Scientists find answer to IVF failure

The inability to conceive a child is the nightmare that many couples face in silence. It drains couples emotionally, financially, and even socially.

Stephen and Abigael Musembi found this out the hard way. They had planned to start having children shortly after their wedding in December 2007. “Abigael wanted us to have five children. I wanted three. We planned to have our first born within the first year of marriage,” says Stephen.

Things did not go as planned and she wasunable to conceive. The couple sought medical help from a reproductive specialist in Nairobi. After examination, Abigael was diagnosed with acute hormonal imbalance and put on medication to regulate her periods.

Twelve years later, the couple is yet to conceive a baby. Data from the Kenya Fertility Society indicates that two in every 10 couples in Kenya suffer from infertility.

Many couples have resorted to assisted reproductive techniques, which include in vitro fertilisation (IVF), where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body and then implanted into the woman’s womb. While IVF has been the sure bet for some couples, to others, it has ended in failure and more frustration. On top of this, IVF is a costly affair that even in instances of failure will punch a hole of between Sh400,000 and Sh500,000 in a couple’s pockets.

This is the question whose answer scientists from Rutgers University sought to find in a new fertility medical research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The scientists have created a mathematical model which shows that mistakes in female meiosis (the process of cell division that creates eggs) produce eggs with an abnormal number of chromosomes which leads to repeated loss of pregnancies, the failure of IVF procedures, and the onset of developmental disorders such as Down Syndrome.

“Aneuploidy is the leading cause of early miscarriage and the main cause of IVF failure. It occurs when eggs have the wrong number of chromosomes. In the same breath, the majority of eggs with chromosome problems are linked to errors in female cell division that increase as women age,” said Dr Jinchuan Xing a genetics researcher who led the study.

According to the study, reproductive practitioners can use a mathematical model to identify IVF patients who produce an extreme number of abnormal embryos. “Mathematical modelling will also assist in understanding why abnormal numbers of chromosomes arise when cells divide, predict the outcomes of IVF reproduction, and errors in sperm. It can also shed light on the expected number of IVF cycles needed to get a normal conception for every patient,” the study said.