Question
Further to the Written Answers by Lord Darzi of Denham on 5 December (WA 196) and on 12 December (WA 57) regarding ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and incident reporting, when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was first made aware that life-threatening complications had occurred in two women as recently described in the journal Human Fertility (Volume 10, Issue 3: pages 183-87), whether this was recorded in an incident report submitted to the HFEA; and whether data are held by the HFEA regarding whether or not treatment was discontinued at the time; and
Answer
Information on the number of eggs collected during treatment is provided to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) on the report forms submitted by licensed clinics for each treatment cycle carried out. However, this information is not routinely analysed for patterns in the frequency of egg collection, such as the percentage of cases where 20 or more eggs were collected in a particular clinic. I refer the noble Lord to my Answer given on 5 December (Official Report, WA 196). The HFEA would expect licensed clinics to report occurrences that are inconsistent with routine patient care, although whether a report is required is a matter for the treating clinician to judge. The paper referred to in the noble Lord's Questions is Estimating the Risks of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS): Implications for Egg Donation for Research by K Jayaprakasan , M Herbert , E Moody , JA Stewart and AP Murdoch of the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life/International Centre for Life. In accordance with the requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, the article does not identify the individual patients involved nor does it clearly identify the clinic at which the patients were treated, so it is not possible for the HFEA to accurately identify any related incident reports. Of the authors of this article, Professor Alison Murdoch was employed by the HFEA as an inspector from 1996 to 2005.