Mobile phone app helps to predict success of IVF

The application called IVF Predict asks users a series of questions such as what the cause of fertility problems is, if known, and what drugs will be used. It then gives a percentage chance of how successful a procedure will be.

It follows a similar questionnaire online previously created by the same team.

Dr. Tom Kelsey of the School of Computer Science at St Andrews is an international expert in mathematical models for biomedicine.

He worked with Professor Scott Nelson, the Muirhead Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Glasgow who is an international expert in IVF, Professor Debbie Lawlor, the Profesor of Epidemiology at Bristol University, and Dr. Chris Jefferson, a Researcher at St Andrews to create the questionnaire.

Dr. Kelsey said: “People are making huge decisions both financially and emotionally and there are many people thinking they have a 90-100 per cent chance of successful conception with IVF, but it isn't like that.

“To achieve a spontaneous pregnancy in any given cycle, without fertility treatment, the chances are only around one in three.

“The main idea of the app is to give people who are making these decision, an indication of whether IVF will work or not.

“It is about informing decision; helping a couple decide whether to go ahead with this expensive treatment that probably isn’t going to work.”

The app costs £1.99 however all the money generated will go back into the Wallace-Kelsey Foundation, a charity which aims to improve the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors.

Its main focus is how to quantify and mitigate the adverse effects on reproduction caused by chemo and radiotherapies.

Provided by University of St Andrews