New egg study gives hope to childless couples

A TOTAL of four women, including one from the UK, have now given birth to healthy babies after having their eggs genetically screened using a technique that offers new hope to childless couples.

All were taking part in a pilot study testing the effectiveness of comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) by microarray, a new method of looking for chromosomal abnormalities in eggs.

The success could pave the way to women with a history of In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) failure achieving successful pregnancies.

Array CGH could also make it easier for women to give birth later in life when there is less chance of becoming pregnant.

But doctors involved in the trial stress that the technique can only help them identify viable eggs - it does nothing to improve the chances of producing high-quality eggs in the first place.

The British woman was the first in the world to give birth after array CGH in 2009.

The 41-year-old gave birth to a boy named Oliver after undergoing 13 cycles of IVF without success.

She was one of a number of women with a poor prognosis treated by the Care Fertility Group in Nottingham.

Dr Simon Fishel, managing director of the group, said: "It is gratifying that Care's ongoing success with this technology has been replicated. However, the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (Ehsre) is undertaking a 'controlled' study, and it is important for all the data of that study to be published so practitioners can assess the value of the study as a whole - this particular announcement does not yet move forward into widespread use the prospects for our exciting technology."

Eshre yesterday announced that women at two centres in, Germany and Italy, had given birth to healthy babies after undergoing array CGH.