The collaboration of Oxford University doctors and the Colorado Centre for Reproductive Medicine could see success rates of IVF soar due to developments in screening embryos.
The new process, comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH), allows doctors to monitor all the chromosomes in the developing embryo. It is believed that a common cause of miscarriage is an abnormal number of chromosomes.
This new method has the potential to double impregnation rates in women who would otherwise have problems conceiving, while it is estimated that the live birth rate will rise from a predicted rate of 60% to 78%.
Dr Dagan Wells, of Oxford University, described the increased pregnancy rates as “absolutely phenomenal.”
