New Technology
Everyday we are making advances in technology in the world of Reproductive Assistance. With all these advances, we are sure to have more effective options for infertile couples.
One of these new advances is The Invocell capsule. Eggs and sperm are extracted in the same way as a standard treatment and as many as seven eggs are placed inside the capsule, along with the sperm. The capsule is hem placed inside the woman's vagina to allow fertilization to occur inside the body. After three days she would return to the clinic to have the capsule removed so that doctors could examine the embryos to see if any are of good quality to use. The best two embryos would then be placed into the woman's uterus.
BioXcell has completed 800 cycles in the UK using the capsule in a clinical trial and achieved a success rate of 19.7% in women under the age of 35. The rate using standard IVF in the UK is 29.6% for women in the same age group. While the capsule does not have as high of a success rate, it does show promise for the future.
There are certain parameters that this capsule can not fulfill:
- Needing to use ICSI for low sperm count
- The embryos can not be monitored during the early cell development
- Anyone wanting to freeze embryos to use as possible sibling for the first IVF baby or to try in subsequent cycles could not use this device
With new advances in technology, we are all being given new options in treatment.
