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Controversial ‘3-Person IVF’ Fails to Boost Fertility in Older Women
The experimental procedure is banned in the United States but is being offered at clinics abroad as a treatment for infertility
An experimental and much-hyped reproductive procedure that mixes DNA from three people is not effective at boosting the chances of having a baby for women ages 37 and older, according to doctors at a fertility clinic in Ukraine.
The technique, known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, involves taking a woman’s egg and shifting the majority of its DNA, known as the nucleus, into a hollowed-out donor egg. The shell of the donor egg contains healthy mitochondria, energy-making structures that have their own DNA. The resulting embryo ends up with DNA from the mother, father, and egg donor, so the technique is often referred to as “three-person IVF.” The procedure is controversial because many consider it a form of genetic manipulation.
Some fertility experts hoped that the younger mitochondria from the hollowed-out donor egg might rejuvenate the eggs of an infertile woman, thus increasing the chances of a successful pregnancy.
But new study results presented at a meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in Philadelphia show that might not be the case. The three-person IVF procedure was found to be ineffective at boosting the fertility of women ages 37 and older, say doctors at the Nadiya Clinic of Reproductive Medicine in Ukraine, one of two clinics worldwide conducting trials of the technique. The procedure is banned in the United States and is highly restricted in most other countries.
The doctors at the Nadiya Clinic performed mitochondrial replacement therapy on 30 women ages 37 to 47 who were seeking treatment for infertility due to advanced age. Out of 109 lab-fertilized eggs, only 33 became embryos, and just three of those embryos were healthy enough to be implanted into patients. A fetal heartbeat was confirmed in only one patient, a 42-year-old woman who gave birth to a boy in March 2018. The authors report that the child is healthy.
In light of their results, the researchers recommend that women of so-called advanced maternal age, considered age 35…
