The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting today on a method developed by Stanford researchers to help predict a woman's chance of having a baby through in vitro fertilization. The personalized test, which I wrote about last month, uses data from a woman's previous IVF attempt to determine the likely success of a future cycle.
In the piece, researcher Mylene Yao, MD, commented on how "expensive and physically and emotionally consuming" IVF can be. "I wanted to help support patients by giving them the best information available to make their decision," she said.
A Bay Area patient who started a support group for women with infertility issues also emphasized how important this information would be:
"I just got off the phone with a group member who had her third failed try at IVF," [she] said. "She's devastated and trying to decide what she's going to do next. All the women in the group who've had failed treatments are worried about giving up too soon, but they also don't want to be pouring massive amounts of money into something that will never work."
A study on the test, which Yao hopes to bring to market later this year, was published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Previously: New test predicts the success of IVF treatment
Photo by Jon Ovington
