Mild IVF treatment has proven to be more effective and affordable than intensive fertility injections, according to specialists attending an international fertility conference in London this week. The “mild IVF” technique involves fewer fertility-boosting jabs and is safer, the doctors said.

They showed that about 23 percent of women given the mild treatment had a baby –which is less than the 29.6 percent obtained with regular treatment, but that used routinely, mild IVF would cut costs by around a quarter, making it more affordable and increasing the number of women that can get the treatment

With the traditional IVF, women get more than 40 egg-boosting injections in a month. These injections are now being associated with several health issues, including mood swings and boating, and the potential –and fatal- ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, in which ovaries fail to cope with the extra eggs produced.

In the mild IVF study, Dr Shokichi Teramoto gave women in the Kato Ladies Clinic in Tokyo a course on Clomid, a fertility pill, followed by a couple of days of hormonal jabs.

This treatment focuses on the idea, which is getting stronger by the day, of doing single-embryo transfers in fertility treatments, needing fewer eggs to be successful. This would lead to a safer and more affordable treatment, allowing more women to be mothers in the long run.