Assisted reproduction
Fertile® chip
Fertile® chip is an advanced sperm selection technique with the objective of choosing the best spermatozoa that will increase the success of IVF treatments.
The Fertile® chip sperm selection technique is suitable for patients with pathological double strand DNA fragmentation in their sperm. This is something which can cause sterility in certain cases. Thanks to Fertile® technology and its ability lto recover the spermatozoa with the best physiological characteristics, patients can improve their chances of becoming parents with their own gametes.
Sperm DNA fragmentation
DNA fragmentation is defined as a break in the strands which form our genetic material. One of the reasons which causes sterility in couples is that the chromosomes provided by the spermatozoa are broken, and this can be single strand – i.e. in only one of the DNA strands – or double – in both DNA strands.
Until now, one of the genetic tests that could be run on sterile couples consisted of sperm DNA fragmentation testing which assessed the fragmentation percentage without differentiating between single and double strand breaks.
Today, after many years of research, it has been proven that double strand breaks have a big effect on sterility and that is why the day-to-day sperm DNA fragmentation testing on sterile couples now entails a differentiation between single strand and double strand.
What does the Fertile® chip technique consist of?
A Fertile® chip is a sperm selection device, shaped like a microscope slide and developed by Harvard University Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its function is based on spermatozoa motility.
Spermatozoa without double DNA strand breaks have a characteristic motility and this makes it possible to recover those with a lower fragmentation rate.
Fertile® chip is a special, single-use device with two chambers that are connected via microfluidic channels. The net sperm sample is deposited in one of the chambers and the spermatozoa are recovered in the other chamber
Dreams that came true
We went to Ginefiv because it worked for a few of my friends and they are mums
now. The prognosis wasn’t very favourable because my ovarian reserve was low, but
the doctor told us that the eggs might be good quality.
I went for my first insemination and it was really emotional knowing that it was virtually impossible that it would happen on the first try, but at the beta test I already
suspected that I was pregnant. And they gave us the news we had been hoping for:
we were pregnant! Yes, it worked on the first go.
Our little Olivia was born nine months later and we couldn’t be more in love
We were advised to get IVF with microinjection and we got good embryos from it.
Three of these ‘little ones’ were transferred to me and I became pregnant with Cristina.
It all went so well and it was so easy that after 15 months we decided to go for a little
brother. It didn’t happen at first but we were lucky on the third try with frozen
embryos and we had our second child, Carolina. We couldn’t be happier
We were fed up with another clinic so we came here and what a good move that
was. I couldn’t get pregnant even after months and months, and the tests showed
there was nothing stopping it.
After a while though, it did happen for us. And even though I spent so long worrying
about my health, thinking about my baby changed my mood completely.
Thank-you all for the hard work.
We were recommended to go to Ginefiv by some friends and after our first visit,
looking at other clinics didn’t even cross our minds.
We went there after 7 years of unsuccessful treatments with the Social Security
healthcare system.
At Ginefiv I got pregnant with the second transfer.
I’ve only got good things to say about Ginefiv and the way they took care of us. We
found the best clinic and doctor in the world
When is Fertile© chip the right technique to use?
According to current studies, patients with prior implantation failure, those with recurrent miscarriages and those with slow embryonic development between day 3 and day 5 of in vitro growth are the right patients for Fertile© chip. Usually, when double strand DNA fragmentation of the sperm is diagnosed in a male, the recommendation is to:
- Evaluate possible prior medical/environmental issues which may be the cause: chemotherapy/radiotherapy treatments, stimulant-rich diet (tea, coffee, chocolate, etc.).
- Administration of a specific oral treatment to treat the double strand fragmentation, over a minimum period of 2-3 months.
Currently, Fertile® chip technology enables us to offer Ginefiv assisted reproduction patients an alternative in the event that the sperm DNA damage cannot be reduced.
The limitations of Fertile® chip
In patients with severe male factor, it is hard to recover sufficient spermatozoa after the technique has been performed, making it unsuitable for such cases. Nor is it recommendable to apply Fertile© chip to previously cryopreserved samples