June 24, 2025 • 14 mins
A mistake at an IVF clinic has led to a woman giving birth to a stranger’s baby.
It’s a catastrophic error and not the first one that’s recently come to light. Such risks are not covered in the marketing material of Australia’s major fertility clinics.
But this mistake – at one of the oldest and most reputable clinics in the country – has had devastating consequences that reach far beyond the affected families, and damaged the confidence of anyone relying on fertility treatment in Australia.
Today, writer and public health campaigner Hannah Bambra on how Monash IVF has handled its monumental mistake, and why the IVF industry is so vulnerable to human error.
If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
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Guest: Writer and public health campaigner Hannah Bambra
Photo: Supplied by University of Queensland/AAP Image
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
From Schwartz Media.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is seven AM. A mix up at an IVF
clinic has led to a woman giving birth to a
stranger's baby. It's the kind of horror story that is
hard to imagine when you leaf through the pink branded
marketing material of Australia's major fertility clinics. But this mistake,
(00:26):
one of the oldest and most reputable clinics in the country,
has had devastating consequences that reach far beyond the affected
families and with implications for every person relying on fertility
treatment in Australia. Today, writer and public health campaigner Hanna
Bambra on how Monash IVF has handled its monumental mistake
(00:46):
and why the IVF industry is so vulnerable to human error.
It's Wednesday, June twenty five. So how You've been looking
into some pretty catastrophic erarors that have been happening at
(01:07):
IVF clinics in Australia and some of these stories I
think are pretty terrifying and almost unbelievable. Tell me about
what's been coming to light.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So earlier this month.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There was a couple at Monash IVF in Clayton who
were told that they received the wrong embryo. That was
a queer couple and she received her own embryo instead
of her partner's embrero, which wasn't on their plan, and
this has been referred to as an incredibly rare human error.
(01:42):
But it comes only two months after an announcement that
at monash Ivf's Brisbane clinic, someone gave birth to a
stranger's child.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Which I imagine would have been a pretty shocking thing
to discover.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's incredibly shocking.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
There are urgent calls for tighter industry regulation tonight as
new details emerge into what went wrong in the monash
IVF bungle.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
The two women were patients at monash IVF. Woman A
had a number of embryo successfully frozen. Months later, when
there was one less than she was initially told, doctors
said they must have counted wrong, but really one had
been transferred into woman B, who became pregnant.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Those people will be assumed to be the parents of
that child, but they have no genetic links to that child,
and that child is now nearly two years old, so
it's taken a long time for that to come to light,
and that would be a really confusing thing for the
birth parents, for the child themselves, and for the couple
(02:45):
whose or individual whose embryo was used. And I can't
help but think, what if that was your last embryo
that was given to a stranger.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And so when these stories of embryo mix ups came
to light, and what has the response been from Monash IVF.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So Monash IVF have apologized and earlier this month, their
CEO stepped down.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
In a statement to the AX. On Thursday morning, Monoch
Chavif announced it's chief Michael Kannap, was out, two days
after the company revealed it had incorrectly transferred the wrong
embryo to a patient in Melbourne last week.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They've launched internal investigations and their clinical director has said
that whenever there's humans in a system, there's going to
be the potential for human error, but it's incredibly rare
for that to happen. And I think the fact that
there's now been two announcements in two months is really
(03:45):
scary for people.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And having embryos mixed up in this way. I mean,
this is on the higher end of things that can
go wrong when you're talking about IVF, but people who
have been to these providers have talked about other smaller
but still very painful things that have happened to them
as they've gone through that process. Can you tell me
about some of the stories that you've heard.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sure, So, as you said, receiving the wrong embryo is
probably the most catastrophic mistake that could happen in a clinic,
but it seems like these instances have been a platform
for people to start sharing other really scary things that
have happened to them in clinics as well. So there's
one woman who I spoke to who had been to
(04:30):
another major clinic based in Melbourne and she went through
a round of IVF.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
She was able to.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Extract three eggs during that process, and she would have
already been feeling really vulnerable at that point because you
do get given statistics like one in four eggs is
likely to survive thawing. But in this instance, all three
eggs survived thawing, so it it looks like it was
(05:00):
going well, and then they just had to wait and
see how many of those eggs turned into embryos. Because
she was going through the process with her partner, one
day she received a call to say that two of
those eggs had turned into embryos, and then the next
day she received another call saying, actually, sorry, we were wrong.
