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The Age
14 hours ago
- Health
- The Age
Our fertility industry is a mess. As a donor, I know what could fix it
It pains me to say Australia's fertility industry is a mess because it's a system into which I've donated sperm to create humans, in good faith. You'd hope, after the notorious malpractice of past practitioners, the industry – which insists it's reformed from those bad old days – would enforce the strictest of procedures and the most watertight regulation. Sadly not. The profit-driven industry regulates itself, which is proving problematic, to say the least. Staff report being burnt out enough to make mistakes, and the mistakes have emerged with alarming pace in recent weeks. Monash IVF has twice transferred the wrong embryo into a woman. The first time, reported in April, experts said that, while it was worrying, it was an extremely rare, isolated case of human error. Then it happened again last month. My own investigation this week revealed two leading Australian fertility clinics – both owned by Virtus Health – are sending sperm donors inaccurate lists of the children born from their donation. Donors are being introduced to children who are potentially not even biologically theirs. Melbourne IVF sent one donor the wrong child list three times. He's now distressed the kids he has formed relationships with aren't related to him. While voices calling for calm seek to reassure us that Australia remains a very safe place to receive fertility treatment, try telling that to the anguished and conflicted donors who spoke to me. Or to the two women who gave birth to children who aren't theirs. Loading These problems are the tip of the iceberg too. The fertility industry is a bureaucratic quagmire, and it feels like it is now in crisis. It is governed by more than 40 pieces of differing state legislation in nine jurisdictions. It should be governed by a statutory, nationally applicable set of regulations. Urgent changes are clearly needed, which is why a rapid review of the industry was announced by federal Health Minister Mark Butler. He has his work cut out. The most important stakeholders he must listen to are donor-conceived people themselves – the humans created from this industry. They have a set of requests he should prioritise above all others. But as a donor, if we could add one urgent thing to his to-review list, it would be this. Clinics should build in and pay for DNA testing of donors and the children born from their donations as part of their later matching procedures.
Sydney Morning Herald
14 hours ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Our fertility industry is a mess. As a donor, I know what could fix it
It pains me to say Australia's fertility industry is a mess because it's a system into which I've donated sperm to create humans, in good faith. You'd hope, after the notorious malpractice of past practitioners, the industry – which insists it's reformed from those bad old days – would enforce the strictest of procedures and the most watertight regulation. Sadly not. The profit-driven industry regulates itself, which is proving problematic, to say the least. Staff report being burnt out enough to make mistakes, and the mistakes have emerged with alarming pace in recent weeks. Monash IVF has twice transferred the wrong embryo into a woman. The first time, reported in April, experts said that, while it was worrying, it was an extremely rare, isolated case of human error. Then it happened again last month. My own investigation this week revealed two leading Australian fertility clinics – both owned by Virtus Health – are sending sperm donors inaccurate lists of the children born from their donation. Donors are being introduced to children who are potentially not even biologically theirs. Melbourne IVF sent one donor the wrong child list three times. He's now distressed the kids he has formed relationships with aren't related to him. While voices calling for calm seek to reassure us that Australia remains a very safe place to receive fertility treatment, try telling that to the anguished and conflicted donors who spoke to me. Or to the two women who gave birth to children who aren't theirs. Loading These problems are the tip of the iceberg too. The fertility industry is a bureaucratic quagmire, and it feels like it is now in crisis. It is governed by more than 40 pieces of differing state legislation in nine jurisdictions. It should be governed by a statutory, nationally applicable set of regulations. Urgent changes are clearly needed, which is why a rapid review of the industry was announced by federal Health Minister Mark Butler. He has his work cut out. The most important stakeholders he must listen to are donor-conceived people themselves – the humans created from this industry. They have a set of requests he should prioritise above all others. But as a donor, if we could add one urgent thing to his to-review list, it would be this. Clinics should build in and pay for DNA testing of donors and the children born from their donations as part of their later matching procedures.
