Advanced genetic screening increases IVF success rate

The risk of having an embryo with chromosomal abnormality greatly affects In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). About 70 per cent of miscarriages in early pregnancy are because of chromosomal abnormalities that go undetected. They can be due to a faulty egg or sperm, which results in abnormal embryos.

“For women in their early thirties about one quarter of the embryos have abnormalities in chromosomes, but for women over 40 years of age it is common for more than half of the embryos produced to be abnormal,” said Dr Hima Deepthi, fertility consultant at Nova IVI Fertility. Further, she said that chromosomal abnormality is one of the major causes for IVF failure.

“Implantation failure occurs with most embryos having such abnormalities, and those that do have successful implantation often result in miscarriage during the first trimester of pregnancy,” she said. “Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) helps in selectively implanting the most viable and healthy embryos that can be carried to term,” she informed.

Fertility specialists are vouching for the modern technology, which has a predicted accuracy of 98 per cent for detecting any chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos. Dr Hima said, “If one of the parents is a carrier of any genetic disease, there is 25 per cent chance that the child will be affected by it. The screening of abnormalities in embryo has become a revolutionary advancement in the field of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).”

“In Hyderabad, we observed that PGS improves the success rate of IVF by 10-15 per cent. It is recommended for women opting for pregnancy at an advanced age of 38 or more, those suffering from recurrent implantation failure (embryo transfer done three or more times with no success), history of recurrent miscarriage or with a previous pregnancy with a chromosome error, such as Down Syndrome and severe male factor infertility,” she said.

“We at Nova IVI Fertility are the pioneers to use Array CGH PGS technology in India. The main advantage of this technology is that only chromosomally normal embryos are transferred for a successful delivery. It increases the implantation and ongoing pregnancy rate for IVF patients. Moreover, it allows single embryo transfer to reduce the risk of multiple pregnancies, lowers the incidence of miscarriage and most importantly reduces the risk of abnormalities at birth,” she added on its benefits.

“PGS is not only accurate, but it is faster, too. It provides accurate results within 30 hours, meaning patients can undertake a fresh embryo transfer and their treatment can continue uninterrupted in cases where day three embryos are biopsied. Whereas in cases where embryos are biopsied on day five, embryos must be frozen because the results are not available in time to perform a fresh embryo transfer. Frozen embryo transfer has been observed to result in better outcomes when compared to fresh ET,” said the doctor.