A new technique that provides a cost-effective alternative to the highly expensive In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) process for artificial insemination has been introduced in India for the first time.

The INVO procedure, a simple and effective infertility treatment that uses a new device - the INVOcell - eliminates the need for elaborate laboratory equipment as required by the IVF technique and hence reduces the working cost of artificial fertilisation drastically, experts claim.

The procedure, which is practised worldwide, was performed by infertility specialists at Mumbai’s Lilavati hospital on Tuesday on an Indian woman with the help of a team of experts from the United States.

“Under the guidance of a team of US experts, we performed it on a patient and will subsequently also do it on 3-4 others soon,” Hrishikesh Pai, Infertility Specialist of Lilavati Hospital and Delhi’s Fortis Hospital, said.

Designed to enable IVF to be performed without complicated lab equipment, the technique would also make the whole procedure faster compared to the standard IVF process.

In IVF, eggs are fertilised with sperm outside the body and any resulting embryos are then left to develop in culture for 3-5 days before the best ones are transferred to the womb.

“The Invocell technique on the other hand, eggs are combined with sperm in the INVOcell device and placed in the woman’s vaginal cavity where it remains for three days,” said Nandita Palshetkar, Infertility Specialist at Lilavati Hospital and Fortis La Femme hospital here.

This step eliminates the need for a complex IVF laboratory and allows the woman’s body to provide the nurturing environment in which conception and early embryo development take place.

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