(05:22):
None of them have survived. And then they received another
call later that day saying, actually that was an ADMIN error.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Two of them did survive.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So, as you can imagine, there's a huge amount of
grief that can come up in those kind of mistakes,
and a lot of people say that they feel like
they've failed as well, and then for that to just
have been an ADMIN era really isn't good enough. You know,
they're not treated with the bedside manner that they should
(05:56):
receive when they're going through such a delicate and personal process.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, and there's obviously a huge impact of something like
this on the people who are actually going through it,
people like Stacy. But what message do you think it
sends to others who might be considering IVF and are
now seeing these mistakes play out.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, So people considering going through IVF now or about
to go through the process obviously are seeing a real
lack of public trust in IVF, and it's often something
that they might have been saving for.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
For a really long time. So I think people are
really vulnerable by.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
The time they get to this stage of considering IVF.
Some people consider it to be their last hope, and
other people have thought about it for a really long time.
So I think seeing these kind of mistakes happen is
putting extra stress on people who are already already vulnerable
and already trying to trust.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Coming up after the break, how Hannah's own IVF journey
showed her what's wrong with the industry. Hannah, this is
a personal story for you as well. Could you talk
to me about your IVF journey.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So two years ago I found myself single and in
my thirties, and I received a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome,
and I decided to freeze my eggs. And for me,
that was a really empowering decision, taking a bit of
(07:40):
control of my fertility. And Monash IVF have been in
the game for a really long time. They actually were
part of Monash University and achieved the world's first IVF
pregnancy in the last century, so their reputation really appealed
to me. I thought, if I'm going with the people
(08:00):
who essentially invented IVA for part of those early days,
then I'm going to be in good hands. But when
I actually started to engage with the clinic, I was
really surprised by how old fashioned their approach was. I
got a lot of questions about being single, which I
(08:21):
was surprised about because I thought a lot of people
would be going through this process, especially the initial egg
freezing process by themselves or with a friend. And you know,
there's quite stigmatizing language that can be used for people.
If you are single or queer, you are still considered
(08:42):
socially infertile in Australia. It's kind of riddled with assumptions
about why you might be going through this process and
almost treating it like a lifestyle choice.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, it sounds like there are still very much inequities
baked into the system.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I think.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So every form that I was given as a single
person had a place for a partner to sign, which
I think is really insensitive at the least, And it
also really assumes that everyone going through IVF or using
ART is.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
A heterosexual couple, which just isn't true.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Nearly six percent of children in Australia are born to
IVF now, so there's a huge range of people who
need to use assisted reproductive technologies. Only recently was there
some changes to the Medicare rebates. So previously you had
to prove that you were medically infertile rather than socially
(09:41):
infertile to be able to get any kind of Medicare rebates,
and just as of late last year, they've changed that
so you can get small rebates if you're a single
person or if you're in a same sex female couple,
which is quite outdated language as well. And to be honest,
the medica rebates don't really touch the edges of how
(10:03):
much these processes cost.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And just to come back to the way that these
companies operate, it seems like some of these mistakes are
really only coming to light by chance, and sometimes a
long time after they've actually happened. So do you think
that there is an issue here in terms of oversight
and transparency.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I think that's what's coming through in these stories. And
I spoke to an embryologist, Lucy Lyons, who said that
people in labs are really overworked and really tired, and
the increasing corporatization of the IVF sector, which now brings
in more than eight hundred and ten million dollars a year,
(10:44):
means that people aren't taking breaks. People aren't in labs
that are adequately staffed. So even though the people on
the front lines might really care about what they're doing,
there isn't that oversight or transparency baked into the process.
