Taking some of the doubt out of IVF
Complex algorithm predicts probability of in vitro fertilization success better than standard age model
By Nathan Seppa
Couples contemplating a second attempt at having a child through in vitro fertilization after failing the first time may now have a tool that takes some of the guesswork out of the decision to try again.
By incorporating dozens of factors pertaining to a couple’s fertility, age and health, a new algorithm more accurately predicts the probability that IVF will succeed compared with a currently used standard calculation, researchers report online July 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This is excellent scientific work,” says Andrew La Barbera, scientific director at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The scientists deployed “an unusual and in-depth statistical analysis of all these factors related to assisted reproductive technologies,” says La Barbera, a physiologist also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In IVF, eggs are retrieved from a woman and fertilized in a lab dish with sperm from a male donor. If a healthy embryo develops, it is reinserted into the woman’s uterus. In the best-case scenario, this embryo attaches to the uterine wall and a normal pregnancy ensues. This happens only about 25 to 30 percent of the time.