It was on July 25, 1978 when the first baby conceived through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) was born in Great Britain. Her name is Louise Joy Brown. She is one of the many babies born to this date through IVF.
IVF is the fertilization method of manually joining an egg and sperm in a laboratory. IVF is a procedure designed for couples who have been unsuccessful with other fertility treatments. Lots of people think of IVF when they think of infertility treatment. As a result, many believe that IVF is the only treatment option for those experiencing fertility problems. Contrary to this belief, less than 2% of couples seek IVF after they have tried other methods.
How is IVF done?
IVF requires several mature eggs harvested for the procedure. In order to stimulate the production of several eggs, a woman may be given fertility drugs.
There are two procedures used to extract perfectly mature eggs from the woman’s ovaries through: transvaginal and laparoscopy. Timing is everything in the IVF process as immature or overmature eggs cannot be fertilized.
The harvested eggs are then mixed with the sperm in a laboratory dish or test tube (thus the term test tube baby) for fertilization. Once there is evidence of fertilization, the embryo transfer process follows. The fertilized egg is transferred to the woman’s uterus for the succeeding stages of pregnancy. It usually take four to six weeks from the ovulation stimulation to the embryo transfer to complete.
Issues
Pro-life advocates have raised several issues against IVF. Some of these issues are 1) unused fertilized ova are considered “newly developing human beings”; 2) babies conceived by IVF have a 1 in 10 risk of birth defects, twice the risk of babies born naturally; 3) multiple pregnancies result to pregnancy reduction where one or more embryos are supposedly killed in order to give a healthier chance for the one baby; 4) thawed ova have the risk of too few or too many chromosomes.
On a more personal level, the lesser issue a couple has to face is the fact that IVF is not cheap technology. One cycle of IVF ranges between $10,000 to $17,000. Although most IVF cases are reportedly successful on the first attempt, a couple should discuss and decide how much they are willing to spend and how far are they willing to go in terms of the cost.