As you said, a lot of these clinics are looking
at how they can improve their bottom line, how they
(11:06):
can get new people into the system, how they can
continue to return profits to shareholders. But I don't think
there's enough focus on people who are coming through and
how personal this process is. There's nothing more personal in
a way than trying to start a family.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Are there particular things that you, as someone who's gone
through this process, would say that need to be changed
that would have made it better for you?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So I spoke to another woman as well who said
that she was left with a lot of unchecked grief
and that a lot of people who go through this
process don't have their expectations managed adequately. And I think
a lot of it comes down to the way that
things are communicated. So even ensuring that everyone who speaks
(11:55):
to consumers has a background in trauma informed care would
be art. Making counseling mandatory for people and helping them
book those sessions would be really helpful.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I think.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So sometimes you might go from a phlebotomis taking your blood,
to a nurse who is going to tell you about
the next step in your cycle, to an ultrasound technician
who is about to deliver an ultrasound for you, and
you need to repeat facts to everyone again and again,
(12:30):
and they might all give you different information, which can
be quite confusing. Consent isn't talked about enough either, And
even in my experience when I went to get an
internal ultrasound, there was an example where someone said, Oh,
this student's going to do your internal ultrasound today.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Isn't that great.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's the first time they've ever done an internal ultrasound,
And there wasn't much thought around whether I actually consented
to that process. An internal just sound is very personal
and very invasive, and if someone is inserting something inside you,
there needs to be a conversation about that. And I
(13:12):
think that's really common across the board that there isn't
training around how to ensure that someone feels safe and
someone feels in control of their own body and their
own fertility, because that is essentially why they are seeking
out IVF in the first place.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, Hannah, thank you for your time and for your reporting.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Thank you. Ruby.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Also in the news today, US President Donald Trump says
a full cease fire is now in effect between Iran
and Israel, although there are still questions as to whether
both parties have officially confirmed the agree. Making the announcement
on social media, President Trump said a phased twenty four
hour process would begin on Tuesday, with a run unilaterally
halting all operations, and Israel following suit twelve hours later
(14:13):
and after nine weeks. The triple murder trial of accused
killer Aaron Patterson is expected to wrap up in the
coming days. The jury is considering whether Miss Patterson knew
she was feeding family members poisonous death cap mushrooms that
left three dead and one critically ill. Miss Patterson denies
knowing the mushrooms were poisonous and claims it was a
terrible accident.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
This is seven am.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
See you tomorrow.
From Schwartz Media.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is seven AM. A mix up at an IVF
clinic has led to a woman giving birth to a
stranger's baby. It's the kind of horror story that is
hard to imagine when you leaf through the pink branded
marketing material of Australia's major fertility clinics. But this mistake,
(00:26):
one of the oldest and most reputable clinics in the country,
has had devastating consequences that reach far beyond the affected
families and with implications for every person relying on fertility
treatment in Australia. Today, writer and public health campaigner Hanna
Bambra on how Monash IVF has handled its monumental mistake
(00:46):
and why the IVF industry is so vulnerable to human error.
It's Wednesday, June twenty five. So how You've been looking
into some pretty catastrophic erarors that have been happening at
(01:07):
IVF clinics in Australia and some of these stories I
think are pretty terrifying and almost unbelievable. Tell me about
what's been coming to light.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So earlier this month.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There was a couple at Monash IVF in Clayton who
were told that they received the wrong embryo. That was
a queer couple and she received her own embryo instead
of her partner's embrero, which wasn't on their plan, and
this has been referred to as an incredibly rare human error.
