ABU DHABI // The UAE is experiencing a boom in twin and triplet births, according to doctors.
In the last five years, Corniche Hospital, Abu Dhabi’s biggest maternity centre, has had a 40 per cent rise in the number of multiple births, and doctors said the use of infertility treatments by women who have delayed having children was behind the multiple baby boom.
“From a twin and triplet perspective, we have seen a really dramatic rise,” said Dr Paul Bosio, chief medical officer at Corniche Hospital.
In 2010, 183 sets of multiples were delivered at the hospital, compared to 289 last year.
“To put that into context, if you look between 2005 and 2010, it was static,” said Dr Bosio.
The most dramatic rise has been in the number of triplets being born, with an 85 per cent increase over the past five years. In 2009, 14 sets of triplets were born in comparison to 26 sets at the hospital last year.
Dr Bosio said that many couples were choosing to wait to have children, and older women were more likely to have multiple births as they produced more follicle-stimulating hormone, which boosts ovulation.
Older mothers were also more likely to use infertility treatment, such as IVF, to become pregnant, and that increased the chance of multiple births.
Dr Bosio said the trend in Abu Dhabi mirrored the rise in IVF.
With figures he has collated from other hospitals in the capital, he said there had roughly been a “400 per cent” increase in the use of IVF since 2011.
Another factor could be UAE laws, which ban the freezing of embryos.
“What happens in other jurisdictions – you don’t want to replace more than one embryo or maximum two, but you don’t want to lose the embryos either, so you can freeze them,” said Dr Bosio. “Under UAE law you can’t freeze them, so you don’t want to lose them and so there might be an occasion where you put three or four in and, if more than two takes, that causes problems.”
This is despite standards set by the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi, which recommends the implantation of one embryo and requires IVF providers not to transfer more than two – in accordance with guidelines in many western countries. Transferring more than one embryo increases the risk of a multiple pregnancy.
As per the UAE law effective in emirates other than Abu Dhabi, patients 35 or older can have four embryos transferred. Patients under 35 can have a maximum of three.
Dr Limia Ibrahim, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist at Abu Dhabi’s Burjeel Hospital, attributed the boom in multiple births predominately to IVF. “Many of my patients have twins because of IVF,” she said, and added that there was a huge uptake of IVF, especially as Emiratis can get up to three free cycles of the treatment each year under their Thiqa health insurance.
By removing the cost of expensive fertility treatment, many may turn to the treatment as a first option rather than a “last-case scenario”.
Many women go to Dr Ibrahim requesting IVF because they want twins. “I have had mothers who have 10 children who want IVF because they want twins.”
Dr Pankaj Shrivastav, director of Conceive Fertility Hospital in Dubai, said that “as many as 95 per cent” of multiple births were from fertility treatment. Many people seeking IVF requested the implantation of several embryos hoping for twins or triplets because it was “fashionable”.
“Here it has become a bit of a social advantage in certain situations. You are trying to be one-up on others.”
Complications with multiple pregnancies include premature birth, gestational diabetes, congenital defects and foetal loss.
Dr Bosio said: “We have to temper the access to good quality IVF services for those who need it with controlling it and monitoring the effects of overuse.”
newsdesk@thenational.ae
