Women can ‘grow’ their own IVF embryos with in-body incubator
By Andy Coghlan,
New Scientist
| 01. 06. 2016
Untitled Document
KEEP them close. Women having IVF can now incubate embryos in their own bodies before they are implanted in the womb. Results from a clinical trial suggest the incubation device could work as well as conventional IVF and be far cheaper.
Cylindrical in shape, INVOcell is held in the vagina by a flexible diaphragm. The embryos are kept in an inner chamber at body temperature and gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen diffuse in and out at levels matching natural fertilisation. After five days the embryos will have grown into balls of about 100 cells. The device is then removed and doctors choose the embryo that looks healthiest to implant.
In a US trial of 40 women, the device performed almost as well as conventional incubation, with 65 per cent of the women becoming pregnant regardless of the method used. Fifty-five per cent who used in-body incubation went on to give birth compared with 60 per cent who had the standard method. “We were very pleased with the results,” says Kevin Doody of the Center for Assisted...
Related Articles
By Tarandeep Hira, BioNews | 05.26.2026
Fifteen people, including five doctors, have been charged in Maharashtra, India, following an investigation into the exploitation of financially vulnerable egg donors.
A nearly 5000-page chargesheet was filed before a court in Ulhasnagar. The investigation began in February after a...
By Aarya Chand, The Kathmandu Post | 05.21.2026
KATHMANDU – When Padma was 22, she was diagnosed with cancer. What followed were three brutal cycles of chemotherapy—each necessary, each taking something from her. Doctors warned that the radiation would damage her ovaries. But Padma was fighting to stay...
By Caroline Kitchener, The New York Times | 05.24.2026
More than anything else in the world, Erin Millender longed to be a mother. She already had a day care picked out, a Pack ’n Play stashed in her basement. She’d tried Chinese pregnancy teas and midnight fertility ceremonies under...
By Nanette Elster, Kayhan Parsi, and Art Caplan, The American Journal of Bioethics | 05.06.2026
“Better babies.” “Fitter families.” “Survival of the fittest.” “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” These phrases are not merely historical reminders of the United States’ regrettable eugenic past but are appearing in an increasingly eugenic present. Eugenics may have seemed...
