IVF..IN VITRO FERTILIZATION

In vitro fertilisation

"IVF" and "Test tube baby" redirect here. For other uses, see IVF (disambiguation) and Test tube baby (disambiguation).

In vitro fertilisation
Intervention
Illustrated schematic of IVF with intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
	WRITTEN BY COMR. Thankgod williams...BSC, mbbs,

In vitro fertilisation (or fertilization; IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a liquid in a laboratory. The fertilised egg (zygote) is cultured for 2–6 days in a growth medium and is then transferred to the same or another woman's uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.

1. IVF is a type of assisted reproductive technology used for infertility treatment and gestational surrogacy, in which a fertilized egg is implanted into a surrogate's uterus, and the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate. Some countries ban or otherwise regulate the availability of IVF treatment, giving rise to fertility tourism. Restrictions on availability of IVF include costs and age to carry a healthy pregnancy to term. IVF is mostly attempted if
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   less invasive or expensive options have failed or are unlikely to work.
2. The first successful birth of a "test tube baby", Louise Brown, occurred in 1978. Louise Brown was born as a result of natural cycle IVF where no stimulation was made. Robert G. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010, the physiologist who co-developed the treatment together with Patrick Steptoe; Steptoe was not eligible for consideration as the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously. With egg donation and IVF, women who are past their reproductive years or have reached menopause can still become pregnant. Adriana Iliescu held the record as the oldest woman to give birth using IVF and donated egg, when she gave birth in 2004 at the age of 66, a record passed in 2006. After the IVF treatment many couples are able to get pregnant without any fertility treatments. In 2012 it was estimated that five million children had been born worldwide using IVF and other assisted reproduction techniques.

Medical usesEdit

IVF may be used to overcome female infertility where it is due to problems with the fallopian tubes, making fertilisation in vivo difficult. It can also assist in male infertility, in those cases where there is a defect in sperm quality; in such situations intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be used, where a sperm cell is injected directly into the egg cell. This is used when sperm has difficulty penetrating the egg, and in these cases the partner's or a donor's sperm may be used. ICSI is also used when sperm numbers are very low. When indicated, the use of ICSI has been found to increase the success rates of IVF.

According to the British NICE guidelines, IVF treatment is appropriate in cases of unexplained infertility for women that have not conceived after 2 years of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.This rule does not apply to all countries. (See infertility.)

IVF is also considered suitable in cases where any of its expansions is of interest, that is, a procedure that is usually not necessary for the IVF procedure itself, but would be virtually impossible or technically difficult to perform without concomitantly performing methods of IVF. Such expansions include preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to rule out presence of genetic disorders, as well as egg donation or surrogacy where the woman providing the egg isn't the same who will carry the pregnancy to term. Further details in the Expansions-section below.