IVF 'MIRACLE' POWERED BY AI TECH

'Game-changing' new treatment to spare women years of heartache

- Lucy Johnston

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 AI 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.