I got the following response back from the ASA on the Zhea Clinic ad.
Dear Mr Xxxxxxx
YOUR COMPLAINT ABOUT THE ZHAI CLINIC
Thank you for your continued patience.
We have visited the Zhai Clinic website which provides further information about Dr Zhai. It states that she is qualified in both western and Chinese medicine. It also appears that the Zhai Clinic practises both western and Chinese medicine. On that basis and without further evidence to suggest otherwise, I’m afraid we do not have grounds to pursue this matter further.
If you can provide evidence to show that Dr Zhai does not hold a qualification in western medicine and more detail about why you believe the clinic does not have a 70% success rate, please forward it to me. In the meantime however I will close our file.
Our website, www.asa.org.uk, contains further information about the ASA and the work we do.
To be honest, I am no expert on fertility treatment so I took this opportunity to get more acquainted with the success rates of infertility treatment. Taking figures from the HFEA I found that the 70% figure, if it represents a treatment cycle success rate, is about double the average success rate. And the London Fertility Centre's success rates match those average success rates. The ad does say that over 70% of couples following the Zhea clinic's programs go on to conceive, which might explain the discrepancy; these programs may consist of more than one treatment cycle. This, to me, would nevertheless still be misleading; if the program consists of as many treatment cycles as it takes to conceive (with, presumably, less chance each time), then is it still a single program in any real terms?
Added to that is the fact that these treatments clearly aren't "natural", and the TCM plays little if any part in efficacy. Dot dot dot
Dear Xxxxx,
Seventy percent is a very high success rate for any kind of fertility treatment. Traditional IVF treatment offers about 30% success if the woman is under 35, and that figure only decreases with age.
Furthermore the ad is making a claim about conceiving "the natural way" and is bringing in traditional Chinese medicine as a route to that natural conception. I don't see how they can say that IVF or related treatments can be deemed natural methods of conception.
Also I was unable to find Dr Zhai on the GMC database, although I've since learnt that the Zhai Clinic is a satellite for the London Fertility Centre.
Kind regards,
Xxxxxxx.
