Assisted reproductive technologies

Infertility is the inability of a couple to have a baby

There are many potential causes: Inability of the man to produce enough

sperm An imbalance in the hormones of the

woman Chemotherapy or other “hostile” medical

treatments

Artificial insemination

This can solve infertility if the issue is the sprem count in the male

It is any process of collecting sperm from the male, possibly concentrating the sample to have a higher ratio of sperm to semen, then injecting it into the female

This has been used for 200 years to breed farm animals like dairy cows

In Vitro Fertilization “in vitro” means in a glass. This is best known for creating “test tube

babies” This can be used to solve issues that

prevent the sperm and egg meeting (such as blocked fallopian tubes)

Eggs are removed from the woman and mixed with sperm in a lab. The resultant fertilized embryos will then be implanted in the uterus of the woman

To increase the chances of at least one fertilized egg surviving, more than one will be implanted

This can lead to multiple births

To help the implanted egg grow the woman must take hormones

Now read pg 227And record your own notes on the chances of

success of IVF

Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer

Similar to IVF in that eggs are removed from the woman and mixed with sperm in the lab

Different from IVF because this mixture is immediatly injected into the fallopian tubes of the woman so fertilization occurs inside the woman

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

A sperm cell is injected directly into the egg

The resulting zygote is then implanted into the woman

About 25% of ICSI procedures result in birth

Now read pg 229 and make your own notes