Experts are also surprised by this method and the results. The woman also tried several test tube methods.
In the US, a couple who had been wanting children for 18 years has had their problem solved by AI, after which they are expected to welcome a little guest in December.
According to a report by the American Broadcasting Corporation, the couple, who have been married for 18 years, did not reveal their identity due to confidentiality, but described an interesting incident that happened to them, calling it a miracle.
According to the woman, she got married 18 years ago, after which she wanted children from the very next year. According to her, ‘We tried many times but failed, after which we approached doctors, but there we were disappointed too’.
She said that after that, we also tried to have children through artificial methods of ‘fertility’ and tried two to three times through test tubes after visiting several centers.
According to the woman, she also underwent IVF several times, but she faced failure every time.
In this complex process of IVF, a woman’s egg is removed and combined with sperm in a laboratory to create an embryo, which is then transferred to the uterus. But the problem for this couple was a rare condition called Azoospermia, in which there are no measurable sperm in the man’s semen.
Normally, semen contains millions of sperm, but in patients with azoospermia, the sperm count is so low that even after hours of careful searching under a microscope, not a single sperm can be found.
The couple, in despair, contacted the Columbia University Fertility Center, which decided to try a new procedure called STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery).
According to the report, in this method, experts use artificial intelligence to find and recover the man’s hidden sperm.
Researchers at the fertility center analyzed the semen sample with an AI system and miraculously found three hidden sperm.
The process was then advanced through IVF and then became the first woman to achieve a successful pregnancy through the STAR procedure, according to doctors, the woman is expected to give birth to a child in December.
The woman says, “We were very disappointed and hopeless, but the doctors gave us the last resort and then told us the good news, after which the treatment was done, it took me two days to believe that I was really pregnant. I still wake up in the morning and can’t believe it’s true or not. I don’t believe I’m pregnant until I see the scans.”
According to the woman, she then took help from AI and acted on it after gaining awareness about her pregnancy or its complications, after which she is a healthy pregnant mother of five.
Columbia University Director Dr. Zev Williams said that it took five years to develop the STAR procedure to help detect and recover sperm in semen samples of people with azoospermia and we did not expect such a wonderful result.
“A patient gave a sample, and highly skilled technicians spent two days trying to find sperm in the sample. They couldn’t find anything, so we brought it to the AI-based STAR system. In an hour, it found 44 sperm. So right away, we realized, ‘Wow, this is really a game changer. This is going to make such a big difference for patients.'”
The US media report said that 40 percent of infertility cases in the US are due to men, while 10 percent of them suffer from isospermic, which requires surgery to get rid of.
“The STAR method could be a new option,” Williams said. Teamwork played a key role in developing the method, and that’s what motivated everyone, that now you can help couples who otherwise wouldn’t have this opportunity.
He said that using the STAR method, it costs $3,000 to find, separate and freeze sperm for a patient.
