Couples who need in-vitro fertilization in order to become pregnant can be reassured that this will not lead to developmental problems in early infancy, a Dutch researcher told the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a method that can predict with 70 percent accuracy whether a woman undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment will become pregnant.

For almost 30 years - since the world's first "test-tube" baby was born in July 1978 - the benefits of modern infertility treatments have been largely confined to couples in developed countries.

The pregnancy rate for patients undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is improved when doctors use advanced 3D/4D imaging to guide the placement of embryos to the point where the endometrium is most receptive to implantation, according to a study presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).