BBC News - IVF as cheap as £170, doctors claim
so simple!
The cost of IVF can be cut dramatically from thousands of pounds to around £170 to start a "new era" in IVF, fertility doctors from Belgium claim.
Twelve children have been born through the technique, which replaces expensive medical equipment with "kitchen cupboard" ingredients.
Data, presented at fertility conference in London, suggests the success rate is similar to conventional IVF.
Experts said there was big potential to open up IVF to the developing world.
Cut price
Fertility treatment is expensive. In the UK, it costs around £5,000 per cycle.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The potential implications for this could be quite amazing.”
Stuart Lavery
Director of IVF, Hammersmith Hospital, London
High levels of the gas carbon dioxide are needed when growing embryos in an IVF clinic in order to control the acidity levels. This is maintained using carbon dioxide incubators, medical grade gas and air purification.
Instead, the team at the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology mixed inexpensive citric acid and bicarbonate of soda to produce carbon dioxide.
Twelve children have been born through the technique, which replaces expensive medical equipment with "kitchen cupboard" ingredients.
Data, presented at fertility conference in London, suggests the success rate is similar to conventional IVF.
Experts said there was big potential to open up IVF to the developing world.
Cut price
Fertility treatment is expensive. In the UK, it costs around £5,000 per cycle.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The potential implications for this could be quite amazing.”
Stuart Lavery
Director of IVF, Hammersmith Hospital, London
High levels of the gas carbon dioxide are needed when growing embryos in an IVF clinic in order to control the acidity levels. This is maintained using carbon dioxide incubators, medical grade gas and air purification.
Instead, the team at the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology mixed inexpensive citric acid and bicarbonate of soda to produce carbon dioxide.
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