A new technique for screening eggs and embryos has been used successfully for the first time at a UK clinic, amid claims that it could hugely improve the outcome of IVF treatment for many couples. It's not yet widely available and will probably prove to be a costly addition to your IVF bill, but if it lives up to the hype, it may be well worth it.
The CARE Fertility Group have used a technique called Array CGH which involves testing chromosomes. As women get older, they tend to have more and more eggs that are chromosomally abnormal. These eggs will not always fertilise or implant, but when they do they are often lost during pregnancy. Using this new method the abnormal eggs can be detected and the only the most viable healthy eggs replaced during IVF. There is no need to freeze the eggs or embryos to carry out this process, and the sample is taken from the polar body - previous screening tests involved taking a cell from an embryo.
Trials using frozen embryos led to a doubling of the implantation rate, and the patient who is currently pregnant had been through 13 unsuccessful IVF attempts before trying array CGH (or comparative genomic hybridisation).
Staff at CARE hope this will not only improve the pregnancy and birth rates, but will also decrease the risk of miscarriage or birth defects. Other fertility specialists have given the new development a cautious welcome.
You can read more on the CARE website at www.carefertility.com
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