Mothers and babies are put on risk by the fertility-growth injections given to thousands of British women every year, may be a waste of time and money, said experts.

Doctors give hormone injections to women who have failed to become pregnant after being prescribed milder clomiphene fertility pills but before they are admitted for full IVF treatment. The chances of woman’s pregnancy are increased when the injections stimulate the ovaries to overproduce eggs. The significant side-effects of these injections include, abdominal pain, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and headaches.

The chances of woman having twins or triplets are also increased with injections costing £800-£1,000. About 20 % to 30 % of women given the injections have multiple births with risk of birth defects and relate to pregnancy-induced hypertension.

An extensive study is done by doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center, New Hampshire, for investigating whether hormone injections were effective for women, who were not able to become pregnant after taking fertility pills. It was found in study that if women were sent directly for IVF, they became pregnant more quickly and spent not much on treatment. The suggesting hormone injections were not worth the cost or risk.

Richard Rheinhold, who led the study, said, “The use of these injections does not provide added benefit.”

503 infertile couples were enrolled for the study and they were assigned to two separate groups. Women in first group joined a standard three-tier fertility programme. The second group was fast-tracked to IVF treatment. Both groups had similar chances of becoming pregnant, with 75% in the three-tier and 78% in fast-tracked scheme eventually conceiving.

Women on the fast-track programme became pregnant three months earlier than the others, on average after eight months. They spend less i.e. £30,750 in total as compared with £35,700 for those with three types of treatment.

At the annual meeting of American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Washington, Dr Rheinhold, said, “When compared to conventional infertility treatment, the accelerated approach to IVF that eliminates fertility injections results in roughly equal percentages of pregnancies with fewer treatment cycles and lower costs.”

“If we try to do IVF cheaply and don’t waste money doing clever things we can get more babies per investment,” said, Bill Ledger, head of reproductive and developmental medicine at Sheffield University.

“Patients embarking on assisted reproduction therapy should discuss with their doctors the effectiveness of interventions, and make a judgment on whether to take on treatments with a lower chance of success than IVF,” said Mark Hamilton, chairman of British Fertility Society.