Science is changing how and when families are made
Women are going to be able to have both career and family…
…in a way that we’ve never seen before
New technologies are transforming IVF success rates
AI allows us to look at features of the embryo...
...invisible to the human eye
And families are growing up
I tell them, “No, I’m not the grandmother”...
...“I’m the mother”…
…and they go, “You’re the mother!”
My name is Dawn Hallett
I’m 65 years old and I’m the mother of Audree Evelyn Anne Hallett
Audree is one year old
Dawn and her husband, Mike, who is 66…
…are proud first-time parents in Nova Scotia, Canada
They married in 1977 and tried for a baby for decades
When we were in our early 30s…
…we discussed about having a family and then we went for testing…
…and we found out that our chances were very slim
10%
10% chance that we could have a child of our own
Attempts to conceive naturally and to adopt failed
So five years ago Dawn turned to IVF and donor eggs for help
I went to our local clinic and they said I was too old…
…that they wouldn’t work with us
In Canada, as in America, industry guidelines discourage…
…embryo transfers to women over 55…
…who face a higher risk of prenatal health conditions…
…including pre-eclampsia, hypertension and diabetes
Dawn considered surrogacy
She looked abroad to developing countries…
…with less restrictive guidelines and legislation
The first place we went to, India…
…our surrogate was sitting in her doctor’s office…
…and India closed their doors to international surrogacy
We flew to Mexico City and we tried three times there…
…with a surrogate and my husband and she failed three times
International fertility consultant, Crystal Travis…
…directed the couple towards Georgia…
…one of the world’s least regulated fertility markets…
…and one of the few countries that allows surrogates…
…and donors of eggs and embryos to be paid
I felt that I was healthy enough that I could carry a baby if needed to…
…because I exercised my whole life
After medical tests, Dawn had an embryo made…
…with a donor egg and donor sperm implanted
I said to Mike I said, “I just don’t believe that it’s going to work”
Anyway, so on the 23rd of December when we got to…
On the 23rd of December when we…
…I went over to the drugstore and got the got the actual…
…the pregnancy test, yes
I’m the technical guy
So I did the dipping and basically I came down and said…
…‘‘by the way you’re two to three weeks pregnant”
And at that point we were just like
I was shocked, I was shocked
You know, this is a miracle
The total number of fertility clinics around the world…
…is estimated to have increased by almost 70% in the last ten years
The value of the global fertility industry is predicted to rise from…
…$25bn today, to $41bn by 2026
Many believe there needs to be more regulation…
…of an increasingly globalised IVF trade...
...including Dr Danielle Lane, a fertility specialist based in San Francisco
I think that the risks far outweigh the benefits of being pregnant at 65
We do not do embryo transfers on anyone who is above the age of 50
However, Dr Lane is using new technology…
…that will allow more women to have children later in life
We are definitely seeing an increase in egg-freezing
So, clearly the trend is that women are delaying their childbearing
In 2017 the number of women freezing their own eggs in America…
…jumped by nearly a quarter in one year alone
Dr Lane believes this will help some women…
…balance their careers and families more effectively in the future
Now we’re saying you can have that child at 40 using your 28-year-old eggs
So maybe it matters that you spend those extra ten years…
…focused on your career and get to a point where…
…you feel comfortable having that baby at 40
There is another technological development that might…
…accelerate this trend towards older parents
Today Dr Michelle Perugini is unveiling a new…
…artificial-intelligence application at the Lane Fertility Institute
Embryo assessment is currently done by an embryologist…
…sitting in front of a microscope
What we do is take microscope images, directly drag and drop them…
…onto our system and the AI runs over those images and produces…
…an instantaneous confidence score
The application is designed to improve the chances of selecting…
…embryos that will lead to successful pregnancies
Our data show that we’re 30% more accurate in terms of…
…being able to predict the pregnancy outcome
That’s really amazing
This application is awaiting regulatory approval in America
If it delivers on its promise, it could help make IVF more accessible
Is there a way that the application of this AI…
…will actually make IVF more affordable?
If we can get patients pregnant quicker or in fewer cycles…
…by virtue of picking the best embryo then it will be cheaper overall
As the science grows, so will the opportunities…
…for more would-be parents to start families later than ever before
There will always be decisions to be made about career and family
But the ability to plan them out is…
…so much better now than it was even a decade ago