Assisted Reproductive Technologies Quality and Safety: Quality and Safety PDF

Preface

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) entail a number of risks and complications. These should be minimized, to result in safer treatment; at the same time results should be optimized to generate treatment of high quality. Generally speaking, over the past 20 years, emphasis has been mainly on how to ‘improve' results of infertility treatments, not on how to maintain a balance between success, risks and costs. More recently, the need to trade off the efficacy of these treatments against their quality and safety has been introduced by an increasing number of individuals and groups. Worldwide, approximately 500 000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles are performed every year, with at least as many ovulation induction or so-called superovulation cycles with or without intrauterine insemination. These treatments and the pregnancies that follow after ART do not come without a price, not only in financial terms but also in terms of medical risks and complications.