Monash IVF faces class action over embryos

More than 100 patients accuse Monash IVF of depriving them of last chance at parenthood.

Monash is accused of misleading patients about a test found to be less reliable than initially thought. Picture: iStock

More than 100 men and women who were patients of Monash IVF, one the oldest and largest fertility clinics in Australia, have launched a landmark class action against the company in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The action was brought against the company for destroying potentially viable embryos based on genetic testing technology now thought to be unreliable.

The law firm leading the action believed there could be as many as 1000 victims who had their embryos discarded.

The legal action claims that Monash IVF, Monash IVF Group and a related company. Adelaide Fertility Centre (trading as Repromed), may have incorrectly classified potentially viable embryos as abnormal and may have then destroyed these viable embryos.

The possibly unreliable technology used to determined the viability of an embryo under Monash IVF’s care could have been used on as many as 13,000 occasions before its use was stopped.

The class action lawyers will argue the new non-invasive preimplantation genetic testing technology is now known to be significantly less reliable than it was first said to be. The members of the class action are seeking compensation for economic loss as well as pain and suffering, with some of the women and couples fearing they may have lost their chance to ever have children.

The new non-invasive PGT-A test was introduced nationally by Monash IVF in May 2019.

The class action members come from Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT, Northern Territory, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia.

Listed on the ASX, Monash IVF has a market capitalisation of just over $300 million and has 109 locations across Australia and south east Asia including 25 fertility centres. It has established a long history in the IVF industry over 40 years of experience including 40,000-plus babies delivered.

Margalit Injury Lawyers managing principal Michel Margalit, who is leading the class action, said more than 1000 Monash IVF patients could potentially be victims.

“Our firm has now spoken to in excess of 100 claimants. There are potentially many more hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have been impacted. For many, the resounding feeling is that they wasted their last opportunity to have a child. The news delivered to the patients has only exacerbated their grief and mental anguish around their fertility journey,” Ms Margalit said.

The writ lodged with the Supreme Court details the process by which Monash IVF patients submitted to the genetic testing technology and claims representations made by Monash IVF were false, misleading and deceptive.

The court document states that prior to the PGT-A testing of patients’ embryos, Monash IVF and/or Repromed did not provide sufficient information to ensure informed consent by the plaintiff and group members as to the nature and risks of the PGT-A testing. Monash IVF is also accused of not informing the plaintiff and group members adequately or at all as to the nature of the testing, and in particular the risk that the PGT-A testing might produce false positive results and therefore an erroneous determination that an embryo was unviable not suitable for transfer.

The lead plaintiff in the class action is Danielle Bopping, 43, who said she is fighting for justice and to help heal her grief after Monash IVF informed her that her last embryo – that they had labelled abnormal – may have in fact been viable.

Ms Bopping, from the ACT, does not have children.

“IVF is such a long and difficult road. The emotional impact of going through treatment is hard enough alone and then to have something like this happen has just compounded everything that we were already dealing with,” Ms Bopping said.

In a response to the sharemarket on Wednesday evening, Monash IVF acknowledged the class action and said it would vigourously defend the claims.

“As transparency and reliability are of utmost importance to Monash IVF, patients who have been impacted by the suspension of Ni-PGT, have been provided with goodwill and ex-gratia remediation treatment offers,” the Monash IVF board said.