Scientists have developed a ‘no-frills’ form of IVF they claim will cost £170 and work as well as the conventional technique.
The budget version, which could soon be available in Britain, economises on expensive drugs and incubators, and instead uses a cheap test-tube set and a chemical reaction inspired by Alka-Seltzer hangover tablets.
Despite its basic form, tests show it to be at least as good as the normal technique, which is carried out in multi-million-pound labs and costs up to £15,000.
A low-tech simplified form of IVF that makes use of baking soda has the potential to slash the cost of assisted conception, bringing it within reach of millions more childless couples around the world
In a Belgian trial, almost a third of the participants became pregnant.
In total, 12 babies have been born so far, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual conference in London heard yesterday.
With the kit’s inventors believing it could replace conventional IVF in most cases, the breakthrough could help millions of women fulfil their dream of motherhood cheaply.
Researcher Dr Elke Klerkx, of the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology in Belgium, said the kit would ‘undoubtedly open up a new era in the history of IVF’.
The international research team’s main aim is to help couples in the developing world, but they accept it heralds no-frills IVF in the UK.
A conventional IVF lab contains expensive incubators in rooms with a purified air supply to keep everything sterile. Costs are increased by drugs to boost egg production, the selection of the best embryos and freezing of the rest, and the screening of embryos for genetic defects.
But Professor Jonathan Van Blerkom, the kit’s inventor, said he had gone back to basics.
One of the keys to IVF treatment is to grow the fledgling embryo in a nutrient mixture that is neither too acidic or too alkaline, achieved by pumping expensive, medical-grade carbon dioxide into the incubator.
But he showed it was possible to generate the gas needed by dissolving an Alka-Seltzer tablet in water.
He then moved on to mixing baking soda with citric acid to make the gas. His kit is made up of two 7p tubes with rubber stoppers that are connected by tubing. The carbon dioxide is made in the first and transferred to the second by the tube.
The woman’s eggs and man’s sperm are injected into the second tube, where, if all goes well, at least one of the eggs will be fertilised.
Everything remains airtight, thanks to the rubber stoppers, removing the need for purified air.
The embryos grow in the nutrient mixture in the tube. After three to five days, they are then ready to transfer to the woman’s womb.
The technique, which does away with expensive labs, clean rooms, and incubators, could cut the basic cost of IVF by up to 90 per cent, experts predict
The technique uses fewer drugs at lower doses, which costs less and leads to fewer, higher quality embryos, meaning the costs of selection, freezing and screening are slashed.
Combined with other measures it opens up the prospect of IVF for less than £200 per treatment cycle
Professor Van Blerkom, of the University of Colorado in the US, said: ‘The basic requirements of a human embryo are very simple.
‘The embryos don’t know if they are living in an expensive incubator and a lab with purified air or in a little tube. They don’t care. There’s nothing magical.’
Most of the 50,000 women who have IVF each year in Britain pay for it themselves. The Create fertility clinic in London’s Harley Street plans to introduce the new technique as soon as it gets authorisation from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority watchdog.
Its medical director Dr Geeta Nargund, a member of the Walking Egg Foundation charity, which is planning to launch the kit in the developing world, said: ‘There are a lot of women out there who can’t afford IVF and can’t get it on the NHS either. It is heartbreaking.’
Dr Allan Pacey, of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘It takes someone thinking outside the box to revolutionise the way we do things.
‘If this works as well as they’re predicting, it’s exactly the sort of thing the NHS would like to look at and embrace. It’s a no-brainer.’
The HFEA said: ‘We welcome efforts to reduce the cost of IVF.
‘We’d certainly be open to discussing any proposal to introduce this method to the UK.’
The new technique is based on a pared down incubating system consisting of two connected glass tubes. One tube generates carbon dioxide by combining citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. The CO2 keeps acidity levels stable in the second tube, which contains a culture medium and where fertilisation and embryo development takes place
NEW RESEARCH REVEALS CHEMICALS IN SOME COSMETICS AND PLASTICS REDUCE CHANCE OF SUCCESSFUL IVF
A group of chemicals found in some cosmetics and plastics have a negative impact on the success of IVF treatment, according to a new study.
Phthalates are thought to be responsible for a general decline in fertility in both men and women.
The new study by Dr Irene Souter of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School now also suggests that they reduce the chance of successful IVF.
Dr Souter studied the progress of 231 women scheduled for IVF at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 2004 and 2012.
Urine samples were taken at the start of, and throughout, treatment and analysed for phthalates.
The results were then compared to the number of eggs produced following ovarian stimulation, embryo development, and implantation failure.
Results first showed that urinary phthalates were detected in almost all the women, reflecting the widespread level of exposure.
The results also showed the odds of implantation failure increased with rising phthalate levels.
The results showed that urinary concentrations of some commonly used phthalates were ‘dose-dependently’ associated with an increased risk of implantation failure.
However, the results did not detect any association between levels of urinary phthalates and rates of fertilisation or embryo development.
Dr Souter believes the results ‘support the hypothesis’ that phthalates are widespread in the environment and may well have an adverse effect on female fertility, particularly when tested in the model of IVF.
She said: ‘We are all primarily exposed to phthalates through inhalation and ingestion.
‘It is extremely difficult if not impossible to avoid exposure to phthalates, since they are in so many products.’
However, she added that exposure can be reduced by limiting the use of personal care products with fragrances in them, including many of the modern baby care products and air fresheners, limiting the use of plastic food storage containers and plastic wraps, especially not heating food in them, and reading the labels and avoid children's toys made of plastics that contain phthalates.
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