Technology offers prospective parents new hope

Infertility rates in China rose from 3 percent in 1992 to 12.5 percent in 2012. A paper published in October in the influential United States journal Fertility and Sterility found a 15.5 percent infertility rate in China. That study surveyed more than 18,500 couples nationwide in 2010 and 2011 and revealed that just over half of those who were unable to achieve pregnancy after a year sought medical help.

Globally, more than 2 million IVF procedures are performed every year, according to the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology.

Qiao Jie, president of Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing, said: "China has invested a large amount in basic research on reproductive medicine and has made impressive findings that reached the top level globally. This research is, in turn, leading to clinical applications.

"The major areas of basic research include the factors that lead to infertility and the passing on of problematic genes."

The latest technological breakthrough in Shanghai, which prevents the chromosomal abnormality for birth defects and miscarriages being passed on, has been reported by the medical journal BMC Medical Genomics in the United Kingdom.

The Genetics and IVF Institute in the United States, which has 10 domestic clinics and six overseas, and is one of the leading international organizations providing infertility and genetics services, is in discussions with the Shanghai institute about using the technology, Sun said.

"We're confident that this technique that originated in China will have a wider impact and benefit more infertile patients. Infertility is a rising health issue around the globe in relation to pollution, postponed childbearing age and pressure from life," he said.