New embryo screening offers hope
A new service that doubles the chance of success for IVF treatment is being offered from a Canterbury laboratory.
Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL) received the first batch of embryos for Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) this week.
Kiwis hoping to become parents through IVF can have their embryos screened to weed out those that won’t result in a baby.
Fertility Associates, New Zealand’s biggest provider of fertility services, has contracted CHL to provide the service. It was previously only available overseas. PGS costs an additional $3100 and is not government funded.
One cycle of IVF treatment costs between $10,000 and $14,000, with public funding available for women who meet the criteria, Fertility Associates medical director Dr Sarah Wakeman said.
In PGS a sample of the embryo is removed – usually four to six cells – and put under the microscope, CHL clinical director professor Peter George said.
For those struggling with infertility, being able to rule out embryos which would not be viable before implantation can make the emotionally-charged procedure easier, George said.
‘‘One of the big problems they have is the success rate is limited by the fact that many of the embryos – which any woman would have – have an abnormal number of chromosomes and those embryos . . . don’t develop normally.’’
In natural pregnancies embryos with the wrong number of chromosomes result in very early miscarriages, George said.
‘‘In IVF, the same sort of errors occur but we don’t want to put the woman through the effort and heartbreak of transferring back an embryo that has the wrong number of chromosomes and really has no chance of developing.’’
Samples from nine embryos from an Auckland couple taken on day five of the IVF process were sent to CHL in test tubes this week.
The screening results would be analysed by laboratory clinicians next week.
‘‘We should find around 50 per cent of the embryos with the correct number of chromosomes,’’ CHL scientific adviser, Vivienne Bickley said.
Without PGS a fertility specialist would assess the embryos and choose the ones that looked the best, George said.
Wakeman said PGS would be particularly helpful for those who have had recurrent miscarriages and for older women who wanted to speed the process up.