Fertility clinics in England and Wales made nearly twice as many
mistakes in 2008/09 as they did the year before, figures have
shown.
Errors such as fertilising eggs with incorrect
sperm, losing embryos or placing them in the wrong womb rose from
182 in 2007/08 to 334 in 2008/09.
BBC Radio Five Live's Donal MacIntyre show obtained
the figures from IVF regulator the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority (HFEA), which said the mistakes were less than
1% of 50,000 cycles.
A couple who spent eight years trying for a baby and
were only identified as Clare and Gareth told the BBC the IVF
clinic at the University Hospital of Wales lost their last embryos
during treatment.
Clare said: "I was sat there, gowned up, waiting to
go in and have a transfer. They said you've got one embryo
remaining, the other two embryos have gone missing."
"They said in the next sentence I can assure you
they haven't gone into anyone else."
Three years ago a couple's last viable embryo was
implanted into the wrong woman at the Cardiff-based clinic, which
said it had one of the world's highest success rates in recovering
embryos and reported all incidents to HFEA.