New Technique Makes IVF More Accurate And Cheaper - Part II
By Cynthia Taylor
Mr. Levy said that they were unable to afford the genetic testing. This study allowed them an opportunity for them to receive an embryo that was successful to produce Connor.
Baby Connor's parents found themselves at the right place and time to be able to participate in early stage of the trials of Dr. Wells approach. The Main Line Clinic were alerted that Dr. Wells was looking for people to volunteer as they do a large amount of genetic screening said Dr. Glassner.
Ms. Scheidts and Mr. Levy had been trying to conceive for several years, and at their first attempt at the Main Line Clinic they produced 13 embryos that developed normally over the first 5 days, however, the doctors knew that many of the embryos would more than likely have genetic defects, and with all of them looking healthy under the microscope, the Dr's did not know which ones to transfer to Ms. Scheidts. Mr Levy said that his wife was at the clinic that dayt for a transplant when the Dr. said that they had 'hit the lottery”.
This test procedure would help to make the call and because of the large number of embryos, this would maximize the chances and usefulness for the researchers.
The couple agreed to participate in the experiment, the embryos were then subjected to the usual conventional genetic screen testing free if charge to give Dr. Wells a comparison for his approach.
The conventional screening found 4 suitable embryos which were shipped to Dr. Wells laboratory in the UK and they were tested and three were found to be viable.
Dr Glassner was very confident that all three of the sound embryos would result in a child he only transferred one to Ms. Scheidts. Usually Dr's transfer several embryos in order to improve on the odds of pregnancy, however, this practice carries a chance of more risky multiple births.
The pre-screening of embryo's can boost a couple's chances of success from a round of IVF by about half, and also reduces the chances of miscarriage also by half, said Dr. Glassner.
The next step is clinical trials, and if this method holds up in a control group with a larger sample size, then, if given the green light, it could then increase the chances of babies born through IVF. It could also reduce multiple births as well.
Dr, Glassner said that since the news broke, they have had calls worldwide from patients who wish to be involved in further clinical trials. There is also now a greater awareness of the genetic reality about embryos.
He continued that if more of the patients opted for the genetic screening, then the number of embryos that are stored in cryogenic storage would also be reduced, as more couples will agree not to store the embryos that are non viable. Main Line Clinic at present has about 8,000 frozen embryos.
Dr Glassner said that this also carries a morel dilemma – what to do with the next-generation DNA screening information, because the next logical usage of the technology could reveal risks of disease that is encoded into the embryos, Dr. Wells also stated that soon the door will be wide opened and future parents will be making choices of embryos that is based on the height , the eye colour, and other characteristics, but, for now the technique just shortens IVF by a by less cycles and places it in reach of more future parents.