(01:42):
But it comes only two months after an announcement that
at monash Ivf's Brisbane clinic, someone gave birth to a
stranger's child.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Which I imagine would have been a pretty shocking thing
to discover.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's incredibly shocking.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
There are urgent calls for tighter industry regulation tonight as
new details emerge into what went wrong in the monash
IVF bungle.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
The two women were patients at monash IVF. Woman A
had a number of embryo successfully frozen. Months later, when
there was one less than she was initially told, doctors
said they must have counted wrong, but really one had
been transferred into woman B, who became pregnant.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Those people will be assumed to be the parents of
that child, but they have no genetic links to that child,
and that child is now nearly two years old, so
it's taken a long time for that to come to light,
and that would be a really confusing thing for the
birth parents, for the child themselves, and for the couple
(02:45):
whose or individual whose embryo was used. And I can't
help but think, what if that was your last embryo
that was given to a stranger.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And so when these stories of embryo mix ups came
to light, and what has the response been from Monash IVF.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So Monash IVF have apologized and earlier this month, their
CEO stepped down.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
In a statement to the AX. On Thursday morning, Monoch
Chavif announced it's chief Michael Kannap, was out, two days
after the company revealed it had incorrectly transferred the wrong
embryo to a patient in Melbourne last week.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They've launched internal investigations and their clinical director has said
that whenever there's humans in a system, there's going to
be the potential for human error, but it's incredibly rare
for that to happen. And I think the fact that
there's now been two announcements in two months is really
(03:45):
scary for people.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And having embryos mixed up in this way. I mean,
this is on the higher end of things that can
go wrong when you're talking about IVF, but people who
have been to these providers have talked about other smaller
but still very painful things that have happened to them
as they've gone through that process. Can you tell me
about some of the stories that you've heard.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sure, So, as you said, receiving the wrong embryo is
probably the most catastrophic mistake that could happen in a clinic,
but it seems like these instances have been a platform
for people to start sharing other really scary things that
have happened to them in clinics as well. So there's
one woman who I spoke to who had been to
(04:30):
another major clinic based in Melbourne and she went through
a round of IVF.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
She was able to.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Extract three eggs during that process, and she would have
already been feeling really vulnerable at that point because you
do get given statistics like one in four eggs is
likely to survive thawing. But in this instance, all three
eggs survived thawing, so it it looks like it was
(05:00):
going well, and then they just had to wait and
see how many of those eggs turned into embryos. Because
she was going through the process with her partner, one
day she received a call to say that two of
those eggs had turned into embryos, and then the next
day she received another call saying, actually, sorry, we were wrong.
(05:22):
None of them have survived. And then they received another
call later that day saying, actually that was an ADMIN error.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Two of them did survive.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So, as you can imagine, there's a huge amount of
grief that can come up in those kind of mistakes,
and a lot of people say that they feel like
they've failed as well, and then for that to just
have been an ADMIN era really isn't good enough. You know,
they're not treated with the bedside manner that they should
(05:56):
receive when they're going through such a delicate and personal process.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, and there's obviously a huge impact of something like
this on the people who are actually going through it,
people like Stacy. But what message do you think it
sends to others who might be considering IVF and are
now seeing these mistakes play out.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, So people considering going through IVF now or about
to go through the process obviously are seeing a real
lack of public trust in IVF, and it's often something
that they might have been saving for.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
For a really long time. So I think people are
really vulnerable by.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
The time they get to this stage of considering IVF.
Some people consider it to be their last hope, and
other people have thought about it for a really long time.
So I think seeing these kind of mistakes happen is
putting extra stress on people who are already already vulnerable
and already trying to trust.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Coming up after the break, how Hannah's own IVF journey
showed her what's wrong with the industry. Hannah, this is
a personal story for you as well. Could you talk
to me about your IVF journey.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So two years ago I found myself single and in
my thirties, and I received a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome,
and I decided to freeze my eggs. And for me,
that was a really empowering decision, taking a bit of
(07:40):
control of my fertility. And Monash IVF have been in
the game for a really long time. They actually were
part of Monash University and achieved the world's first IVF
pregnancy in the last century, so their reputation really appealed
to me. I thought, if I'm going with the people
(08:00):
who essentially invented IVA for part of those early days,
then I'm going to be in good hands. But when
I actually started to engage with the clinic, I was
really surprised by how old fashioned their approach was. I
got a lot of questions about being single, which I
(08:21):
was surprised about because I thought a lot of people
would be going through this process, especially the initial egg
freezing process by themselves or with a friend. And you know,
there's quite stigmatizing language that can be used for people.
