Couples desperate to get pregnant could soon be offered an ‘exciting’ alternative to IVF.
Every year, thousands of women undergo fertility treatment in the hope of having a child.
IVF is the preferred method, despite privately costing up to £5,000 for one cycle.
But experts say capacitation in vitro maturation, or CAPA-IVM, is both cheaper and theoretically safer because it involves giving women fewer hormones.
Only six hospitals around the world currently offer the treatment, which is still in its early stages and so little understood.
With traditional IVM, eggs mature quickly outside the human body, even if they are not quite ready yet. CAPA-IVM pauses the process for 24 hours, allowing it to grow more slowly. An Australian researcher involved in Bonnie’s birth said this meant the eggs matured ‘healthier’
Last week, Leanna Loutas, along with partner Theo, welcomed their daughter Bonnie Mable, the first baby conceived in Australia through CAPA-IVM. After two years of struggling to conceive, including a round of IVF, the couple was offered the procedure. In the photo: Leanna, Theo and Bonnie
Still, fertility scientists believe it will become more widely available in the coming years.
Last week, an Australian couple welcomed the country’s first-ever baby conceived through this procedure.
Leanna Loutas, who gave birth to her daughter Bonnie Mable with her partner Theo with CAPA-IVM, said she felt “hugely privileged and grateful to have been given the opportunity.”
The couple tried to get pregnant for two years and even underwent a round of IVF before being offered the groundbreaking procedure.
Leanna said: ‘Hopefully we will be the first of many to come and when other people hear about our story it will encourage them.’
In traditional IVF, women receive daily hormone injections – in a process that can take up to two weeks – to mature their eggs before they are harvested.
But with IVM – a technique that is decades old – the eggs are recovered early, before they mature, and artificially further developed in the laboratory.
Instead, women only need ‘two doses’ to prime their ovaries to produce more eggs – just like with traditional IVF.
In theory, this reduces the chance of developing ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).
The condition can cause the ovaries to expand dangerously and, in severe cases, leave victims fighting to breathe with blood clots in their lungs. Yet the majority only sees mild effects.
Some researchers playing with the IVM concept say it eliminates the risk completely.
However, regulators say the complication can occur as a result of injections taken to stimulate egg production. This results in too many being produced, causing the ovaries to become large and painful.
IVM is also cheaper because fewer fertility drugs are required. Clinics offering IVF charge around £2,000 for this.
But with traditional IVM, eggs mature quickly outside the human body, even if they are not quite ready.
CAPA-IVM pauses the process for 24 hours, allowing it to grow more slowly. An Australian researcher involved in Bonnie’s birth said this meant the eggs matured ‘healthier’.
Professor Ying Cheong, a specialist in reproductive medicine at the University of Southampton, told MailOnline: ‘CAPA-IVM is an exciting new fertility treatment.
‘Initial studies have shown good results, although the overall number of live births is still lower than with traditional IVF treatments.’
She added: ‘The long-term safety of CAPA-IVM, as it requires the use of different components in the culture media to stop and start egg maturation, is still unknown for mothers and babies.
“More studies would be needed to determine its safety prior to widespread use.”
Meanwhile, Professor Daniel Brison, a clinical embryologist at the University of Manchester, said: ‘CAPA IVM is an interesting and welcome new development in IVF treatment.
‘As with all forms of IVF, in which eggs and embryos are maintained outside the body in the laboratory, the artificial environment can also entail risks.
‘Many years of blood, sweat and tears have gone into this. Countless hours of research over twenty years, so this is a moment I am very proud of,” said Professor Robert Gilchrist, who led the CAPA-IVM research together with scientists in Brussels and Ho Chi Minh City. In the photo Professor Gilchrist with Leanna, Theo and Bonnie
‘To validate this treatment it is important to weigh the risks versus benefits.’
He called for trials to assess how children born with this technique fare.
To date, approximately 150 children worldwide have been born using CAPA-IVM.
Assessments from mothers and babies show it poses no additional dangers, according to the Fertility and Research Center at the Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney, where Bonnie was born last week.
Researchers also claim that pregnancy rates per cycle using the procedure are higher.
Yet clinics themselves acknowledge that IVM, despite being safer and cheaper, is only half as successful.
Professor Robert Gilchrist, from the University of New South Wales Sydney, who helped develop the CAPA-IVM treatment, said of Bonnie’s birth: ‘Many years of blood, sweat and tears have gone into this.
‘Countless hours of research over twenty years, so this is a very proud moment.
‘It’s really special to be able to take a discovery from the laboratory to a clinic and make a real difference to Leanna on her fertility journey and to other women who will follow.’
In February, India also welcomed its first-ever CAPA-IVM baby at Oasis Fertility’s Warangal center in the south of the country.
The HFEA, the British independent regulator for fertility treatments, is currently warning against IVM as a whole because it is a ‘new technique’.
Rachel Cutting, from the HFEA, told MailOnline: ‘Licensed clinics in Britain are authorized to carry out IVM.
‘However, because IVM is a new technique, there have been very few births with IVM compared to other forms of IVF treatment.
‘This means that we cannot be 100 percent certain of its safety until there have been more healthy births and researchers have been able to observe the development of children as they grow.’
Around 55,000 Britons underwent the grueling IVF process in 2021, according to the latest figures from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
According to the data, success rates ranged from 41 percent for those under 35 to six percent for those over 44.
According to current official guidelines, women under 40 who are struggling to have a child should receive three cycles of the NHS fertility treatment.
But in July, MailOnline revealed that only three parts of the country adhere to these entry criteria, which were developed a decade ago.
The majority of health authorities, who are allowed to set their own entry rules, offer only one IVF cycle.
Some deny it to women over 35 years old. Others even refuse to pay for the procedure if they or their partner already have children.