incidence of c-sections are much higher amongst those conceived by IVF. Primarily this is due to them being multiple pregnancies. However, I do feel that the nature of our birth usually recapitulates the nature of our conception. High tech mechanised conception = high tech mechanised birth!!