Infertility for both men and women can be as devastating to couples as any other medical problem. It can be more aggravating when you have had IVF treatment only to find it hasn’t worked.

But there may be a new kind of therapy on the way using soya oil.

One of the major problems attributed to IVF failure is the person’s deficient immune system. However scientists have found that soya oil might just help.

At the moment soya oil is given to patients who have trouble eating. It is used for artificial feeding for people with stomach problems. But recently the procedure was carried out on women having trouble conceiving. The results were staggering. The ability to conceive increased dramatically – a five-fold increase in fact. This seems to confirm earlier known findings that one in four women who have immune system defects are more likely to either fail to conceive or miscarry early.

The research was carried out in Nottingham by Care Fertility, a private provider of fertility treatment. The study carried out by the company involved 100 women aged around 37, who suffered repeated IVF failure, that is, about 6 failed cycles.

The women were given the soya oil via a procedure called Intralipid Infusion. It is according to the researcher easy to administer and easily tolerated.

The results found that this new therapy enabled 50% of the women to conceive properly with only 2 miscarriages. This contrasts sharply with just a 9% pregnancy rate and 8% miscarriage rate for those who didn’t have the treatment.

While these results will give many couples new hope, scientists have warned that the procedure is not suitable for everyone, particularly women who are Soya or egg intolerant or suffer allergic reactions.