The whole truth about IVF
Infertile couples (couples who can't get pregnant for a year) are a problem in modern society. This is primarily due to an increase in the number of cases of male infertility. If such a problem has arisen-you need to try to fix the problem in a man or woman, and if it does not work, then there is the last chance-in vitro fertilization or IVF. What is it? Let's get this straight.
IVF technology turns 57 this year. In 1958, British scientist Robert Edwards, along with Patrick Steptoe, began work to try to fertilize human eggs outside the body. On July 25, 1978, the first "test tube girl", Louise Brown, was born in the UK. By the way, to this day, everything is fine with her, Louise became a mother herself, having given birth to a healthy child.
Alas, only one of the creators of the extracorporeal method lived for a very long time – and in 2010, in the ninth decade of his life, Robert Edwards managed to wait for the highest award in science, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Steptoe was dead by then.
How does IVF work?
First, you need a preliminary stage-this is a survey of both men and women, in order to understand all the subtleties of their problem and to anticipate all the difficulties of the upcoming manipulations.
Then hormonal stimulation of the ovaries of a woman is performed, as a result of which superovulation occurs – the formation of a large number of eggs at once (usually one). This is done by different methods, which one to choose, the doctor decides in each case. After that, the in vitro fertilization procedure itself begins.
First, on the same day, there is the selection of sperm from a man, the collection of eggs from a woman and self-in vitro fertilization. How does it happen? If a man's sperm is active, then just mix the sperm and eggs on a culture plate. If the problem is a low activity of spermatozoa, then resort to the method of ICSI-intracytoplasmic injection of spermatozoa, when the selected spermatozoa are injected manually into the egg under a microscope.
As soon as the sperm enters the egg, it ceases to be an egg and begins to be called an embryo.
A new stage of IVF – embryological begins.
During this stage, artificial embryo cultivation is carried out.
And the last stage is the return of the embryos to the uterus. It is absolutely safe and painless. Order 67 of the Russian Ministry of Health recommends that no more than three embryos be transferred to the uterus during one IVF procedure in order to avoid multiple pregnancies.
It takes another two weeks – and you can draw conclusions about the success of IVF. Usually, about 30-40 percent of fertilizations are possible from the first time.
