The recent delivery of the California octuplets has stimulated a national debate about the ethical and practical decisions being made during advanced fertility treatments. Multiple pregnancies are associated with increased risks to both the mother and babies. The higher the gestational number, the higher the risks to all parties involved. In order to reduce the number of multiple pregnancies, the American Society for Reproductive
Medicine published guidelines to follow for the number of embryos to transfer, taking into account the woman’s age and her prognosis. What happened in southern California is a preventable, predictable bad outcome that should not have occurred. As the story unfolds we hope to learn why such a risk was taken during her treatment. We assure you that at the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine we adhere to the ASRM guidelines in order to minimize the risk of multiple pregnancy for our patients.
