Egg Screening Boosts IVF Success

Doctors attending an annual U.S. fertility meeting heard of merits of a test capable of screening embryos for genetic faults, BBC News reports. This is the second year running for this report. Using this technique, over 20 babies have been conceived.

Dr. Dagan Wells led the study at Oxford University this year, with 115 women participating, a 15-fold increase over last year. The average woman was 39 and had experienced two failed IVF cycles. During the study, 66% became pregnant after screening, compared with the average of 28% that fall pregnant without it.

Presently offered in a few private clinics in the U.K., doctors believe the Comparative Genomic Hybridization, or CGH, will be beneficial specifically for older women whose embryos have an increased chance of genetic errors that may cause conditions such as Down syndrome.

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