UK Wellness Company Pulls £250 Fake 'Fertility Drip'

A UK company apparently hellbent on proving that wellness scammers exist outside Gwyneth Paltrow’s purview had to pull a £250 “fertility drip,” after doctors pointed out that the drip did not, in fact, help with fertility.

As reported by the Guardian, the drip in question comes courtesy of Get a Drip, which offers “affordable” IV hydration therapy at a handful of locations in the UK. Drips include the £125 “party drip,” a £200 “anti-ageing drip,” and £850-£3000 “skin brightening drips,” all of which comprise a handful of vitamins and, according, to medical experts, limited health benefits.

That’s a problem altogether, though if you want to blow hundreds of dollars trying to brighten your skin or minimize a hangover, that’s pretty much on you. But the “fertility drip” was a particularly troubling offering—around 1 in 7 couples in the UK have difficulty conceiving, according to the National Health Service, and treatment can be difficult and/or costly, even with publicly funded healthcare.

Just as shoving a jade egg up your vagina won’t balance your hormones, a handful of vitamins will not necessarily help someone struggling with real fertility issues get pregnant. And so, the £250 drip—which, again, had no real effect on a person’s fertility, not that a desperate layperson would necessarily know that—was a big problem.

A number of doctors and other groups pointed out this very fact. Per BBC News:

Katherine O’Brien, associate director of communications and campaigns at BPAS, said the fertility drip offered an unproven “quick fix at an extortionate cost”.

“There is no evidence that an IV drip of any combination of vitamins can improve a woman’s fertility,” she said.

“In promising hope to women at a very desperate time, we are concerned that, aside from providing no real benefit, these drips may be causing real damage to women’s emotional wellbeing.”

Get a Drip agreed to pull the drip, apologizing for its “insensitivity” and reiterating that its IV products are merely health supplements and not actual cures. “While we stand by the ingredients’ benefits, we understand that the issue of fertility is much deeper than nutrition,” founder Richard Chambers said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for the insensitivity of the fertility drip and apologise wholeheartedly for any upset caused.”

We reached out to Get a Drip for comment and will update if and when we hear back.