Call for NHS to ban painful and dubious IVF ‘scratch’

THOUSANDS of women are being charged for invasive IVF “scratch” procedures that fail to improve pregnancy chances, experts have warned.

A major international study concluded that endometrial scratch, one of the most popular “add-on” fertility treatments, should be abandoned to prevent unnecessary pain. The procedure involves lacerating a section of the uterus lining prior to IVF in a bid to make implanted embryos more secure. The £350 treatment is routinely offered by private clinics, including to patients referred by the NHS, and can cause discomfort and bleeding.

Now a study of 1,300 women in five countries, including Britain, has established that success rates are virtually identical in women who opt for endometrial scratch and those who do not.

Fertility experts said last night that the scratch was one of a number of dubious add-ons marketed to “vulnerable” would-be parents. They called for a ban on private clinics offering it to women who are referred for IVF by the NHS. Researchers at the University of Auckland performed the trial at 13 fertility centres across New Zealand, the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Australia. The clinical pregnancy rate in the endometrial scratch group was 31.4 per cent, compared with 31.2 per cent in the control group, while live birth rates were 26.1 per cent in both groups.

Previous smaller trials had indicated an advantage to the treatment, particularly for women who had multiple failed rounds of IVF.

At the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Barcelona, Dr Sarah Lensen, who led the research, said: “Our results contradict those of many studies published previously. I think clinics should now reconsider offering endometrial scratch as an adjuvant treatment.”