Obstetrics and gynecology Professor Mylene Yao and her team of researchers at the School of Medicine have developed a formula to predict whether fertility treatments will be successful on couples, more accurately than through looking at age alone. The test indicates whether a couple would be successful in going through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In the past, doctors have had difficulty accurately assessing success rates using traditional tests, which have evaluated patients based on age alone. However, the new test involves evaluating several factors, such as the woman’s age, her hormonal response to the IVF process, and the implantation and growth rate of the fetus.

The research team looked at past data from more than 5,000 IVF cycles performed at Stanford Hospital from 2003 to 2008, and compared how successful each treatment was. According to the team, collecting a vast amount of data from one IVF attempt leaves useful reference for future cycles.

In an interview with Reuters, Yao said that two percent of all infertile couples are treated with IVF, and that the market is growing, with one percent of newborns in the United States born through the treatment.

To make the new test widely available, Yao’s group has founded a new company called Univfy to commercialize the test. The University has licensed the model test, and the team is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the test by this fall.

— Buyan Pan