The Age
3 days ago
- Health
- The Age
Trust in IVF is broken – it must be restored
The fertility industry in Australia is big business. Its annual revenue is $800 million. The two largest IVF companies, Virtus Health and Monash IVF, make more than half that money, revenue built on people's dreams and desperate hopes. The financial and emotional investment in making a dream of bringing a child into the world a reality is profound. IVF providers are often the last resort for aspiring parents when nature seems to have conspired against them. They are the facilitators of that hope. Patients put their trust in them. It should never be broken. And yet, as recent news reports and developments have shown, it is. This is unconscionable. This is human life after all. An error in the delivery of this precious gift is devastatingly traumatic to those involved. The Age has recently reported on two incidents involving Monash IVF. In one, a woman received the wrong embryo at its Clayton clinic in June, and in 2023 at its Brisbane facility, an embryo transfer error led to a Queensland woman giving birth to a stranger's baby. A few years earlier, Monash paid $56 million in compensation to settle a class action involving 700 families affected in a bungled genetic testing program. The error might have caused healthy embryos to be tossed out. Monash chief executive Michael Knaap resigned this month. Loading Australia's health ministers agreed last week to a three-month review to look into the best model for an independent accreditation body to oversee the assisted reproductive technology sector. The states' health secretaries will also examine a possible realignment of the state-based regulators, their axing for a national regulator, and if registration requirements should be extended to embryologists and scientists involved in fertility processes. The Age welcomes these developments. At present, the industry operates under a self-accreditation and licensing system under the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee. Queensland is the only state not to endorse a national body, having only recently adopted a regulation scheme. Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said last week that the present system was not working. 'It simply doesn't pass the pub test that the people that provide the service are also the ones that determine who provides the service,' she said. It is equally troubling that, as Thomas conceded, the errors that are made public may represent only a percentage of the true figure of fertility patient complications across the industry. 'I think it's concerning that, in fact, there may well be more errors that we don't know about, and that is because the body that currently accredits fertility care providers is made up of fertility care providers,' she said.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Couple ask Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls to intervene in dispute with Queensland Fertility Group
A couple who conceived three sons through invitro fertilisation (IVF) wants Queensland's health minister to intervene in their dispute with the fertility giant involved, claiming a donor sperm mix-up involved two of their boys. Anastasia and Lexie Gunn said their two younger children were conceived using a different sperm donor to their eldest boy, even though they requested the same donor be used in all three cases. The couple, from northern NSW, are suing Queensland Fertility Group (QFG) saying they submitted DNA test results to the company in January 2023, showing their eldest son shares no biological link to the two youngest boys. Their boys were conceived between 2006 and 2014. The women have written to Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls asking for his "support and advocacy" in their ongoing struggle for "truth and accountability" from QFG and its parent company Virtus Health. In the email, seen by the ABC, they said while they were grateful for the passage of Queensland's Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Act in September last year, they could not rely on it because the legislation is not retrospective. "QFG continues to receive federal Medicare funding while facing no legal, licensing, or professional consequences for what they have done to our family," the Gunns wrote. They have requested QFG publicly acknowledge their children's DNA does not match and want a commitment from the fertility company to stop publicly denying their involvement. "We also believe there is a significant broader public health concern. If we received the wrong donor semen — and each donation typically produces multiple vials — then other families may also have received incorrect gametes without ever knowing," their letter read. The two youngest boys live with connective tissue disorders and neurodevelopmental conditions. However, the Gunns said QFG has never provided them with updated medical information for their children's biological fathers. "The refusal to acknowledge the profound psychological harm they have caused to our children and family compounds the injury," they claim. "Our children have had their genetic identify and affinity stolen. The erasure of that connection, and the ongoing denial of basic information about their own health and family origin, is an ethical and emotional injury that cannot be undone — but must be addressed." Their anguish continues amidst the latest revelations of Monash IVF's two embryo mix-ups — one in 2023, the other this month. "While recent attention has focused on the Monash IVF incidents, QFG has offered no such transparency," the Gunns claim in their letter to Mr Nicholls. "Unlike Monash (IVF), they have not issued a public apology … or demonstrated any willingness to acknowledge wrongdoing — despite having committed similar or worse breaches." In a statement, QFG said it could not comment on the specifics of the Gunns' case because it 'involves an ongoing civil claim'. 'We continue to work towards a resolution,' a spokesperson said. 'Today, QFG clinics use an electronic tracking and witness system – for identifying and digitally tracking eggs, sperm and embryos in the IVF lab – as well as verification by two scientists.' On Friday, Australia's health ministers agreed to undertake a "rapid review" of the nation's assisted reproduction sector, with a view to creating an independent accreditation body for fertility providers. Commenting after the meeting, Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said it didn't "pass the pub test that the people that provide the service are also the ones that determine who provides the service". Currently, the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC), a sub-committee of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ), issues licences to assisted reproduction providers. RTAC is comprised of a chair appointed by the fertility society's board, members nominated by various FSANZ professional groups, and a consumer representative. A spokeswoman for Mr Nicholls last night referred the ABC to the communique from last week's health ministers' meeting. She said that Mr Nicholls, like all the health ministers, had agreed to a three-month review of the IVF sector.
