Invocell: Is Low Cost IVF in America's Future?

Technological Breakthrough INVOcell and Tough Choices

For the infertile, low cost IVF embryo culturing may be just around the corner thanks to INVOcell ™, a medical device designed by Medelle corporation. One pioneer in the trial of this device is Indiana Dr. Leo Bonaventura. Since 1976, Bonaventura has been helping infertile couples achieve their desired miracle babies.

INVOcell ™ seemed the next logical step for the Bonaventura clinic to attempt, with the potential to provide patients with more options. Currently, Medelle Corp. is paying for the IVC (IVF using an INVOcell™) cycles of several test subjects who have volunteered to try INVOcell ™ for embryo incubation, providing a select few with the low cost IVF procedure many would never have had the opportunity to undergo without the INVOcell study.

The INVOcell™ intra-vaginal culture device, an approximately two-inch long barrel-shaped cylinder filled with culture medium, is currently being used in the clinical study to test the invention’s effectiveness as a replacement for IVF lab culturing. The woman’s eggs and the father’s sperm are first placed into the device. Then, the INVOcell™ is inserted into the patient’s uterus and secured using a retention system as opposed to leaving them in a Petri dish in the fertility clinic laboratory.

In three days, the device, with the help of the hopeful mother’s body warmth will, in best cases, incubate the resulting fertilized eggs for future implantation into the patient’s womb. Summarily, the capsule is removed and embryos are taken from the device and then transferred to the patient’s womb. The capsule does not necessarily mean low cost IVF, but it could cut out as much as $3000 in lab costs for IVF, a procedure which typically costs $10,000 or more per attempt. Infertility treatments are usually not covered by a patient’s insurance.