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Some of Australia's major IVF clinics have changed how they advertise success rates after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found a number had made misleading claims which could confuse consumers.
ACCC commissioner Sarah Court told 7.30 some players in the industry had been peddling false hope to couples desperate for a baby.
"We had concerns with a significant proportion of the clinics," Ms Court said.
The concerns fell into two general areas: the use of medical terms in advertising which could confuse the lay person, and selective reporting of success rates.
For example, some clinics advertised a "clinical pregnancy rate" which an average person might understand to mean a live birth of a baby, but actually included ectopic pregnancies or pregnancies where no heartbeat was ever detected.
Selective reporting of success rates included only reporting the number of cycles at the clinic in question, not failed cycles at other clinics.
"For example, a clinic reporting, say, an 85 per cent success rate within two cycles might have not included five previous failed cycles for that...
