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UK fertility experts hail first ‘defect free’ designer pregnancy
Sophie Goodchild26 Jan 2009
A British woman is pregnant with the world's first “fast-track” designer baby, scientists revealed today.
The 41-year-old mother-to-be was given a pioneering fertility test which identifies defect-free eggs.
She is now more than seven months pregnant after years of failed IVF treatment and several miscarriages.
The new test, which was developed by UK doctors, is the first to check for all genetic “flaws”. These abnormalities are the main cause of infertility and miscarriage in women.
The new screening technique can double the success of IVF by checking that the egg has a full complement of normal chromosomes.
It also gives results in less than 48 hours which means the best eggs can be used immediately.
With existing methods, it can take up to a week for results to be processed.
The test has been pioneered by fertility expert Dr Simon Fishel, head of Care Fertility which has clinics across the country.
Announcing the breakthrough at a London briefing, Dr Fishel said it would bring new hope to women who were unable to conceive and also reduce the risk of multiple pregnancies.
He said: “We have not done a huge amount in this country since Louise Brown was born [the first IVF baby, who is now 30] which have given us world firsts. This has given us a world first.
“This woman is now in her third trimester and has never been this far before.”
Fertility expert Stuart Lavery hailed the test, which costs £1,950 in addition to IVF, as a “significant” step forward in improving implantation rates.
Mr Lavery, head of fertility treatment at Hammersmith Hospital, said: “Although it is still at a very early stage, this technique may offer a new diagnostic and therapeutic hope to couples who suffer from repeated implantation failure in IVF.
“This development is also timely as previous methods of screening embryos to detect abnormality have not proven to be sufficiently effective in increasing live birth rates.”
The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, signed up for the fast-track screening — known as polar body array CGH technology — after 13 failed IVF cycles.
She also suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the womb.
Doctors gave her a seven per cent chance of becoming a mother because so many of her eggs were defective.
Scientists tested nine of the eggs she produced by removing a tiny part of the egg known as the polar body.
This should contain all the chromosomes so doctors could detect any that are missing.
Only two of the nine eggs she produced were free from defects.
Dr Fishel has already successfully used an early type of this test to enable women to become pregnant.
But this new version now uses computer scanning to analyse the results .
Reader views (1)
I have been trying to get pregnant and informed that I have blockage in both my fallopine tubes and there is no way I can get pregnant and because of my age 45, NHS refuse to do anything for me. I come from a poor family background and chances of us doing IVF was only 25% according to the Doctor and was advised not to waste the money doing it and the fact is that there is no way I can come up with the money and I have no children at all and had 2 miscarriages.
- Jit, UK, 11/02/2009 15:28
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