Doctors in a private clinic in the U.K. are now offering new forms of IVF treatment for aspiring parents. The newly launched procedure allows conception to take place in the womb rather than in the lab. Thus, the doctors involved believe that the new treatment could result to a healthier pregnancy.
The Complete Fertility Clinic in Southampton is the first medical facility to use the device called AneVivo. The latest method involves placing sperm cells and eggs into a capsule. Then it will be placed inside the woman's womb for 24 hours, allowing the embryo to develop. After which, doctors will remove the capsule and select the most healthy one for implantation, which they will insert into the lining of the woman's womb.
The new procedure is considered to be "a real breakthrough" as doctors said that the procedure will allow the embryos to benefit from it. Likewise, it can also boost couple's psychological aspects, considering the fact that the baby has been conceived inside the mother's womb.
"This device is a real breakthrough in IVF treatment as it enables women to care for an embryo in its earliest stages of development for the first time," Professor Nick Macklon, medical director at Complete Fertility Centre, Southampton said.
The AneVivo device method has been approved by the U.K.'s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and each will cost patients around £700. But Macklon said to BBC that for the time being, they are just offering the procedure to private patients.
Prior to its approval, the advisory committee noted that there was no evidence that the device would be ineffective or unsafe. Nevertheless, it "did not feel that there were sufficient clinical data to say whether the process has a greater or lesser efficacy than that of traditional IVF methods." Thus, the procedure is said to "add such unnecessary costs to the patients."
