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"In vitro" is Latin for "in glass", referring to the test tubes.
The technique was developed in the United Kingdom by Doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards. The first so-called "test-tube baby", Louise Brown, was born as a result on July 25, 1978 amid intense controversy over the safety and morality of the procedure.
The first in-vitro fertilization (to produce test tube baby "Durga") in India (and second in the world) was performed by a Calcutta based doctor Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay on October 3, 1978.
The first successful IVF treatment in the USA (producing Elizabeth Carr) took place in 1981. Since then IVF has exploded in popularity, with as many as 1% of all births now being conceived in-vitro, with over 115,000 born in the USA to date. In brief, the process involves removing ova (eggs) from the woman's body and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium. The fertilised eggs are then transferred to the mother's uterus where normal development occurs. IVF is used commonly when the father's sperm count is low or the mother's fallopian tubeThe Fallopian tubes or oviducts are two very fine tubes leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus. They are named after their discoverer, the 16th century Italian anatomist, Gabriele Falloppio. There are two Fallopian tubes, attached to es are blocked.
The eggs can be retrieved from the mother using the more common sonographic technique involving an ultra-sound guided needle piercing the vagina. The follicleIn botany, a follicle is a type of simple dry fruit produced by certain flowering plants. It is regarded as one the most primitive types of fruits, and derives from a simple pistil or carpel (see flower). At maturity, the follicle dehisces (splits open) as of the woman are punctured and the woman's follicular fluid is removed and placed in an incubator. Laproscopic egg recovery involves retrieval through an incision in the abdomenThe abdomen (from the Latin word meaning "belly") is the part of the body between the pelvis and the thorax. The front of the abdomen is the abdominal cavity, which is separated from the thoracic cavity by the diaphragm. The lining of the abdomen is calle. This is used in women who also require a simultaneous assessment of their pelvic anatomyAnatomy (from the Greek anatome from ana-temnein to cut up), is the branch of biology that deals with the structure and organization of living things; thus there is animal anatomy ( zootomy) and plant anatomy ( phytonomy). The major branches of anatomy in through a diagnostic laparoscopy.
SemenSemen or ejaculate is the fluid discharged from the penis during ejaculation, usually at the time of orgasm. Like blood, semen consists of two compartments, the cellular compartment spermatozoa , and noncellular compartment seminal plasma . Thus, it conta is also taken from the husband. It can be analysed using 'sperm penetration assays', where some sperm is checked to see whether it can puncture a zone-stripped hamstersee text A hamster is a rodent belonging to subfamily Cricetinae . The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genera. Most have expandable cheek pouches, which reach from their cheeks to their shoulders. Species of hamsters The be egg. The sperm can also be cultured to detect bacteria which can reduce the chances of pregnancy.The sperm and the egg are incubated together (at a ratio of about 75,000:1) in the culture media for about 18 hours. The eggs and sperm should fertilise in the usual way in this media (see fertilisation), but if this is not possible, assisted fertilisation techniques -- such as injecting the sperm directly into the egg using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) techniques (see below) -- may be used. They are then passed to a special growth medium and left for 40 hours until the eggs have become pre-embryos.
The fertilised eggs are transferred to the woman's uterus through a thin, plastic catheter, which passes through her vagina and cervical canal. Often, multiple embryos are passed in to the uterus to improve chances of successful pregnancy. If this procedure is unsuccessful, the mother has to be given one month for recovery before the IVF egg-extraction procedure is repeated. This may be avoided by freezing embryos in liquid nitrogen when they are fertilised, and transferring them during the natural ovulation cycle again.
The mother has to wait two weeks before she returns to the clinic for the pregnancy test. During this time she can boost the chances of pregnancy by continuing to take progesterone - which keeps the uterus lining thickened and suitable for implantation to occur. The chances of a successful pregnancy is approximately 20 per cent for each IVF cycle.