A clinic which offers ‘fertility drips’ for women trying to get pregnant has withdrawn them from sale following complaints from experts.
Get A Drip, which markets the £250 intravenous (IV) treatments with an image of a baby in a womb, had been accused of ‘exploiting’ vulnerable women and damaging their ‘emotional well-being.’
Doctors and charities said there was no proof the treatments improved fertility and instead they were giving false hope to women desperate to conceive.
Although Get A Drip, which sells its services at clinics in business parks and shopping centres across London, yesterday said it stood by the nutritional value of its vitamin-based wellness products, it apologised for ‘insensitivity’ and confirmed they had removed the fertility drip from sale.
Katherine O’Brien, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said the treatment was an unproven ‘quick fix at an extortionate cost.’
Get A Drip, which markets the £250 intravenous (IV) treatments with an image of a baby in a womb, had been accused of ‘exploiting’ vulnerable women and damaging their ‘emotional well-being’ (file photo)
‘There is no evidence that an IV drip of any combination of vitamins can improve a woman’s fertility,’ she said.
‘In promising hope to women at a very desperate time, we are concerned that, aside from providing no real benefit, these drips may be causing real damage to women’s emotional wellbeing.’
Gwenda Burns, head of operations of Fertility Network UK, told the Guardian the only medically recommended supplements for women trying to conceive were folic acid and vitamin D.
‘Patients are often very vulnerable after years of trying to become parents,’ she said.
‘Fertility struggles and going through fertility treatment can put an enormous strain on both a person’s physical and mental health, but also their financial wellbeing when they are having to fund their own treatment. Companies such as Get A Drip who are charging £250 for their fertility drip are exploiting their customers and offering false hope.’
Popularised by celebrities such as Rihanna, Madonna and Cara Delevingne, vitamin clinics providing expensive IV drips to treat hangovers and jetlag have been a feature of the British high street for several years.
Get A Drip opened at Westfield Shopping Centre, west London, in May in a bid to bring the so-called ‘wellness trend’ of treatments offered by expensive high-end clinics to the masses.
It also has premises in Chiswick, also west London, Shoreditch, east London, and offers a mobile service delivering therapies to homes and businesses across the capital.
The firm employs qualified doctors and nurses to administer rehydrating saline solutions, formulated with vitamins and minerals, directly into customers’ veins.
Although Get A Drip’s products do not profess to be medically proven, experts say they are cleverly named to draw in customers. For example, they include an ‘anti-ageing drip,’ a ‘slim drip’ and ‘mood-boosting drip’ and range in price from £75 to £3,000.
Actress Amber Davies was pictured undergoing an intravenous treatment to help her with her ‘busy schedule’ on the firm’s Twitter account in April.
Doctors and charities said there was no proof the treatments improved fertility and instead they were giving false hope to women desperate to conceive (file photo)
Professor Geeta Nargund, a consultant in reproductive medicine at St George’s Hospital, London, warned ingesting ‘excessive’ vitamins could be harmful.
‘A fertility drip won’t be able to treat fertility issues such as blocked or damaged fallopian tubes,’ she said.
‘The excessive administration of vitamins can potentially be harmful and any replacement of vitamins should be done under medical guidance. This is a wake-up call to improve the regulation of alternative therapies and unproven treatments.’
Raj Mathur, a consultant gynaecologist at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, added: ‘The ingredients listed are all available in a balanced diet. Deficiency of these is rare in modern societies. I cannot see any benefit to your fertility from having these ingredients infused into your bloodstream.’
Richard Chambers, the founder of Get A Grip, said IV therapy was ‘an effective, medically supported treatment’ to help people absorb maximum nutrients.
But he admitted: ‘We understand that the issue of fertility is much deeper than nutrition. We are deeply sorry for the insensitivity of the fertility drip and apologise wholeheartedly for any upset caused.’
He added: ‘The products used in Get A Drip clinics are specially formulated at pharmaceutical grade level, quality assured and highly technical. A thorough medical consultation is completed before anyone can undergo a drip, this includes medical history, pulse check, blood pressure reading and temperature check.’