Women should not be panicked into starting families by the ticking of their biological clocks, Britain's fertility treatment regulator is warning. There was 'more to life than having children', said Suzi Leather, the new chair of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority.
Leather has pledged a new crackdown on fertility clinics to prevent any repetition of recent blunders including a mix-up where a white mother gave birth to black twins .
Clinics would also be scrutinised to ensure sensitive handling of couples whose IVF treatment was unsuccessful, she said.
Leather told The Observer that it was not her job to tell women when to try for children, but her comments will reignite the dilemma facing thirtysomething career women who fear leaving it too late to have a family.
'It's important that women are given unbiased information about your declining chances of conceiving as you get older,' said Leather, who has three children.
'But I think the most important factor in deciding to have a baby is the relationship, the social and emotional context in which the child is going to come into the world. Just because you feel a biological clock ticking, if other things aren't right I don't think it's a sensible thing to do.'
The drive to have children was 'incredibly strong' but women were not defined by it alone. 'Clearly there is more to life than having children.'
Leather is preparing for a battle with fertility clinics later this autumn over expected hikes in the fees both clinics and their patients pay the HFEA, boosting its budget by more than £2 million. Doctors complain it is unfair to patients but Leather says the HFEA cannot operate properly on a shoestring.
'We need to get it in proportion. It [the fee paid by patients to the HFEA] is less than 5 per cent of the cost of a cycle - and we have seen the potential problems of not having proper regulation,' she warned.
The pitfalls are clearly illustrated by the case of the white mother of black twins. Leather refuses to comment for legal reasons but new action is planned to enforce double-checking by two people of sperm and egg samples at every stage of the process, eliminating future mix-ups. Inspection teams who visit clinics will also be beefed up, with more professional expertise and independent chairs.
'If you look at the kind of traceability that the food industry is subject to, I think there are lessons for some of the health service,' she said. 'It couldn't be more important.'
Leather plans to publish inspection reports, detailing success rates and patients' views of their treatment, including counselling for those who cannot conceive.
'Let's not forget that only one in five works: that's an awful lot of people that don't,' she said. 'It's not just about whether they get pregnant or not, it's how the couple feels.' In return, clinics can expect faster processing of licence applications, she said.
The new budget will also tackle future demands on the service, including rising rates of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia, which can cause infertility, increasing pressure for treatment.
Leather backs clinics' 'increased willingness to treat single and lesbian women', as long as the child's welfare is rigorously considered.
She does not however believe those who say the existence of IVF encourages women to concentrate on careers instead of having children, mistakenly assuming doctors can get them pregnant in their forties.
'I don't think for many people fertility treatment is high up on the issues they go through - is this the right time, is he the right guy, do we have enough money, what's going to happen with my career, can I go part-time if I need to - those are the common reasons,' she said.
Complaints of a 'postcode lottery' for NHS fertility treatment - with some health authorities willing to fund more couples than others - have risen recently.
Leather would not comment on NHS provision, but she added pointedly: 'The pain of infertility is the same whatever income level you are on, and infertility is itself often the result of disease process: we have socialised medicine for other areas.'
More NHS funding for fertility could also, she suggests, help reduce the explosion of multiple births that is worrying doctors. The HFEA has reduced from three to two the number of embryos that can be implanted, arguing that clinics were producing too many twins and triplets, risking complications for the mothers and babies.
