New Egg Screening Technique

The first baby was born in Britain using a new screening technique which examines eggs for chromosome abnormalities allowing physicians to select the best eggs to use in fertility treatment. Baby Oliver was born to parents who had thirteen previous failed IVF attempts. The test is called Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) and uses a sample of a "spare" set of chromosomes that are expelled by the egg during fertilization. These chomosomes are compared to a normal set of chromosomes identified by the Human Genome Project.

The researchers believe that this technique could double IVF successs rates. Professor Simon Fishel, lead researcher for study states, “Up to half of the eggs in younger women and up to 75 per cent in women over 39 are chromosomally abnormal. Array CGH is used to screen eggs or embryos in an IVF cycle, evaluate all the chromosomes and select the most chromosomally normal embryos." Experts caution that this new technique needs further research in a well designed clinical trial.