New IVF technique: greater success rate, fewer multiple births
(sz) Doctors have found a way to boost the success rate of IVF in a ground-breaking study that halved the incidence of multiple births, by far the biggest hazard of fertility treatment.
Fertility specialists at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital who tested the new technique say they hope it will be adopted as a standard approach by IVF clinics that are striving to reduce the burden of twin and triplet births.
The technique involves growing the fertilised embryos for a couple of extra days in the laboratory and identifying the best single “blastocyst” – as the embryos are then known – to increase the chances of success.
Using the technique, the Guy’s and St Thomas’ specialists transferred one blastocyst to the womb, instead of the usual two or three, yet increased the pregnancy rate from 27 per cent to 32 per cent. At the same time, they cut the incidence of twins and triplets from 30 per cent to 17 per cent (some multiple births still occur because a single embryo can split to form identical twins). In all, 2,451 IVF cycles were performed comparing the two approaches between 2004 and 2007.
Yakoub Khalaf, who led the study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG), said: “It is a myth that single embryo transfer lowers the success rate for pregnancy. If the right patients are selected for blastocyst transfer, success rates can be maintained and multiple pregnancy can be reduced.” more…
From: »The Independent«