Today’s Terrifying Word of the Day? Octuplets

For the record, the octuplets born in California this month were probably not the result of an IVF cycle. Fertility treatments, definitely. But nobody’s saying exactly what happened. It is possible a doctor transferred 8 embryos into her uterus, but it isn’t likely. A more likely scenario is that the mother of the octuplets received infertility drugs in a procedure called controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. The treatment, which is typically used to achieve pregnancy in women who do not ovulate, stimulates the ovaries to produce a number of eggs. As the eggs near maturity, the patient usually has artificial insemination. If she has too many eggs, the patient is told to abstain from sex, which she may or may not do.

The babies are alive, but pre-term, higher order multiples are at risk of respiratory distress, infection and damage to their other organs, particularly the brain and gut. Premature infants have a higher rate of death in the first month of life than babies born full-term. Later, these babies are at higher risk for developmental problems and cerebral palsy.

Health care costs will average at least $1 million a baby. Perhaps if IVF were covered at $10K a pop, then the outcome would have been very different.


MyFertilityPlan.com