If you are single or queer, you are still considered
(08:42):
socially infertile in Australia. It's kind of riddled with assumptions
about why you might be going through this process and
almost treating it like a lifestyle choice.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, it sounds like there are still very much inequities
baked into the system.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I think.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So every form that I was given as a single
person had a place for a partner to sign, which
I think is really insensitive at the least, And it
also really assumes that everyone going through IVF or using
ART is.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
A heterosexual couple, which just isn't true.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Nearly six percent of children in Australia are born to
IVF now, so there's a huge range of people who
need to use assisted reproductive technologies. Only recently was there
some changes to the Medicare rebates. So previously you had
to prove that you were medically infertile rather than socially
(09:41):
infertile to be able to get any kind of Medicare rebates,
and just as of late last year, they've changed that
so you can get small rebates if you're a single
person or if you're in a same sex female couple,
which is quite outdated language as well. And to be honest,
the medica rebates don't really touch the edges of how
(10:03):
much these processes cost.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And just to come back to the way that these
companies operate, it seems like some of these mistakes are
really only coming to light by chance, and sometimes a
long time after they've actually happened. So do you think
that there is an issue here in terms of oversight
and transparency.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I think that's what's coming through in these stories. And
I spoke to an embryologist, Lucy Lyons, who said that
people in labs are really overworked and really tired, and
the increasing corporatization of the IVF sector, which now brings
in more than eight hundred and ten million dollars a year,
(10:44):
means that people aren't taking breaks. People aren't in labs
that are adequately staffed. So even though the people on
the front lines might really care about what they're doing,
there isn't that oversight or transparency baked into the process.
As you said, a lot of these clinics are looking
at how they can improve their bottom line, how they
(11:06):
can get new people into the system, how they can
continue to return profits to shareholders. But I don't think
there's enough focus on people who are coming through and
how personal this process is. There's nothing more personal in
a way than trying to start a family.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Are there particular things that you, as someone who's gone
through this process, would say that need to be changed
that would have made it better for you?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So I spoke to another woman as well who said
that she was left with a lot of unchecked grief
and that a lot of people who go through this
process don't have their expectations managed adequately. And I think
a lot of it comes down to the way that
things are communicated. So even ensuring that everyone who speaks
(11:55):
to consumers has a background in trauma informed care would
be art. Making counseling mandatory for people and helping them
book those sessions would be really helpful.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I think.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So sometimes you might go from a phlebotomis taking your blood,
to a nurse who is going to tell you about
the next step in your cycle, to an ultrasound technician
who is about to deliver an ultrasound for you, and
you need to repeat facts to everyone again and again,
(12:30):
and they might all give you different information, which can
be quite confusing. Consent isn't talked about enough either, And
even in my experience when I went to get an
internal ultrasound, there was an example where someone said, Oh,
this student's going to do your internal ultrasound today.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Isn't that great.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's the first time they've ever done an internal ultrasound,
And there wasn't much thought around whether I actually consented
to that process. An internal just sound is very personal
and very invasive, and if someone is inserting something inside you,
there needs to be a conversation about that. And I
(13:12):
think that's really common across the board that there isn't
training around how to ensure that someone feels safe and
someone feels in control of their own body and their
own fertility, because that is essentially why they are seeking
out IVF in the first place.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, Hannah, thank you for your time and for your reporting.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Thank you. Ruby.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Also in the news today, US President Donald Trump says
a full cease fire is now in effect between Iran
and Israel, although there are still questions as to whether
both parties have officially confirmed the agree. Making the announcement
on social media, President Trump said a phased twenty four
hour process would begin on Tuesday, with a run unilaterally
halting all operations, and Israel following suit twelve hours later
(14:13):
and after nine weeks. The triple murder trial of accused
killer Aaron Patterson is expected to wrap up in the
coming days. The jury is considering whether Miss Patterson knew
she was feeding family members poisonous death cap mushrooms that
left three dead and one critically ill. Miss Patterson denies
knowing the mushrooms were poisonous and claims it was a
terrible accident.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
This is seven am.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
See you tomorrow.
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