PGT-P is not lawful in the UK, is not supported by evidence, and may reduce the chances of having a baby overall

Although PGT-P is marketed and offered in the US, expert medical opinion is that it is unproven technology that should not be used. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) concluded in January 2026 that:

• PGT-P is a nascent and unproven technology that should not be used clinically at this time.
• Current evidence does not support the predictive accuracy, safety, or clinical value of polygenic embryo screening.
• The technology risks misleading patients by overstating what polygenic risk scores can reliably determine.
• PGT-P raises significant ethical issues, including concerns about equity, autonomy, disease prioritization, and the potential for biased or incomplete risk assessments.
• Any use of PGT-P should occur only in research settings under Institutional Review Board oversight until scientific, clinical, ethical, and societal concerns are addressed.

The ASRM position reflects where we are in the UK. The HFEA Authority (the Board) confirmed in September 2025 that PGT-P is not lawful in the UK and our Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee Advisory Committee (SCAAC) concluded in June 2024 that the technology is not sufficiently advanced for application in embryo testing.

PGT-P may play a role in researching the genetic contributors to miscarriage and implantation failure, but there is no evidence to support the clinical use of PGT-P in selecting embryos for the purposes of either increasing the chances of having a baby or of better health outcomes for that child.

PGT-P is not lawful in the UK

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) prohibits embryo testing except for one or more of the purposes expressly permitted in paragraph 1ZA(1) of Schedule 2 of the Act. PGT-P does not fit within any of these permitted purposes and is therefore unlawful.

Testing for a serious condition is only permitted where there is a ‘particular risk’ of that condition. This occurs where the patients or their family are known to be carriers of a serious, heritable condition. Conditions that are claimed to be identifiable using PGT-P would not meet the legal requirement for there to be a significant risk that the child will develop a serious condition.

There is no robust evidence that PGT-P works

The polygenic risk scores used in PGT-P claim to estimate whether a person has a higher genetic risk compared with others in the general population of developing certain diseases. SCAAC noted in June 2024, that the actual risk of developing these diseases is likely to be small in most cases, and there is no greater risk from the outset of developing any conditions claimed to be measurable by PGT-P. SCAAC also agreed that PGT-P is often claimed to predict susceptibility to late onset diseases, such as cancer or diabetes, for which the clinical treatment may progress in future.

SCAAC further agreed that screening embryos using PGT-P is likely to reduce the number of embryos available for transfer, thereby reducing the chances of having a healthy baby overall. This is because embryos that would have been healthy at birth may be excluded, or worse discarded, due to a perceived yet unproven increased risk of disease which may never develop.

Taken together, SCAAC concluded that the technology is not sufficiently advanced for application in embryo testing. Healthy lifestyle choices are likely to have a bigger impact on preventing disease than relying on polygenic risk scores.

There is no legal requirement to disclose genetic information to patients

The methods (e.g. genome sequencing) for obtaining genetic information are not defined within the Act, but the information from embryo testing that can be acted upon are. The law permits embryo testing for specified purposes only.

Patients do not automatically have a right to the embryo’s full sequence of raw genetic data under UK’s data protection laws. Data about an embryo that cannot lawfully be used to make treatment decisions in the UK is not regarded as the patient’s personal data. This means data protection laws do not give patients a right to access it.

Embryos cannot be selected for transfer based on PGT-P results

Similarly, embryos can only be selected for transfer based on information from testing that meets a specified purpose in law. As set out in HFEA licence condition T88: ‘With respect to any embryo testing programme involving biopsy, the centre must ensure that: a) no embryo is transferred to a woman where that embryo or any material removed from it or from the gametes that produced it, has been subject to a test that supplies genetic information about the embryo, unless the test has been expressly authorised by the Authority’.

The prohibition on performing PGT-P in the UK cannot therefore be circumnavigated by having the analysis carried out in another jurisdiction and then using the results to select embryos. If a UK based clinician acts on a patient’s preference which is based on PGT-P results, then they would be acting unlawfully and would be subjected to regulatory action.

Should the law in the UK be changed?

The Act has been revised over time, but the HFEA has argued in recent years that aspects of the Act are outdated, and we have put forward proposals for change. The current law on embryo testing was developed and passed after careful consideration by a joint committee of both the House of Commons and House of Lords. Any consideration of embryo testing more broadly - given that the technology, as well as societal norms, have moved on since 2008 - would need similar parliamentary consideration.

Whether the public or Parliament think the ethical and technical issues raised by PGT-P requires a change in the law is for the future. As things stand, PGT-P is not legal in the UK and there is no convincing evidence that it works.

About the author

Peter became our Chief Executive in April 2012 after three years as Director of Strategy and Information. He is responsible for our overall performance and is focussed on our vision of ensuring high quality care for everyone affected by assisted reproduction.