Private hospital in China sued over false claims about ‘natural’ cure for conceiving twins

NANJING — A hospital in eastern China that claims it can help women increase their chance of conceiving twins using natural methods has been sued for misleading advertising, Chinese media reported.

The private Xinxiehe Hospital in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, claimed to use a combination of Chinese and Western medicine to help raise a women’s chances of bearing twins, Xinhua reported.

The procedures were done at the “research base for Chinese twin babies” at the hospital’s infertility department, the report said.

Media reports on successful places were exhibited outside the department’s office.

“We try to understand the conditions of the woman’s period, follicle and ovulation, and also sperm quantity and activity from the man,” Doctor Wang Xifu told a reporter.

Identical twins are formed when one egg is fertilised by one sperm which then divides into two embryos while non-identical twins form from two separate eggs fertilised by two separate sperms.

Mr Wang claimed that the clinic’s medication for the man increased sperm activity to raise the chances of there being two sperms fertilising the eggs.

In the days of China’s one-child policy, there was no penalty for multiple births so conceiving twins was a way of having a larger family. In December 2015, the policy was amended to allow couples to have two children.

The hospital’s general manager Chen Shuai claimed the treatment was different to in vitro fertilisation and the process would not involve choosing the babies’ gender.

But doctor Ma Xiang from Jiangsu’s Maternity and Child Healthcare Centre told Xinhua that achieving such results through drugs alone lacked medical and scientific support.

The director of Renmin University of China Law School, Liu Junhai, also suspected the hospital had infringed the national advertising law as consumers could be misled into believing that they would be able to bear twins follow the clinic’s guidance.

The Health Inspection Institute also found that visited the hospital had no related technology to assist reproduction as they claimed.

Inspection officials said the unprofessional conduct would incur penalty points for the hospital.

It was found that the hospital has promoted the facility as early as 2011. Their hospital website and promotion brochures also included related claims of its efficacy.

The hospital claimed that the name of the facility was “honourably recognised” by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, but the Administration clarified to Xinhua that it was only a recognised trademark.

The administration has issued a court notice to the facility for false and misleading advertising. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST