Express News Service

CHENNAI: Over the years, due to several reasons, infertility has grown at an alarming pace. To help people overcome these problems and get a better pregnancy rate, Prashanth Fertility Research Centre has introduced high-end technologies to alter the condition and to give phenomenal pregnancy rates.The Embryoscope, a piece of hi-tech equipment available in only 1,200 centres across the globe, provides digital images of the embryos every 20 minutes.

This provides unprecedented detail of early embryonic development and creates an environment like that of a human body, resulting in good embryos and also helping in the selection of the best ones. This provides an increased chance of pregnancy by about five to 10 per cent and a decrease in miscarriage rate for the average patient. Embryo Glue is the latest transfer medium which is a substance used to coat embryos before transfer into the uterus. It increases the stickiness of embryos to be transferred into the uterus and therefore helps the embryos to implant with ease and fix onto the lining of the uterus.

Cytoplasmic Transfer is most beneficial for older patients whose eggs have lost the ability to function normally, as well as younger patients with unexplained infertility and recurrent implantation failure. This is the donation of healthy cytoplasm from fertile donors. Elderly women who previously had poor pregnancy outcomes with their own eggs have delivered healthy babies through this technique. It is emotionally satisfying as it is genetically their own baby.

PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) is used for endometrial rejuvenation in women with poor/thin endometrium and rejuvenating ovaries. This improves egg quality, allowing them to use their own eggs. It also helps as a rejuvenation therapy for testes, allowing them to make their own good quality sperms. The window for implantation in some patients in very narrow and lasts only for a few hours. Identifying the window of implantation is done by the genetic study of a sample from the endometrium. This personalised embryo transfer has achieved excellent pregnancy rates.

Recurrent IVF failures and miscarriages may be caused by genetic problems in the embryo. This can be identified by doing laser-assisted embryo biopsy removing one cell from a five-day embryo and sending the same for genetic analysis. Only the selected normal embryos are transferred, thus improving pregnancy rates.

Super microsurgeryPrashanth Fertility Research Centre has introduced a breakthrough technology for super microsurgery with 40X magnification under which seminiferous tubules are examined and identified. These are then sent to the embryology lab for evaluation and if they contain sperms, they are frozen. This stored sperm can be used for IVF procedures. Around 70 per cent of men who have been proved to have no sperms with earlier testicular biopsy have succeeded in becoming a father with this new technique.

For details, visit: http://www.pfrcivf.com The writer is a renowned obstetrician, gynaecologist and specialist in reproductive medicine and laparoscopic surgery at Prashanth Fertility Research Centre. She is currently the chairperson, Prashanth Multispeciality Hospital, and medical director, Prashanth Fertility Research Centre, Chennai

Worlds secondDr Geetha Haripriya delivered the worlds second intracytoplasmic sperm injectionquadruplets in2003

Read more:
Breakthrough technologies in infertility - The New Indian Express