Infertile couples in Nottingham are being offered a greater chance of pregnancy by having their embryos screened for defects.

The Centre for Assisted Reproduction - Care - at the Park Hospital, Arnold, has been given approval to carry out screening for chromosomal abnormalities.

One in six pregnancies ends in miscarriage because the embryo cannot develop properly as a result of a defect.

Screening will mean that doctors can detect these, and only implant the healthy embryos.

This should lead to more women having a successful birth.

Care is one of two centres which have just received approval by the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority to carry out the technique, called aneuploidy screening.

It will involve specifically looking for abnormalities in nine out of 46 chromosomes which could lead to Downs Syndrome and muscular dystrophy.

It is hoped the screening will cut the number of miscarriages by half, and increase the IVF birth rate by a tenth.

Embryo screening will be used to help women over 38 who have an increased risk of failed pregnancies; couples who have had several failed attempts at in vitro fertilisation; and women who have suffered several miscarriages.

Dr Simon Fishel, Care's scientific director, said: "We are absolutely delighted to have been given the approval - it's an exciting new development in assisted conception.

"Screening will offer us a better chance of implanting a healthy embryo which leads to a successful pregnancy.

"Doctors often do not know the medical reasons why someone cannot become pregnant and aneuploidy screening can offer answers and help couples understand why.

"There is an ethical debate about bringing embryo screening to the UK, but we would argue we are trying to give couples a better chance of a pregnancy and live birth."

Dr Fishel said at the moment, around 50 couples could benefit from the screening, which will begin in November.

Vishnee Seenundun, spokesperson for the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, said aneuploidy screening was helping to further the science and technology behind IVF treatment.

She said: "Care is one of only two centres to be given the approval to carry out the screening in the UK.

"More centres may be considered in the future, if they meet criteria set out by the authority."

(Taken from the Nottingham Evening Post)