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Soft IVF

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A new form of cheaper, more natural IVF that could beat infertility and make you a mum? Where do I sign up? Oh, that's right, I no longer have a uterus but if I did I'd be looking into this.

I'll take the Soft IVF please. It's about half the price of the conventional IVF we know and dislike and it uses far less drugs.

Dr Geeta Nargund, Head of Reproductive Medicine at St George's Hospital, London, and Medical Director of Create Health Clinic, is one of a handful of UK doctors offering the new treatment.

Her theory is that it is safer for the mother's health, eggs and any embryos that are created if there are no drugs or they are minimized. And the good news is that any woman recommended for IVF can use it, including those with blocked fallopian tubes - it's not discriminatory.

Whereas with IVF there is four weeks of drug-taking, first to down-regulate hormones then to stimulate egg production, with the new technique there is only up to a week of ‘gentle drug-taking' in small quantities and not by injection, before egg pick up. And in this way the most common side-effect, ovarian hyperstimulation, is avoided.

How about success rates? While early days, compared to a success rate in the UK of 27% using conventional IVF, the success rate in the Netherlands where Professor Bart Fauser, head of Reproductive Medicine in Utrecht, The Netherlands, has been recommending it over conventional IVF for the past three years, is 43%.

It is particularly promising for older women, whose ovaries don't respond well to high levels of drug stimulation. In addition Spanish scientists believe that stimulatory drugs affect the quality of the lining of the womb and even increase the risk of miscarriage.

Jodi Panayotov