Washington, July 4 (ANI): Strong doses of drugs frequently used on women, who are over 35 trying for a baby, to 'drive' their ovaries into producing large numbers of eggs to harvest for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), may be leading to pregnancy loss or the birth of children with conditions such as Down's syndrome, according to a new study.
Researchers say that ovarian stimulation, which uses hormonal medication to stimulate the ovaries to release a larger number of oocytes than normal, is disturbing a critical process of chromosome duplication called meiosis.
They believe that the results from the study are leading to a new understanding about how such abnormalities are developing, and they believe that the ovarian stimulation a woman receives might be playing a part.
Professor Alan Handyside, Director of The London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, London, UK, and colleagues from eight countries undertook a proof of principle study of a novel method of screening polar bodies, small cells that are the by-product of oocyte development.
"Our evidence demonstrates that, following IVF, there are multiple chromosome errors in both meiotic divisions, suggesting more extensive premature separation of single chromosomes resulting in more random segregation, which in turn results in multiple chromosome copy number changes in individual oocytes," says Handyside.
"We need to look further into the incidence and pattern of meiotic errors following different stimulation regimes including mild stimulation and natural cycle IVF, where one oocyte per cycle is removed, fertilised and transferred back to the woman.
"The results of such research should enable us to identify better clinical strategies to reduce the incidence of chromosome errors in older women undergoing IVF," he added.
The study was recently presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. (ANI)
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