‘Given the emotional, physical and financial effort that goes into making a baby – it’s essential clinics are open and transparent’

Victorians have been left in the dark on IVF clinic failings after the regulator quietly stopped reporting key details about lost and damaged embryos, egg and sperm.

Victorians have been left in the dark on IVF clinic failings after the regulator quietly stopped reporting key details about lost and damaged embryos, egg and sperm.

The regulator omitted crucial details at the same time they announced their past two annual reports had under-reported adverse events and wrongly claimed they were decreasing.

While rare, such incidents can be devastating, and the move from the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority has disappointed the IVF community, who say patients – often undergoing treatment at great financial and personal cost – deserve transparency.

Melbourne mother Angela Ceberano — who in 2020 lost an embryo she later learnt may have been viable in the Monash IVF scandal — said some people only had “one shot” at IVF, and deserved to be informed.

Angela Ceberano with her husband Phil. Picture: Nicole Cleary

“If you only have one chance or two chances to do a cycle, you want to go in with all the information available,” she said.

VARTA’s new report, released late last week, shows there were 149 adverse incidents last financial year, out of more than 31,000 treatment cycles.

There were 128 “clinical”, 11 “scientific” and 8 “regulatory” incidents, but little more detail – such as the number of damaged embryos – was provided, in a stark contrast to prior years.

Previous VARTA reports have recorded whether each scientific case involved embryo loss, egg or sperm loss or a transfer error, but this data was missing.

‘One’ case could also involve multiple patients or samples, with previous reports detailing incidents such as a bacterial contamination case that harmed 10 eggs, but this detail was again missing.

Figures for specific complications – such as an infection or bleed – were also left out.

Ms Ceberano said it was “so important” for patients to get access to this data.

“You’re playing with people’s lives,” she said.

Her husband Phil Ceberano said they were both incredibly grateful for the science of IVF, but — as a for-profit industry — they “definitely” wanted to see “more information” released.

Fertility Collective founder Ceci Jeffries said patients could not make an informed decision without “all the information”.

“Given the emotional, physical and financial effort that goes into making a baby – it’s essential clinics are open and transparent,” she said.

“The patient’s well-being has to come above protecting the clinic’s reputation,” she said.

VARTA stopped reporting key details about lost and damaged embryos, egg and sperm. Picture: Supplied

The report blamed the under-reported adverse incident numbers for previous years on “system errors that resulted in inaccuracies” and there were 142 — instead of the 107 originally reported — in 2021-2022, and 139 — well above the initial 93 published — the 2022-2023 report.

This year’s report should be VARTA’s last, with the authority set to be wound up and its regulatory powers brought in-house to the health department.

VARTA did not respond directly to questions requesting the missing details and a spokesman said they were “committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of persons undergoing treatment procedures”.

“VARTA engaged a clinical expert in 2023-24 to review all clinical adverse incidents to ensure our regulatory decision making is evidence based,” he said.