WASHINGTON — Women in the United States having trouble conceiving the natural way now may use a new tool to help choose the lab-dish embryo most likely to result in a pregnancy.
The Food and Drug Administration cleared for sale Auxogyn Inc.’s time-lapse photography device that assists fertility doctors who typically eyeball embryos to pick the most viable ones for placing in the womb. The closely held Menlo Park, Calif.-based company’s Eeva System assesses the timing of important changes in embryos’ development to differentiate among ones that look equally healthy.
The cost of a single attempt to create a test-tube baby can reach $17,000 and women’s chances of giving birth after in-vitro fertilization are as low as 13 percent for women older than 40, according to the National Institutes of Health. In a clinical trial, the Eeva System boosted doctors’ chances of picking a viable embryo by 53 percent.
“It’s helpful beyond words,” Michael Glassner, division head of infertility for Main Line Health System in Pennsylvania, said in an interview. “It’s going to give more clarity to the patient. It’s going to give a higher pregnancy rate. The miscarriage rate goes down. It’s just going to change the field.”