How does music improve the chances of IVF success?

A fertility clinic in Spain invited Irish musician Sharon Corr to play for a room full of developing embryos, so the chances of success can be improved. 

The doctors claimed that subjecting embryos to different kinds of music during the fertilization process can boost their development and improve the chances of IVF success by 5 percent.

Sharon Corr, who was astounded at this revelation, was also quite touched by this opportunity and called it an “emotional experience”. 

“It’s great to think that we could possibly be a part of the future and we could make a change. It’s just beautiful to make music,” she said. “I’m so amazed at the whole process and how it works and yet I’m not surprised that music really helps the embryos to form because music is the greatest therapy in the world.”

This research was also published in a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of ESHRE.

From what I understood, the music itself is not “improving fertility” in a magical way. The interesting part is the vibration created by sound waves inside the incubator where embryos are kept during IVF.

The clinic mentioned that when music was played near the incubators, the tiny vibrations helped keep the culture media moving slightly instead of remaining completely still. That movement may help nutrients circulate around the embryos more effectively and could also help remove metabolic waste more efficiently. In natural conception, embryos inside the body are not sitting in a perfectly motionless environment either, so this was their attempt to recreate a more dynamic setting in the lab.

What I found especially interesting was that they tested multiple music genres including classical, pop, and rock. The results were apparently similar regardless of genre, which suggests the benefit was linked more to vibration and movement than to the emotional effect of a specific type of music.

The reported fertilization rates were also noticeably higher in the embryos exposed to music compared to the control group. I think the article mentioned around a 5% improvement, which may not sound huge at first, but in IVF even small percentage increases can matter a lot emotionally and financially for couples going through treatment.

At the same time, it did not sound like researchers were claiming music alone can dramatically increase IVF success rates. It seemed more like one small environmental factor that could potentially support embryo development inside the lab. IVF outcomes still depend on many bigger factors like egg quality, sperm quality, embryo health, maternal age, and the overall treatment protocol.

Still, I think it’s fascinating because it shows how detailed fertility science has become. Clinics are now studying even tiny environmental conditions inside incubators to see whether they influence embryo development.