Dutch fertility clinic may have fertilized dozens of women with the wrong sperm

A Dutch medical center could be responsible for fertilizing women with the wrong sperm.

University Medical Center in Utrecht is now investigating fertility treatments that took place between April 2015 and November 2016 and could have affected up to 26 women. The medical center referred to the problem as a "procedural error."

Half of the women treated in this time period have either already given birth or are currently pregnant. UMC also disclosed that some frozen embryos may have been fertilized with sperm from a man who was not the intended father.

The medical facility expressed that the probability that the wrong sperm was used is "small" but "cannot be ruled out" without a thorough investigation.

The women involved in the internal investigation chose a fertility treatment called an intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. This fertility treatment involves injecting a single sperm directly into an egg instead of the standard in-vitro fertilization, when an egg is placed in a dish next to many sperm at once.

UMC spokesman Paul Geurts indicated that all clients who may have been affected by the mix-up have been contacted. "We have been as transparent as possible," he said.

Arie Frankz, a gynecologist at UMC told a Dutch news station Tuesday evening that that facility will be cutting back on the number of clients they handle during the investigation "so that procedures can be closely monitored."