Such screening would benefit many more women than has generally been thought, according to research that suggests its routine use could transform IVF success rates while preventing risky twin and triplet births.

The procedure, known as aneuploidy screening, is already available at eight clinics in Britain, but is officially recommended only for women aged over 35 or who have already endured multiple miscarriages or failed IVF attempts.

Three American studies, however, have now found compelling evidence that it could also help younger women and newcomers to fertility treatment, as their embryos are almost as susceptible to the defects it is designed to root out. The results “rewrite the medical textbooks” about younger women’s fertility, one of the leaders of the research said.

The screening technique works by removing a single cell from a three-day-old embryo and checking it for aneuploidy, a set of disorders in which an abnormal number of chromosomes triggers miscarriage or genetic conditions such as Down’s syndrome.

As those are most common in older women and those with a history of failed pregnancies, the test is generally limited to such patients. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) guidelines state clinics are not expected to use it for anyone else.

The new research, presented yesterday at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Montreal, indicates, however, that aneuploid embryos are also a frequent problem for younger women. As many as half the IVF embryos produced by women as young as their mid-twenties are chromosomally abnormal.

That means that screening embryos and implanting only those with a good chance of developing normally should be considered for a much wider group. Jeffrey Nelson, of the Huntington Reproductive Centre in Pasadena, California, who led one of the studies, said the HFEA guidelines were too strict. “Just the fact that we are seeing young women have a high rate of abnormalities suggests that we should be using the technique more,” he said.

Dr Nelson’s research found that 42 per cent of the eggs collected at his clinic from young donors, with an average age of 25, generated aneuploid embryos. Similar findings were reported by Paulette Browne, of the Shady Grove Centre in Rockville, Maryland, who detected a 50 per cent abnormality rate from egg donors with an average age of 26½.

A third study, led by Zsolt Peter Nagy, of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, found that two thirds of the embryos were abnormal in IVF patients under 35.

Aneuploidy screening was approved in Britain in 2002. It costs about £2,500 on top of regular IVF costs and is not generally available on the NHS.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Henning Mankell: ‘If Wallander was alive, I wouldn’t be a friend of his’
• Secret society's skull and crossbones for sale
• Nigerian leader vanishes after medical treatment