Call for more single-embryo IVF

Transferring just a single embryo in IVF could increase the pregnancy rate among a group of women, new research suggests.

UK experts are trying to drive down the number of twins and triplets born following fertility treatment due to risks to mothers and babies from multiple pregnancies.

Around 40% of IVF babies are twins, but many are born prematurely and more than 100 die every year.

Babies are also more likely to be stillborn, have low birth weight and are six times more likely to suffer cerebral palsy.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has urged clinics to look at ways of driving down multiple birth rates.

Now, researchers have shown that by allowing embryos to mature and implanting them into a specific group of women, the overall pregnancy rate in a group can actually increase.

Allowing fertilised eggs to grow for five or six days in the laboratory (to create a blastocyst) means doctors can select those embryos that have the best chance of resulting in a pregnancy.

The study, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, involved women from January 2006 to June 2007 with a good prognosis being implanted with a single blastocyst on day five after fertilisation.

The research was led by Dr Yakoub Khalaf and carried out at the Assisted Conception Unit of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London.

He stressed that the results reflected the findings for an overall group in each time period. It was still true that many individual women would have a higher chance of pregnancy if they had more than one embryo transferred, he said.

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