Health experts in the UK have warned that commonly used IVF procedures in the country pose threats to mothers and babies' as they are exposed to toxic drugs in the procedures.

They said that health care units are using `aggressive' practices aimed at improving success rates but this is becoming one of the largest causes for maternal deaths in England and Wales. It is believed that the most common procedure involving high doses of toxic drugs to stimulate increased egg production in the ovaries, may cause abnormalities in embryos and can also affect the health of the mothers.

Experts said during a conference in Copenhagen in Denmark that alternative `mild' treatment should be used for treatment instead of riskier IVF treatments that are mostly commercially motivated. Professor Geeta Nargund, head of reproductive medicine at St George's Hospital in London pointed out that procedures involving high dose of stimulation may lead to side-effects, including ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome (OHSS).

"A recent confidential inquiry into maternal deaths in the UK showed that OHSS was now one of the biggest causes of maternal mortality in England and Wales. There is no doubt that women subjected to this kind of stimulation are at serious health risk," she said.

Professor Nargund pointed out that UK is behind countries such as France, Holland and Belgium that use lesser toxic procedures. This `mild' technique leads to a lower pregnancy rate per cycle for women but recovery for patients is faster and has lesser risks for the mothers and babies.

She said that health care providers must aim at reducing complications in producers.