The Most Common Cause of IVF Failure and A Potential Solution--Beacon CARE Fertility

Dr. Ahmed Omar from Beacon CARE Fertility, Dublin provides a simple-to-follow explanation of the most common cause of IVF failure and a potential solution with PGT-A testing.
Transcript of conversation with Dr. Ahmed Omar.
What Is The Most Common Cause Of IVF Failure?
The majority of embryos that don't implant or result into miscarriages are chromosomally abnormal, so you could argue that this is the most common cause of failure in IVF in general.
What Happens When Embryos Are Chromosomally Abnormal?
Well, embryos that are chromosomally abnormal, the majority of them will not implant,
mainly they would result into what we know as a negative IVF cycle.
So that's when an IVF cycle is done and an embryo is transferred,
but it does not result into a pregnancy. And by the way, the most common cause for miscarriages whether that's through fertility treatment or through natural pregnancy
are because of chromosomal abnormalities.
What Is PGTA (Chromosome Testing)?
PGT-A is basically testing embryos for underlying chromosomal abnormalities.
How Can PGT-A Improve IVF Success?
The simple answer to that is through selection.
How PGT-A or chromosomal testing improves that, is because we know that only embryos that are chromosomally normal can result into a healthy baby.
So by being able to select embryos that are chromosomally normal,
we are improving the chance of having a healthy baby, or a live birth, as we call it.
And at the same time, we are lowering the risk of miscarriage…and also
by improving the selection through IVF, we are lowering the number of attempts that women will be required to do, to be able to achieve that successful outcome.
Can PGT-A Be More Cost-Effective Than Regular IVF?
Yes, of course, I mean, this is part of it, because if you think of it,
if you are able to improve selection and that can be done through
testing the chromosomes of the embryos, you're reducing the number of attempts of fertility treatment that you will go through.
And by reducing the number of attempts that you require to produce a successful outcome, you are reducing the overall cost of IVF.
Of course, testing of the embryos add extra to the cost of the treatment, but when you look at it in the long term, that's the most cost-effective way of doing IVF.
Egg & Impact On Fertility
The majority of chromosomal abnormalities of the embryos tend to stem from the eggs.
So the process of egg ageing we think maybe starts early thirties to mid thirties.
So as women get older, as you go through the latter part of the thirties or the early forties, there's a considerable number of eggs that have gone through that process of ageing.
That is a natural physiological phenomenon, it doesn't have anything to do
with the general health…OK, it’s just natural. As in the same way as we age…we might be very healthy, but we still go through aging, eggs do the same.
www.beaconcarefertility.ie (Dublin, Ireland)