Lab breakthrough could make IVF less of an ordeal

By Lisa Jarvis / Bloomberg Opinion

Anyone who has undergone IVF will tell you that the process can be daunting. It involves weeks of mood-altering, bloat-inducing hormone injections to retrieve eggs so they can be fertilized in a lab before being implanted. That’s followed by weeks of holding your breath to find out if all the discomfort, anxiety and many thousands of dollars will have been worth it.

Finally, a cluster of biotech firms is reimagining that process, bringing previously fantastical science to a field that has been ignored for too long. With fertility rates dropping and more women opting to postpone parenthood, the need to make assisted reproductive health care more accessible and affordable couldn’t be more urgent.

What better sign of that momentum than a birth announcement? Gameto, a biotech company working on a less cumbersome IVF process, announced this week the arrival of a child born in Peru from an egg “matured” in a lab (rather than in a woman’s body) using its technology.

It’s an admittedly small step. Many more babies will need to be born for this new technology to prove itself and be widely embraced. And it won’t magically solve everyone’s infertility struggles.

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