Fertility doctors have developed a fitness test for embryos which they claim could substantially improve the chances of pregnancy. The one-minute test is to be carried out alongside standard IVF treatment and could be approved for use in fertility clinics from late next year.

Trials of the test, which helps doctors select the healthiest embryos, showed that the method boosts the chances of embryos implanting.

Doctors who developed the technique say it could improve pregnancy rates by 10-15%. Large-scale trials at hospitals in Amsterdam and Gothenburg will begin in October.

Speaking at the conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, Denny Sakkas, professor at Yale University school of medicine, said: "We fail to get patients pregnant about two-thirds of the time we transfer an embryo, and one of the reasons is we are not very good at picking the best ones from those available."

The Guardian