Chances of twins in surrogacy depend upon the agreement of intendant parents and surrogates in terms of several embryo implantations. IVF is an integral part of surrogacy. With time, treatment approaches are continuously evolving due to continuous medical research updating with new findings. In convention fertility treatment, clinicians are usually opposed to multiple embryo implantations in IVF treatment. But current findings of the research study have changed this treatment approach, as the result showed implantation of two embryos gives better IVF outcome, especially for older aged women, who are unable to conceive normally.
The medical research conducted by the Medical Research Council in Bristol and the University of Glasgow reported that instead of a single embryo, implantation of two embryos could increase the possibility of successful pregnancy and live birth in IVF treatment. While previously, it had been claimed that the risk of pregnancy and birth implications increased with multiple embryos transfer. However, here it is necessary to mention that the selected surrogate is usually younger in an age in the surrogacy process.
According to medical researchers, it is always better to discuss with a clinician. Then intended parents and surrogates take a mutual decision regarding the single or double embryos implantation by considering the age of the surrogate.
There is a variety of embryo implantation approaches that have already been applied in the IVF treatment used in surrogacy. Before 2008, clinicians encouraged multiple embryos implantation to increase the chances of conception. This provided almost 24% of IVF pregnancy with giving birth to twins or triplets. Then the fertility experts became concerned about the health risk associated with multiple births. Multiple births can affect both maternal and neonate’s health by increasing the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and pre-eclampsia.
In 2008, the multiple birth rate had reduced from 24% to 15% after the order passed by The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority that the IVF clinic should implant one embryo per cycle. This guideline is quite successful, as it not only reduces multiple birth rates but also increases the live birth rate. But a Lancet published a new study report obtained through investigating 124,148 IVF cycles that gave 33,514 live births after double embryo implantation. This finding gives freedom to the intended parents and surrogate to select the option of the single or double embryos implantation process. However, the quality of the egg is the main criterion for the clinician to decide the suggested treatment approach. In this aspect, intended parents can freely discuss their opinion with the fertility experts, and depend upon the surrogate’s health status including egg quality, the clinician can explain to intend parents the better approach to obtain a successful result. However, research study findings also supported that three embryos implantation tremendously increases the risk of pre-term birth.
Some of the countries have legal restrictions to implant more than two embryos under the age of 40 years women and three embryos over 40 years women. However, there is no guideline to ban double embryos transfer, but the surrogate should get extra care while selecting double embryo implantation.
The expert also reported that even after single embryo implantation, there is always a chance to split the embryo and causes identical twins and triplets. Natural birthing processes only have about a 1.2% chance of resulting in twins, and only a 0.013% chance of resulting in triplets.
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.