An interesting story from WebMD discusses the hot debate between IVF patients and their doctors.

By Miranda Hitti

WebMD Feature

Forget “Octo Mom.” The hot debate among in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients and their doctors isn’t about having lots of babies at once. It’s about trying for twins. Patients who want twins point to the high costs of IVF, their ticking biological clocks, and their frustration and exhaustion from lengthy fertility struggles. They ask, why not have two at a time?

Leslie Glass says she did want twins when she turned to IVF.

Her reasoning: “It was so expensive and I knew that this would probably be it for us,” Glass tells WebMD. “If we get twins, all the better, because whether we had twins or one, it’s still $22,000. So if this is it, then let’s just complete the family.”

But doctors say it’s risky.

Compared to having one baby, twins and other multiples are more likely to have serious — and even life-threatening — health problems, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and birth defects.

“[Patients] are so focused on getting pregnant in any way, shape, or form that the concerns with multiples are secondary,” Alan Peaceman, MD, professor and chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells WebMD.

“Sometimes, they just don’t understand how bad ‘bad’ can be,” Peaceman says.

And just like that, one of the most intimate decisions an adult can make — how many children to have — becomes a medical, ethical, and personal minefield that can pit patient against doctor. Here are the pros and cons from each side of the debate.

Read the rest of this IVF story.