A British woman recently became the first mother to give birth to world’s first baby through IVF’s Egg screen
ing technique, making headway in IVF technology. Baby Oliver was born to a 41-year-old woman, who had a history of miscarriages and 13 failed IVF cycles. This success has raised hopes in lots of other childless couples that resort to IVF for conception.
The uniqueness of this revolutionary method is in its ability to screen a woman’s eggs for chromosomal abnormalities that cause miscarriage, and thereby choose those which have the maximum chance translating into a foetus. Specialists say that it is a fast and accurate method of detecting changes to the 23 pairs of chromosomes within the human egg that are implicated in miscarriages and birth defects.
According to Professor Simon Fishel, managing director of the Care Fertility Group, which pioneered the technique, “Chromosomal abnormality plays a major part in the failure to establish a pregnancy. Full chromosome analysis may double the chance of success in couples who have a poor chance of conceiving or a history of failed treatments and miscarriage and maximise the chance of pregnancy in all couples.”
In the present case, the woman had less than 7% chance of conception, without taking into account her history of failed IVF cycles. The new chromosome test showed that only two of her eight eggs were normal, one of which finally led to a successful conception.
About half the eggs in younger women and up to 75% in women over 39 have chromosomal abnormalities. This new technique takes about 48 hours to isolate healthy eggs, which needn’t be frozen prior to implantation. It will take a few years before mass manufacturing of genetic chips used in the procedure can be done and therefore reduce cost of treatment.
Professor Fishel said that improving the success of fertility treatment had been a personal quest. “All the team at Care have been waiting for this very special baby to be born,” he said. “I have been involved in many exciting developments in reproductive medicine. Oliver’s birth is an important landmark in shaping our understanding of why many women fail to become pregnant.”
Another advantage of this technique is the possibility of making an objective choice of the right, healthy egg, rather than implanting all eggs obtained, thus minimising the chance of unnecessary multiple pregnancies.
Presently, this procedure costs about 2000 pounds and it would take a while before it reaches the NHS and is available at a more reasonable cost.
Article By Snigdha Taduri For Biomed-ME