Counting the cost of test-tube baby

The cost of having a test-tube baby is eight times more expensive in some clinics than in others, a report in Hospital Doctor magazine revealed yesterday.

An In-Vitro Fertilisation league table devised by infertility expert Professor Peter Baude, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, in London, disclosed that costs per live birth at more than 50 clinics vary between pounds 5,325 and pounds 41,939. He said that couples needed to know the cost per live birth to make an informed choice of what treatment to choose. Even in the best clinics, he said, the chances of success may be no better than one in five.