A research team has developed two tiny sensor-tipped probes that may help determine a woman's fertility by gauging the viability of her eggs. The probes may become a first step in finding and treating egg abnormalities in infertile women to allow them to use their own eggs to bear children. More than 2.5 million U.S. women suffer from infertility. Their experiments with animals indicate the probes can be used to examine eggs removed from the ovary during in-vitro fertilization treatments. Each probe involves an electrode with a 1-micron vibrating tip that oscillates at the edge of an egg or embryo.
Information gathered by the electrode is analyzed by computer.
One probe assesses an egg's calcium flow while the other appraises oxygen uptake. Calcium discharge and oxygen consumption are critical physiologic functions in eggs and developing embryos. Embryos found viable could be transferred to the patient. Currently, older infertile women who want children must pursue costly tests and often undergo expensive, largely ineffective reproductive technologies that depend upon their own eggs. Other research techniques can perform the same task, but rely on tests that destroy the eggs.