AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, July 5 (UPI) -- A test hailed as a way to help older women undergoing in vitro fertilization achieve a higher birth rate actually reduces births, Dutch researchers reported.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis may actually reduce births by one third, reported researchers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They studied 408 women between the ages of 35 and 41.
The findings are a setback for the increasingly popular procedure, which involves removing a single cell from a 3-day-old embryo to look for potential birth defects, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
The test, developed in the United States about 17 years ago, is based on a theory that one cell can be removed from the eight cells in a 3-day-old embryo and the remaining seven cells still will grow into a healthy baby, reported New Scientist.
Scientists don't know why the test lowers the birth rate, but they do not believe that removing one cell lowers the viability of the embryo.
