{"id":512540,"date":"2026-07-06T14:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512540\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:59:11","slug":"evidence-behind-ivf-add-ons-insubstantial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512540\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence Behind IVF Add-Ons Insubstantial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MOST\u00a0ADD-ONS are not proven to\u00a0benefit\u00a0patients undergoing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/reproductive-health\/news\/number-of-ivf-patients-triples-in-past-30-years-says-uk-regulator\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IVF<\/a>, a new systematic review and meta-analysis\u00a0has\u00a0found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a lot of cases, researchers reported, evidence for the value of add-ons\u00a0was poor, contributing to uncertainty around effectiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Further, authors\u00a0had to exclude\u00a0many studies from analysis due to trustworthiness concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>IVF Add-Ons\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade, IVF add-ons have become increasingly available.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Add-ons are\u00a0additional\u00a0procedures, medications, or techniques\u00a0that aim to boost IVF success rates.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Poor Evidence\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers included 85 trials,\u00a0across 10 systematic reviews and meta-analyses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Endometrial scratching may be associated with\u00a0a small increase\u00a0in the chance of live birth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However,\u00a0EmbryoGlue, PGT-A, endometrial receptivity testing, and corticosteroids\u00a0appeared to have\u00a0no effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the following add-ons, evidence was unclear due to\u00a0poor quality\u00a0or scarcity: physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection,\u00a0acupuncture, intralipid, platelet-rich plasma injection into the ovary, and platelet-rich plasma infusion into the uterus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tim Child,\u00a0Chair, Human Fertilisation &amp; Embryology Authority\u00a0(HFEA)\u00a0Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Committee,\u00a0London, UK, said: \u201cThe findings in these studies match those found in the UK where the HFEA has raised concerns for many years about some clinics offering unproven treatments to patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe HFEA\u2019s add-ons rating system\u00a0looks at the scientific\u00a0evidence of add-ons and has also found that most offer no proven benefit to patients, and some can even be harmful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor all the treatment add-ons the HFEA has reviewed, none indicate they increase the\u00a0changes\u00a0of having a baby for most fertility patients.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers called for well-designed, large-scale randomised controlled trials to foster reliable evidence on the effect of\u00a0IVF add-ons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Child added:\u00a0\u201cAlthough,\u00a0there are cases where treatment add-ons may be offered for reasons other than to improve the chances of having a baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some circumstances there may be a justifiable reason for using the treatment add-on as part of fertility treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reference\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lensen\u00a0S et al. Safety and effectiveness of ten common in-vitro fertilisation add-ons: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Obstet\u00a0Gynaecol\u00a0Womens\u00a0Health.\u00a02026;DOI:10.1016\/S3050-5038(26)00054-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Featured image:\u00a0okrasiuk\u00a0on Adobe Stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOST\u00a0ADD-ONS are not proven to\u00a0benefit\u00a0patients undergoing\u00a0IVF, a new systematic review and meta-analysis\u00a0has\u00a0found.\u00a0 In a lot of cases, researchers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-512540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}