Device Surprisingly Effective at Finding Eggs for IVF

A new device is raising the unsettling possibility that fertility clinics are routinely throwing away usable eggs. In a study of 582 patients across four US clinics, the OvaReady system—developed by Massachusetts-based AutoIVF—ran follicular fluid that had already been checked by embryologists under microscopes and turned up extra eggs from more than half of patients, reports the New York Times. Some 582 additional eggs were collected from the fluid of 316 patients, per the study published Thursday in Nature Medicine. One of those "missed" eggs led to the birth of a healthy baby girl in September after being fertilized and implanted in a couple who had previously completed a failed IVF cycle.

The microfluidic device sorts fluid through tiny channels and bumpers. AutoIVF's CEO Ravi Kapur, a study co-author, said he expected the device to find eggs in 10% of cases, not 50% "across multiple very high-end clinics." He said the company is focused on gathering "peer-reviewed evidence to inform how automation may improve consistency and completeness in egg recovery," per a release. Outside experts call the results promising but preliminary, stressing the study is small and includes just one live birth so far. Many say the tool should, for now, serve as a backup check rather than replace the manual search—while key questions remain about how many of the recovered eggs are viable.