23 + 23 = Healthy Baby

This week Cambridgeshire biotech company Blue Gnome published their study into how screening embryos before implantation can have a massive effect on the current success rate of in vitro fertilisation especially in treatments given to over 40's.

Presently embryos are being screened to check whether the baby is fit for implantation, but this new type of screening would check if the embryo had all 23 pairs of chromosomes ensuring that the newly developed baby grows accordingly and that is has no significant disabilities. 

Even modern IVF means that women under 35 have a 33% chance of success in their first cycle and in women over 40 there is only a 1 in 20 chance of success (5%) - researchers believe that these checks can raise the success rates by 65%, meaning thousands of pounds saved by individuals.  

The screening method developed by Blue Gnome takes a few cells from the embryo when it is five days old. These are analysed to count the chromosomes. Only those with the correct number are then implanted; these checks could prevent further issues in pregnancy  and as it enables doctors to only implant one embryo decreasing the risk of unwanted multiple births.  

Personally I fail to see the significance in the research, unaware of current procedures I assumed that such checks were being carried out as regular procedure. I am no expert in genetics or any such study but as a 14 year student studying basic biology I was well aware that 46 chromosomes were needed to produce a healthy offspring; so why it has taken professional so long to conclude that such tests are essential to successful IVF treatment cycles bypasses me.

According to Prof Dagan Wells, from the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Oxford, "IVF is still remarkably inefficient" and that "more research is needed to nail down who will benefit, but my gut feeling is that it is valuable."

We can safely say that IVF is slowly but surely catching up with the top of the range medical equipment and that the future of IVF isn’t looking as bleak as the hope of Lindsay Lohan ever becoming clean.