The first baby conceived using in vitro fertilization, or IVF, was born in 1978.
Since then, IVF has become relatively common, but it's far from a sure bet.
There are several steps along the way, designed to increase the chance of having a healthy baby.
One of these is a common screening test
called pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploides, or PGT-A.
After eggs are fertilized to create embryos, clinicians take biopsies to look for aneuploides,
or chromosomal abnormalities, that increase the risk of IVF failure,
miscarriage or genetic disorders at birth.
You take an embryo, you grow that embryo into around day
five or six when it's called a blastocyst,
and the embryologist will do a biopsy of the outer shell and take around seven cells,
and those cells are tested to see whether they have the correct number of chromosomes or not.
If they have extra chromosomes or missing chromosomes,
that is the most common cause of pregnancy loss.
But tests like PGT-A are controversial,
and not all fertility specialists advise their patients to use them.
Dr. Norbert Gleicher has had his doubts about the tests.
He says he began to notice that rates of pregnancy from IVF began to decline about 10 years ago,
around the same time as PGT-A testing became more common.
A very large number of embryos that after testing are supposedly showing chromosomal abnormalities
are really so-called false positives.
How do we know that?
We know that for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious reason is that we already, in 2014,
started transferring some of those so-called abnormal embryos,
and lo and behold, we had healthy babies.
We came to the conclusion that not only may this testing not improve IVF outcomes,
but for certain patients, especially older women, it may actually reduce chances of conception.
All my kids are IVF products.
My oldest is a girl, and then I have two boys, and I wanted a girl.
So the reason I went, I decided to do the testing is because I wanted a girl.
My doctor called, and he's like I'm sorry,
they're abnormal, which I had no clue what it means, didn't work,
and I remember saying to myself, that can't be.
It doesn't doesn't make sense. It's so easy with me,
and then we kept trying, and it was devastating.
I have a professor that's helping me with all of this in Israel.
He told me, stop testing these embryos, and he referred me to the clinic in New York,
and I consulted with them and they told me you don't need
to do any more IVFs. You have beautiful embryos.
My doctor here, who's amazing, he was really hesitant at first.
Eventually I was able to convince him to give it a shot.
Every appointment, he was shocked and at heartbeat, he was completely shocked.
He even said, I'm about to cry, and then 10 weeks came, blood test was completely normal.
She's turning 18 months in just a few days, and she's the best thing that ever happened to us.
For me, I would not have done the genetic testing again.
Although Dr. Gleicher's clinic has had some success without testing,
other researchers stand by the test's ability to
detect abnormal embryos which helps protect patients from pregnancy loss.
If that embryo is abnormal, it's going to be abnormal.
The big difference will be how long does it take to get pregnant
and how many losses does she have to go through before she gets pregnant.
It's a mistake to minimize the emotional burden of going through embryo transfers
that are either unsuccessful or result in a pregnancy loss and a miscarriage.
In medicine, nobody can guarantee success.
The question is, how close can we get.
Though fertility experts take different approaches to embryonic testing,
they share a common goal: to give their patients the
best possible chance of welcoming a healthy baby.