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An Algorithm May Soon Help People Make Babies
Companies are developing embryo selection algorithms aimed at boosting the success of IVF
After two years of grueling attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF) — in which eggs and sperm are combined outside the body, and the resulting embryos are transferred to the womb — Australian couple Lorraine and James Coriakula finally got pregnant and gave birth to a son, Ebenezer, in October. A machine-learning algorithm might have helped.
In early 2020, the Coriakulas visited a Melbourne clinic that’s using new artificial intelligence software to select embryos for IVF. While the embryo selection process is usually done by humans, the software developed by startup Life Whisperer of Adelaide, Australia, scans images of embryos and judges which look healthy. The company claims Ebenezer is the first successful birth from an embryo selected by its A.I. software.
As the average age of pregnancy increases, more people are turning to assisted reproductive technology to help conceive. Birth rates from IVF are getting better, but it can still take multiple tries to get pregnant. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42% of patients age 35 to 37 who use their own eggs have a baby after their first round of IVF, but that rate declines significantly with age. For hopeful parents, the journey is often frustrating, not to mention expensive. An IVF cycle can cost anywhere from $12,000 to $17,000.
Some fertility specialists think artificial intelligence could help patients get pregnant faster by scanning images of their embryos and picking out the ones that have the best chance of resulting in a pregnancy. Companies like Life Whisperer say that could reduce the number of IVF rounds and ultimately save patients money.
“The selection of the embryo is really critical, and it directly relates to whether a pregnancy is going to result or not,” Michelle Perugini, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Life Whisperer, tells Future Human.
The company’s algorithm is trained on approximately 20,000 images of embryos previously used in IVF, some of which led to pregnancies and others that didn’t. Embryologists use the Life Whisperer program to upload a single image of a…
