Why a New IVF Technique Won't Help Boost Pregnancy Rates in the U.S.

British researchers have developed an embryo-incubating system that they say improves odds of conception by 27 percent. At Newcastle University in England, a team of fertility experts has used a system of enclosed, interlinked incubators to more closely control the environment in which fertilization unfolds. But the larger fertility clinics in the U.S. are already ahead of the game, using similar methods as well as ones that are even more sophisticated in which controlled video systems provide a window into embryonic development. Incubators that resemble a waffle iron create micro-environments for embryos, which nestle in individual “wells” with little variation in pH or oxygen content.