Many British fertility clinics are stretching the evidence to make claims for their treatments, it was claimed today.
An analysis of clinic websites found a range of numeric claims for the benefits of a range of interventions.
But an analysis of 74 websites found just five occasions when references were given to medical research of adequate quality.
Researchers at Oxford University worked with the BBC Panorama programme on their investigation, reported in The BMJ.
On the 74 websites, the researchers found 276 claims of benefits relating to 41 interventions.
These included 79 claims where numbers were quoted – but only 13 websites included references to research, they say. And just five of these references were to high level systematic reviews.
The researchers then studied some 27 add-on treatments offered by clinics, including pre-implantation genetic screening. They say it is true that initial research on the latest forms of this treatment are "promising" – but there is still no high quality evidence.
A Panorama undercover reported then asked clinics about the treatment at a fertility fair. Out of 18 clinics, just five said they could not recommend it because of lack of evidence while five were positive about it.
Researcher Professor Carl Heneghan, of the Oxford University Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, said there was an "urgent" need for more randomised control trials.
He said: “Our findings demonstrate that whilst many claims were made on the benefits of fertility treatments, there was a lack of supporting evidence cited, with the majority of the websites providing no sources for claims made.”
Claims for fertility interventions: a systematic assessment of statements on UK fertility centre websites. BMJ 28 November 2016 [abstract]
Leave a Reply