Alessia can thank new IVF method

DOCTORS told Carmen and John Caruso their chance of starting a family naturally was zero.

Caruso family

DOCTORS told Carmen and John Caruso their chance of starting a family naturally was zero.

Desperate to conceive, they endured six years of IVF and had five miscarriages before a revolutionary embryo screening technique was introduced in Victoria.

Then, in February, after years of heartbreak and hopelessness, a miracle happened. They had a healthy baby girl, Alessia.

"We still pinch ourselves - she's our miracle," Mrs Caruso said.

Alessia is one of 20 Victorian babies born using the new technique.

Available only at Melbourne IVF, it involves screening all 24 chromosomes for errors.

Only normal embryos are used for IVF treatment, increasing a woman's chance of a healthy pregnancy.

Mrs Caruso, 36, began trying for a baby at 29.

"We had almost resigned ourselves that we would have a life on our own or with adopted children," she said.

In 2010 she was told a new technique was available.

Melbourne IVF medical director Lyndon Hale said it involved taking a single cell from a three-day-old embryo. Previous techniques waited until the embryo was five days old, but that meant it had to be frozen and thawed, reducing the number available.

Half of all embryos do not make it to day five, further reducing the reserves.

The DNA from the cell is multiplied thousands of times and compared with normal DNA.

Three of Mrs Caruso's seven embryos were viable.

A month later she received a phone call to say she was pregnant.

"We just so desperately wanted to be parents, we are just blessed that we are now in that position."

Dr Leeanda Wilton said they had performed biopsies on 1300 embryos.

"We also have more than 20 couples that have already given birth, and another 50 women currently expecting," she said.

Without the technique, Dr Wilton said, many of the babies would not have been conceived.

Women over 38, those who have had multiple miscarriages or pregnancies with a chromosome error such as Down syndrome are the best candidates.

It can also be used to screen embryos for hereditary breast cancer genes.

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