Issues: Infertility

In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)

Sometimes children conceived by IVF are called 'Test-tube babies'.

This is when an ovum (egg) is withdrawn from the woman and fertilised with a man's semen outside of the body, under laboratory conditions. If it works, the embryo is placed back in the woman when it is at the 8 celled stage where it is hoped that a natural pregnancy will occur. IVF is a very expensive procedure with a relatively low success rate for each attempt.

The first 'test tube baby' was born in the UK in 1978 and many couples who otherwise would not have had children have been able to conceive this way. It can help where the woman has blocked fallopian tubes and produces eggs but they cannot get through to the uterus.

The woman is usually given hormones to make her produce more ova than is naturally expected so that there is a greater chance of having one or two viable embryos.

Any spare embryos are frozen for use at a later date if this attempt fails.

Donor sperm can be used or the male partner's sperm.

If the woman does produce eggs (ovulate) or carries a genetic condition that would be passed on to a potential child, eggs donated from another woman can be used. It is possible to do IVF with donor eggs and donor sperm.