Headlines
As reported by NBC30, February 11, 2009.
Octuplet Mom Sends Misleading Message About Infertility Treatment
By Stephanie Hoey
Octo-Mom Nadya Suleman has brought the issue of infertility into the national spotlight. She gave birth to octuplets conceived via in vitro fertilization.
Her shocking story now has others concerned that she's sending a misleading message about the treatment of infertility.
In three weeks, Tiffany Smetak, of West Hartford, is due to give birth to her first child - conceived through IVF.
She says she’s feeling, "Oh gosh, very excited."
"I'm having a girl and I'm due Feb. 28, so ... very soon," she said.
Tiffany underwent IVF at the UConn Center for Advanced Reproductive Services in Farmington.
Very early on in the planning process, she and her doctor discussed the number of embryos that would be transferred in her uterus, she said.
"They're very strict,” she said.
"I tell patients up front the one thing we're going to discuss today is how many embryos you want to put back. Your options are one or two, said Dr. Claudio Benadiva, Tiffany's doctor and the director of the IVF laboratory.
One of the controversies brewing about the octuplet story is the number of embryos transferred into Suleman, a 33-year-old single mom - six, she told NBC's Ann Curry.
Benadiva's reaction to the octuplet story:
"At first, I couldn't believe it because I never thought any serious IVF clinic in this country would transfer that many embryos to a patient that age," he said.
It’s especially troubling because Suleman had previous success with IVF treatments.
"The patients that come back after they had a success before almost always get pregnant," Benadiva said.
At UConn's center, women 37 and under only have the option of transferring one or two embryos.
Women ages 38 to 39 may transfer two or three.
Forty-year-olds can transfer four and 41-year-olds have the option to transfer up to five embryos. The number of embryos acceptable for transfer increases with age because success rates decrease.
If Suleman had come to UConn and requested to transfer six embryos, she would have been denied.
"We would say sorry, we can't do it we wouldn't do it," Benadiva said. “I think we have a responsibility to the patient, but also to the children we're bringing into the world, to society.”
As an IVF patient, Tiffany finds the whole thing very troubling.
"Especially people I know that have had fertility issues are really disturbed by this because I think it puts a very false impression out there about what fertility is about and how it's handled," she said. “It's just a much more thought-out process and highly regulated and I just don't think most people realize what all goes into it. How much forethought and care.”
Benadiva said clinics have great success cyro-preserving embryos. So there's no reason Suleman couldn't have transferred one embryo at a time.
Tiffany is just happy the one embryo she transferred lead to a healthy pregnancy.
“My mother had difficulty having me. She had endometriosis and it took her about 10 years to figure out what her problem was so I was the miracle baby and now I'm having a miracle baby," she said.