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American experts have warned women who undergo IVF treatment may carry genetic errors in their eggs which can lead to miscarriage. Three studies were presented at a fertility conference in Montreal, Canada. Some scientists are pressing for eggs used in IVF treatment to be screened for defects, when the embryo is three days old. The three new studies suggest that on average 42 per cent of eggs from all women have serious genetic defects that could prevent embryos surviving to term. Dr Jeffrey Nelson of the Huntingdon Reproductive Center in California used PGD to screen 289 embryos from 22 healthy egg donors, all of whom were under 30. Overall, 42 per cent of the embryos had aneuploidy or abnormal chromosomes. Meanwhile, Dr Peter Nagy and colleagues at Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, Georgia compared the rate of aneuploidy among younger (under 35) and older (over 38) women. Nearly two-thirds of the embryos produced by the younger women and three-quarters of the embryos from the older women had chromosomal abnormalities. A study at the Shady Grove Centre for Preimplantation Genetics in Maryland found eggs from healthy donors aged 21 to 31 had a 52 per cent chance of genetic abnormality. (ES/WNWCCB/SH)
(c) 2004 World Entertainment News Network
