A 2026 study of over 227,000 IVF couples found that chromosomal abnormalities were uncommon but more frequent than in the general population, and were most strongly linked to recurrent miscarriage, poor sperm quality, and younger age.
Genetics and fertility
A 2025 study introduces the term “oocyte and early embryo competence defects” to describe younger IVF patients who repeatedly have no transferable embryos due to low quality eggs, finding that about 13–23% had genetic changes.
A 2025 study of women with repeated IVF failure and unexplained infertility found that about 13% had mutations affecting egg or embryo development, mostly in the TUBB8 and PATL2 genes, suggesting that many “unexplained” cases may have underlying genetic causes.
Even when embryos are euploid and pass PGT-A, miscarriage can still happen. A new 2025 study suggests that genetic mutations too small to be seen by standard PGT-A may explain some of these losses.
A new study found that selecting FSH type based on a woman’s FSH receptor (FSHR) genotype may improve IVF pregnancy and live birth rates, particularly when using rFSH for NN genotypes and uFSH for NS or SS genotypes.
Researchers, in a 2024 study, have discovered that mutations in genes that code for specialized proteins called kinesins could lead to increased risk of aneuploidy and accelerate the aging process.
Researchers in a 2023 study discovered 6 genes associated with recurrent miscarriage of euploid embryos, which were found to impair reproductive ability in mouse models.