Do High-Tech IVF Add-ons Work (Economist)
- Design
- Meta-analysis
- Participants
- 157 randomised trials screened; 85 retained covering 10 add-ons; median trial ~160 patients
- Journal
- Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women's Health (published 2026-06-23)
- Read via
- The Economist
Design and size bound what a finding can claim. A press release or news report is a layer on top of the study, not the study.
Do High-Tech IVF Add-ons Work (Economist)
Summary
About 60% of IVF attempts fail, and clinics sell a long menu of optional "add-ons" promising better odds. A review published 23 June 2026 in the Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women's Health found no convincing evidence that most add-ons help, and found that nearly half of the published trials showed signs of unreliable data. Full concept treatment at IVF Add-ons.
What was done
- 157 randomised trials of IVF add-ons were run through a research-integrity checklist developed in 2023 by fertility researchers (some of them authors of this review) after a rise in fraudulent fertility studies: implausible timelines, odd participant data, gaps in the paper trail.
- Nearly half failed the checklist. The remaining 85 trials covered ten commonly sold add-ons.
What the surviving evidence says
| Verdict | Add-on | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Some benefit, weak evidence | Endometrial scratching | deliberately disturbing the uterine lining |
| Some benefit, weak evidence | EmbryoGlue | embryo dipped in hyaluronic-acid solution |
| Some benefit, weak evidence | PICSI | physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection; selects individual sperm |
| No effect (limited data) | Corticosteroids | anti-inflammatory drugs |
| No effect (limited data) | PGT-A | embryo chromosome screening |
| No effect (limited data) | Endometrial-lining biopsy | assessing gene expression for receptivity |
| Too little data to judge | Acupuncture | |
| Too little data to judge | Intralipid infusion | fats from egg/soya, aimed at calming an immune response |
| Too little data to judge | Platelet-rich plasma, uterine | |
| Too little data to judge | Platelet-rich plasma, ovarian |
What the article flags as unproven or contested
- Trials were few and small: the median trial had ~160 patients, too small to detect modest effects.
- The reviewers could not rule out benefit for subgroups of patients; identifying who would need more and better trials.
- The integrity problem is upstream of the evidence problem: the authors call for journal editors to screen out suspect trials before publication.
Wikilinks
- IVF Add-ons — concept page with the ten-procedure table and the research-integrity angle.
- Polygenic Embryo Screening — PGT-A (no effect here) is the chromosome screen that startups are now extending into polygenic scoring (PGT-P).
- The Economist — Science & Technology.
Captured-by trigger
Source file: raw/processed/Economist 2026-06-27 Science---Techn - Do high-tech add-ons increase the chance that IVF will.md.
Research notes, not medical advice. Findings are reported with the population, dose and duration they were measured in; whether they transfer to you is a question for a clinician.