IVF bungle may have robbed women of baby chance
A leading IVF service may have inadvertently destroyed healthy embryos, with questions raised over the accuracy of its genetic screening program.
Victoria
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Healthy embryos may have been destroyed during bungled testing at one of Melbourne’s leading IVF clinics, potentially robbing families of their chance to have children.
Monash IVF has began contacting women to inform them of issues within the clinics’ new genetic screening program that may have resulted in healthy embryos being discarded.
The fertility giant introduced new non-invasive preimplantation genetic screening in May 2019, but only became aware of a fault when it undertook a review of the program in late September.
It is not known how many families have been impacted by the issue, however Monash IVF Group Medical Director Professor Luk Rombauts on Friday confirmed the screening had been suspended.
“As transparency and reliability are of utmost importance in IVF, we believe it is in the best interests of our patients to suspend the test,” Prof Rombauts said.
“We continue to offer biopsy testing for patients who request this.
“Monash IVF Group is in the process of contacting people who may be affected by the suspension of cell-free testing and we encourage anyone who has any concerns to contact Monash IVF to discuss their situation.”
The Herald Sun is aware that some women contacted by Monash IVF on Friday claim their embryos had been destroyed after being deemed as abnormal.
Genetic screening of embryos for chromosome abnormality is offered in specific circumstances, such as when there is a risk of embryos to fail to implant, miscarry or result in a child with an extra chromosome, such as Down syndrome.
Monash IVF introduced a new non-invasive for of testing last year known as cell-free PGT-A, which allows abnormalities to be detected without having to take a biopsy from the embryo.
Prof Rombauts said that like other tests genetic screening may yield false positives, which is why Monash IVF recommends follow-up genetic testing in pregnancy.
But after being contacted by the Herald Sun on Friday, Prof Rombauts confirmed the levels of abnormal embryos detected since cell-free PGT-A was introduced were “inconsistent” with the results detected during clinical trials.
Prof Rombauts reassured women that there were no issues among embryos classified as genetically normal during the screening, however concerns remain that a small number of healthy embryos may have been incorrectly classified as abnormal.
“In preliminary investigations the proportion of abnormal embryos classified (aneuploid) appears to be marginally higher than what was observed in the initial clinical trial, suggesting the cell-free testing has erred on the side of caution in its identifications,” Prof Rombauts said.
“It is not unusual for the results of new medical procedures to differ from the results of the clinical trial. “
Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority chief executive officer Louise Johnson said Monash IVF informed her on Thursday that it was suspending its non-invasive testing and contacting their patients to discuss treatment options.
Although international research found PGT-A did not increase the overall chance of having a baby, Ms Johnson said Monash IVF had last year notified the authority it was planning to use a new non-invasive technique after years of promising research results.
“IVF clinics are always looking for new ways to improve the chance of their patients having a baby, and sometimes those new techniques are experimental,” Ms Johnson said.
“Sometimes these techniques show promise in early research, but over time are shown to offer no advantage.
“In this case, Monash IVF, has evaluated its non-invasive test and has been transparent about its findings.”