Artificial intelligence has been used to help women get pregnant through IVF by matching the strongest sperm with the best quality eggs.
By maximising the chances of success, the pioneering treatment is poised to spare countless women from years of heartache trying to conceive, while reducing an often heavy financial burden.
The first woman in the UK to conceive using AI throughout the fertilisation process – after years of agonising failed attempts – has called the new technology “like a miracle”.
The idea of using AI to select the best sperm to impregnate the healthiest egg would until recently have been seen as science fiction.
But it will now provide hope for many couples and individuals facing fertility challenges but who are desperate to have a baby. Leading consultant Mr Ali Al Chami said: “This is a game-changer for fertility care.”
One in six couples experience infertility and more than 50,000 patients undergo IVF in the UK every year, with the number rising annually.
Despite improvements to techniques since the first IVF baby was born 47 years ago, fertility treatment is still often seen as a gamble.
Only one in three women get pregnant after the first cycle – which costs on average more than £5,000. Traditionally doctors have relied on subjective human assessments and general guidelines to make decisions about the health of the sperm or egg.
But AI systems, trained on vast data sets, including ultrasound images, patient health metrics, and time-lapse embryo monitoring, are being used in some clinics to select high-quality sperm and eggs, and then embryos, for both fertilisation and implantation.
Elena, 36, from South London, visited one of these clinics and it says she has become the first woman in the UK to conceive using AI throughout the whole process. She is now 23 weeks pregnant and credits the advanced technology with changing her life.
Elena discovered she was expecting in August after AI selected which of her husband’s sperm to use.
The fertilised embryos with the greatest chance of giving her a baby, also chosen using AI, were then transplanted into her womb.
“What has happened is phenomenal,” the mother-to-be said. “The technology is incredible. It is like a miracle.” Dr Jyoti Taneja, medical director of Avenues Fertility Clinic in North London, which carried out Elena’s treatment, has been pioneering the new technology.
She said: “We have traditionally selected sperm by analysing shape and other features under the microscope. But AI can assess the health in ways such as movement patterns. “It can make these assessments with more accuracy, in real time and at greater speed.”
The consultant added: “We also use AI to give us a meticulous evaluation of eggs.
This can include egg maturity, shape and size. “This approach improves IVF outcomes by predicting the likelihood of conception and minimising unnecessary interventions. This technology provides hope for many couples and individuals facing fertility challenges.”
Her clinic also uses AI to assess the health of each fertilised egg – or embryo – which was the first step in using the technology being applied to sperm and eggs selection.
This allowed the specialists to pick out the embryo with the best potential for success.
Dr Taneja, who has worked as a specialist in reproductive medicine at top London hospitals including Barts, and Guys and St Thomas’, said: “This is a dynamic and exciting era for fertility care. AI technology is rapidly paving the way for a revolution in IVF treatment.
“In five years, I believe all clinics will adopt this integration of AI innovation.”
It is also being used to match surrogates with intended parents. Mr Al Chami, Dr Taneja’s colleague at the clinic, said: “We are witnessing a rise in men pursuing parenthood via surrogacy and AI is enhancing outcomes.” Dr Taneja added: “The ability to predict outcomes and minimise risks is invaluable.
For patients it means less emotional, physical and financial risk because it means higher chances of success.” In another development, a study last week showed how scientists can use AI to help decide when to give a hormone injection to women before preparing eggs for collection – known as the “trigger shot”.
The team from Imperial College London, the University of Glasgow and the University of St Andrews found if the injection is given when the small sacs containing eggs in the ovaries are too small or too large, it can reduce the chances of success.
Dr Ali Abbara, report co-author and a leading consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “IVF provides help and hope for many patients who are unable to conceive but it’s an invasive, expensive and time-consuming treatment.
“It can be heartbreaking when it fails, so it’s important to ensure this treatment is as effective as possible. AI can offer a new paradigm in how we deliver IVF treatment and could lead to better outcomes for patients.”
Scientists have been exploring and demonstrating the use of AI in IVF for at least five years. Four years ago experts writing in the Journal Reproduction and Fertility concluded: “Incorporating AI technology into the IVF clinic may be the next frontier in the journey towards personalised reproductive medicine and improved fertility outcomes.”
Professor Simon Fishel, a leading IVF expert who worked with Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe before the birth of the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978, said: “If we can find ways that we can increase the chances of having a baby it is wonderful.
“AI may increase the chances of getting a healthier outcome and is an important area for continued research. However any new procedure needs dozens if not hundreds of babies to prove the point. “This has not been evaluated in terms of randomised controlled trials.”
And Professor Geeta Nargund, an expert in reproductive medicine at St George’s Hospital, South London, added: “IVF is a field of medicine which fundamentally needs more public funding and, critically, an end to the postcode lottery of treatment.”
