Is This Treatment Worth Paying For? Contradictory Discourses on the Use of Time-Lapse Imaging in IVF Labs

• In Event: Emergent Technologies in Biomedicine and Healthcare: Boundaries, Tensions, and Possibilities - III

Abstract

This paper analyzes the emergence of time-lapse imaging (TLI) in fertility treatment in the UK. The data produced by TLI technologies is meant to help professionals pick the best embryo to be implanted. Embryo selection is essential in IVF practice for increasing pregnancy rates and reducing the negative effects of repeated failures. The early emergence of TLI technologies was characterized by promissory discourses of increased success rates for patients struggling to conceive. However, more than 5 years after the introduction of the new tools in IVF labs, there has been no conclusive clinical trial evidence to show that TLI does indeed have a significant impact on pregnancy rates. Nonetheless, many clinics have enthusiastically adopted such technologies, sometimes at an extra cost for patients. We explore this contradiction by asking: How are TLI tools used and conceptualized by stakeholders? How is their use standardized, in light of contradictory evidence? Using ethnographic data collected from 5 UK clinical sites (observations in IVF labs, interviews with professionals) and document analysis (medical literature, manufacturer and clinic websites, public documents), we argue that there are two co-existing, but competing discourses about TLI – each with its own shortcomings. On one hand, professionals conceptualize TLI as a useful lab tool that enhances daily operations. On the other hand, the media and regulators judge TLI based on the lack of clinical trial evidence to prove its efficacy. We conclude that technological innovation in IVF is characterized by standardization issues as a result of commercialization and unresolved evidence debates.

Authors

• Alina Geampana, Queen Mary University of London

• Manuela Perrotta, Queen Mary, University of London