£200 test that boosts chance of IVF success
‘Additional opportunity’
WOMEN could be spared the heartache of repeated rounds of IVF thanks to a cheap test.
British scientists have developed an embryo screening method that makes it far more likely a woman will give birth.
The £200 test offers IVF patients the highest ever chance of conceiving – and it could be available within six months.
Scientists have already been using chromosome testing to increase birth rates from 40 per cent to 65 per cent for a woman in her mid-30s.
But now Oxford University scientists have increased that rate even further, raising the odds to up to 80 per cent, almost the same chance a fertile woman of the same age has of conceiving naturally. The breakthroughs mean that each round of IVF is far more likely to succeed – sparing couples the agony of repeated attempts. The Oxford team’s findings, due to be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual meeting in Baltimore today, show that by looking for abnormal levels of mitochondrial DNA in embryos before implantation, they could select those that are likely to result in a successful birth.
Clinics in the US have already started using the procedure and scientists have applied for permission from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to use the technique in Britain.
Until recently IVF doctors simply studied embryos under a microscope in an attempt to pick those with the best chance of implanting in the womb.
Recent advances have meant they can now check chromosome levels and spot abnormalities, but even that leaves 35 per cent of procedures which will not work.
Dagan Wells, of the Reprogenetics lab and the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, said: ‘No one can dispute that IVF has been tremendously successful. If you go into any classroom at least one child will have been born through IVF.
‘However it is still the case that many patients don’t get pregnant, and some patients have many cycles and never come away with a baby. That has high emotional and financial implications.
‘There is a great desire to make IVF less of a roller-coaster and give more certainty to the outcome. We’re not very good at picking out which embryo will give rise to a baby.’
Professor Wells added that it was still unclear why the embryos produce too much mitochondrial DNA. New work will try to find out why this is.
He said he hoped that at some point in the future, chromosomal testing plus the new test would be available on the Health Service rather than just through private IVF clinics. Adam Balen of the British Fertility Society said: ‘This study presents a fascinating insight into the potential relationship between mitochondrial activity in genetically normal embryos and their potential for developing i nt o a viable pregnancy.’
Stuart Lavery, consultant gynaecologist and honorary senior lecturer in reproductive medicine at Imperial College London, said: ‘This important research sheds more light on our understanding of early human embryo development.
‘IVF remains a very inefficient process, with many embryos generated not leading to a pregnancy.
‘ This new finding of mitochondrial assessment in human embryos could offer an additional opportunity to screen embryos prior to implantation, helping patients get pregnant quicker.’