Fertility clinic in octuplets case has low pregnancy rate

He has been a proponent of placing newly created embryos in a capsule and cultivating them inside the vagina for a few days before transferring them to the uterus in hopes of achieving a pregnancy. More recently, he has promoted a little-used technique employing a camera to help place embryos in the lining of the uterus. In 2006, he and Suleman appeared together in a KTLA-TV Channel 5 news segment about how the technique could boost the chances of success.

And on his website, he touts his "breakthrough technology that has revolutionized IVF."

In fact, Kamrava's clinic has a much lower rate of pregnancies and births than the vast majority of fertility clinics across the country.

His history of poor results comes despite the fact that Kamrava places more embryos per procedure than all but 10 of the nation's 426 fertility clinics for patients younger than 35. In 2006, he averaged 3.5 embryos per in vitro fertilization treatment, compared with the national average of 2.3.

Other fertility specialists said that placing high numbers of embryos is a common way that poorly performing clinics try to boost their pregnancy rates. But that increases the risk of multiple births, which pose a danger to the women and their babies.

Dr. Philip McNamee, a fertility specialist in Honolulu, said Kamrava may have believed he had little to worry about when he transferred six embryos to Suleman last year since his success rates were so low and her embryos had been frozen and thawed. Frozen embryos lead to pregnancy less frequently than fresh ones.

"That is one logical explanation of why he thought in his mind he could do it," McNamee said.

Still, he and other doctors strongly condemned the decision, especially because Suleman had a history of successful pregnancies.

Not only did all six embryos take, two of them led to twins, Suleman told NBC.

In the interview, Suleman defended her doctor. She called her treatment "very appropriate," particularly because of her history of miscarriages and scarred fallopian tubes.

"The most I would have ever anticipated would have been twins," Suleman said. "It wasn't twins times four."

Kamrava declined to comment to reporters who swarmed his office Monday.

This is not the first time he has faced controversy. At least two of his former employees have sued him, including Shirin Afshar, an office administrator who alleged that Kamrava engaged in systematic insurance and tax fraud. She also said he routinely asked her to participate in medical procedures even though she was not licensed to do so.