Foreign clinics target vulnerable with 97% IVF success rate claim... but only a quarter of women become pregnant with a child after one cycle

Official statistics show only 25% of women become pregnant after a single cycle

Firms abroad are charging less than half of what IVF treatment costs in the UK

The firms' small print often revels they cut corners to make treatments a success

Couples are at risk of being ‘exploited’ by foreign IVF clinics which promise up to 97 per cent success rates, the head of the fertility regulator has warned.

Only a quarter of women become pregnant with a child after one cycle of IVF, official statistics suggest.

But Bahceci IVF Centre in Istanbul, Turkey, claims a success rate of 97.82 per cent on its website.

The firm, which exhibited at the Manchester Fertility Show last month, charges just £1,350 for conventional IVF – less than half the average price for fertility treatment in the UK of £3,000 to £5,000.

It is only when you look at the small print of the company’s leaflets that it is explained that the 97 per cent success rate is based on three cycles with donated eggs or embryos from other people.

Donated eggs are often from younger women and can therefore provide a much greater chance of pregnancy. IVF Cube Fertility Clinic in the Czech Republic, which charges £2,540 for an IVF cycle, did not host a stand at the Fertility Show but sent leaflets to be handed out there. Its website claims success rates of 84 per cent.

Foreign clinics were found to be offering cut-price treatments at under half the price of their UK equivalents

IVF is a complicated procedure - with recent scientific developments only leading to a small rise in success rates

In the UK, 25.6 per cent of women who undergo IVF end up conceiving after a single cycle, according to regulator – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

Sally Cheshire, chairman of the HFEA, has now warned that the UK regulator has no control over claims made by foreign clinics. Speaking at an event hosted by the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust, Mrs Cheshire said: ‘We are concerned vulnerable patients may be exploited, as our data over the last 25 years shows such success rates are highly unlikely.

In other countries, where there is often no similar standard of regulation, clinics can be less transparent about a patient’s chances of having a baby.’ Professor Adam Balen, former chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘[Foreign clinics] are presenting false hope to vulnerable people who may be seduced into going overseas when in reality they will not get any better treatment.

‘In the UK clinics are highly regulated by the HFEA and can only give their true success rates. There should be similar advertising standards for overseas clinics who advertise in the UK.’

Hamdi Bahceci, chief executive of Bahceci Health Group, said: ‘The success rate we communicate with patients is the cumulative pregnancy rate after three subsequent treat- ment cycles of egg or embryo donation.’

An IVF Cube spokesman said: ‘Our 84 per cent success rate is based on the number of women who have become pregnant from a single egg collection, which can include up to ten to 11 eggs.'

How the Mail exposed shameful tactics 

Private fertility clinics were feared to be giving women false hope by exaggerating the success rates of IVF treatment after egg freezing.

The Daily Mail discovered some clinics were suggesting the chance of the technique working was as high as 65 per cent. But official figures show only around 15 per cent of IVF cycles using frozen eggs are successful. Last year’s investigation found clinics were encouraging ‘egg sharing’ where women with healthy eggs who could not get pregnant received cheaper treatment if they donated some eggs. Clinics can charge infertile couples up to £7,500 for the donated eggs.

The reports led IVF pioneer Lord Winston to say: ‘I fear some in my profession have no moral or ethical compass.’