Milder IVF more likely to work, say researchers
(sz) A milder form of fertility treatment that is safer for women also results in higher quality embryos that are more likely to develop successfully inside the mother, according to researchers who compared the method with conventional methods. They say the technique, which is cheaper because it uses lower doses of hormone-mimicking drugs, should be used more widely by fertility clinics.
In conventional IVF doctors begin by massively stimulating the woman’s ovaries to produce 10 or more eggs. When these are mixed with sperm this gives the doctors plenty of choice about which embryos to implant back into the womb. But the new study suggests that many of these embryos will be genetically defective and so will not develop. Even under natural conditions around 30% of early embryos do not progress to the foetus stage because of genetic abnormalities.
“It has always been thought that the more eggs the better. We like to have a nice assortment of embryos to choose from,” said Dr Esther Baart, an embryologist at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht who carried out the study. But her research suggests that the number of normal eggs is about the same as those delivered by the gentle technique even though the total drops from around 12 to around eight. more…
From: »The Guardian«