60-second test can tell if IVF is successful
By IANSWednesday, January 5, 2011
LONDON - Scientists have devised a 60-second test to predict a couples’ chances of having a baby through IVF.
A free calculator, available online, uses the answers to nine simple questions to work out the odds of fertility treatment succeeding.
With the results said to be almost 100 percent accurate, the test could save couples from the trauma of going through repeated treatment only for them to fail, the PLoS ONE journal reported.
Women with a lower likelihood of becoming mothers could be told early about tweaks to their treatment that could increase their chances, according to the Daily Mail.
Glasgow and Bristol University researchers obtained background information on almost 150,000 IVF treatments carried out in Britain between 2003 and 2007.
They used this to work out which factors were most important in becoming pregnant. From this, they created the IVF prediction test.
The nine questions take as less as a minute to answer and the results are up to 99 percent accurate, the scientists said.
Scott Nelson, a researcher from Glasgow University, said: “The test provides critical information on the likely outcome for couples deciding whether to undergo IVF - until now estimates of success have not been reliable.”
“In the US and the UK, IVF is successful in about a third of women under 35 years but only 5 to 10 percent in women over 40,” he added.
