Date Published: 7 June 2010

HFEA statement regarding pregnancy terminations following IVF

The UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has published data on the number of terminations following IVF treatment on its website every year since 2007. This is part of their long term data analysis. The next update is due later this year.

IVF is not a procedure that is undertaken lightly the HFEA acknowledges its personal significance to the many women who make this decision every year. All patients who undergo IVF are assessed, as are the implications for any child that might be born, in advance of the decision to treat.

The HFEA does not regulate terminations of pregnancy.

On average, the number of terminations every year is less than 1% of all pregnancies through IVF.
The HFEA does not collect data on the legal grounds for the termination, although it does ask centres to describe the reason given by the patient. The number of cases in which the reason given is ‘social’ or ‘psychological’ is only a tint proportion of the total.

Statistics from the HFEA website are as follows:

Note about the source of this item: The HFEA is the UK government's independent regulator for IVF treatment and embryo research. Their role is to protect patients and the public interest, to drive improvement in the treatment and research sectors and to provide information to the public and policymakers about treatment and research. The HFEA was set up in August 1991 as part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (UK Law), 1990. The HFEA's principal tasks are to license and monitor clinics that carry out in vitro fertilisation (IVF), donor insemination (DI) and human embryo research. The HFEA also regulates the storage of gametes (eggs and sperm) and embryos.

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