The Science of Making Babies

Having a baby may seem as easy as eating a cake but not for everyone. Around 15% of couples now have trouble conceiving and many of them turn to In-Vitro-Fertilization.

The process is done in conjunction with ovulation induction through drugs, monitoring of hormonal levels and follicle scans with ultrasound. IVF is done for many reasons.

The WHO estimates that 8 to 10 % of couples experience some form of fertility problem.This translates into more than 80 million of the humanity suffering from infertility.

.

The reason IVF is done include -poor sperm quality / quantity, obstructions between the egg and sperm, ovulation problems, and sperm-egg interaction problems.

There are several different techniques used, but the basic modus operandi involves taking fertility drugs to stimulate egg production. The eggs are then harvested - fertilized in a lab and placed in the womb after three to five days.

IVF involves surgical procedures for collecting of egg, togather with pharmaceutical hormones. ICSI ( Intracytoplasmic sperm injection ) is a recent innovation where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.

Invitro fertilization (IVF) and the other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) represent the top of the high-tech mountain of infertility treatments, so naturally, you may be a bit nervous about moving into an invasive, expensive, no-guarantees treatment. The good news is that high-tech fertility
has come a long way and is no longer a shot in the dark. Pregnancy rates can approach or even exceed 50 percent per attempt in good prognosis situations, and even if you are not under 35, IVF still represents your best chance for fertility even if all simple treatments have already failed.

The term in vitro fertilization means fertilization (the joining of egg and sperm) that occurs in the laboratory; that’s where the term “test tube baby” comes from. Before you get to the fertilization point, you have to make eggs with the help of stimulating medications called gonadotropins and retrieve
them from the follicles they grow in during an egg retrieval procedure. Twenty years ago only a handful of clinics performed IVF. Now more than 400 clinics offer this service (just in the U.S. and Canada, never mind the hundreds of clinics around the world), and IVF has become a big (and lucrative) business.