A leading British fertility clinic has developed a new technique that could dramatically increase a woman's chances of having a successful in-vitro fertilization treatment.
Doctors at Nottingham's CARE Fertility clinic have found a way to extract the extra set of chromosomes released by a woman's egg and analyze it for abnormalities.
Chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo are one of the main reasons pregnancies fail.
According to Dr. Simon Fishel, one of the world's eminent fertility experts and a co-founder of the new technique, finding and using the eggs that are free of chromosomal abnormalities will increase the chances of implanting a viable embryo.
"The golden goal in IVF is to have one embryo, one baby, as safely as possible," Fishel said Wednesday on Canada AM, "reducing the incidents, if not eliminating, multiple pregnancies."
A woman's egg releases half of its chromosomes into a tiny capsule before it meets the sperm, Fishel said.
The new technique, called Comparative Genomic Hybridization, employs a microscopic needle to remove the chromosomes from that capsule without disturbing the egg.
The chromosomes, which are essentially a matching set to the chromosomes left in the egg, can then be analyzed to determine if they are normal or abnormal.
According to Fishel, as much as 50 per cent of a healthy younger woman's eggs contain abnormalities. That number jumps to 70 per cent in an older woman who is still able to reproduce.
"So embryologists need to be able to detect those embryos free of chromosomal abnormalities to give every chance to that embryo to become a baby," Fishel said.
Fishel and his colleagues have been utilizing the technique for nearly two years in the U.K. However, the chromosome testing used to take a full week, meaning the eggs would need to be frozen for later use, a process that can destroy some eggs.
But the researchers can now test the chromosomes within 24 hours, which should dramatically improve the IVF success rate, Fishel said.
Fishel acknowledged that there will always be a failure rate for pregnancy, whether a woman conceived naturally or via fertility treatments.
However, because the struggle to conceive can be such an emotional roller coaster for a woman and her partner, it is "imperative" to improve IVF treatments to make them as successful, and as safe, as possible, he said.
The technique is not currently done in Canada, and Fishel did not speculate on when it would be widely available.
