Essay, Research Paper: In Vitro Fertilization

In Vitro Fertilization is the process in which
infertile women, or women with husbands that are infertile,
can have children.
Popularly known as "test tube" fertilization, In Vitro
Fertilization is Latin for "in glass" fertilization.
The first "test tube" baby was born in 1978. How was
this done? Well, I'll tell you the most scientific
explanation about this amazing method of artificial
insemination.
Four elements are necessary for In Vitro Fertilization
to take place. First, you must have ripe eggs from the women
to be fertilized. Second, You must have the man's sperm.
Next, a proper environment should be found to mix the egg
and the sperm to achieve fertilization. Finally, you must
also have an environment to support the development of the
embryo.
The first step in preparing a human egg for
fertilization in vitro is the collection of the
pre-ovulatory eggs. Physicians must obtain these eggs during
their final stages of maturation just before ovulation.
The actual retrieval of the eggs begins when the
surgeon administers to the woman a general anesthetic in
preparation for the recovery off the eggs. The physician
then makes a small incision in the woman's abdomen near the
navel, inserts a lapraoscope, and then guides it through the
abdominal cavity to the ovary. The laparoscope is a long,
thin fiberoptic tube approximately 0.33 inches in diameter.
It contains a light and an optical system that enables the
surgeon to see the ovaries. The surgeon then retrieves the
eggs.
There is also another way of doing this. It is called
transvaginal ultrasound-directed oocyte (egg) retrieval. In
this procedure, the eggs are obtained from the ovaries by
inserting a needle through the vaginal wall instead of
through the abdominal wall.
After collecting the egg from the women, you must get
the sperm from the man, this is done by the man performing
masturbation to produce semen. After that is done the
collected semen is washed in a liquid substance and spun in
a centrifuge to separate the sperm from the seminal fluid.
As much as the seminal fluid is to the sperm in certain
ways, it contains some fertilizing-inhibiting substances.
The next step brings together the reproductive cells
for the process of fertilization. A skilled technician
removes the eggs from the incubator that they had to be left
in for 1 hour, and places one in a petri dish in a small
droplet of media. They then administer a few drops of the
highly concentrated sperm onto the egg. The eggs and the
sperm are then placed in an incubator for 24 hours, if all
goes well, fertilization will occur.
If that method doesn't work, there is another way. The
sperm can be placed directly into the egg with a very fine
needle by micro-injection, this will then provide a better
chance for fertilization if the other method fails.
Shortly after fertilization, the embryo is placed in
another environment that is prepared specifically to support
embryonic development. At this time the physician will
insert the embryo into the woman's uterus.
Two days after fertilization, the fertilized egg has
developed into and embryo of at least two to eight cells
called the blastocyst. At this stage the physician assumes
that the embryo is ready for the introduction into the
uterus of the mother. The physician instructs the woman to
assume a position, then the physician draws the embryo into
a long catheter (a small tube). The doctor then introduces
the catheter through a larger tube previously inserted into
the uterus through the vagina and then flushes the embryo
into the uterus. The women slowly lowers herself into a
lying position, making sure not to shift suddenly, which
might lower the chance for implantation. She lies flat on
her stomach for four hours before she is allowed to resume
normal activity. Obviously you have to be very careful and
serious when going through this procedure.
If and when the fertilization was a success the embryo
will grow and develop just as if the egg was fertilized
naturally.
Many externally fertilized eggs fail to implant when
inserted in the uterus, several variations on IVF have been
developed.
For example, with Gamete Intra Fallopian Transfer
(GIFT), unfertilized eggs and sperm are mixed and inserted
into the oviduct (fallopian tube). This procedure by passes
a mechanical blockage in the upper oviduct while permitting
fertilization and implantation to proceed naturally.
The In Vitro Fertilization technique has become so
popular that there are more than 100 clinics in the United
States and, according to a new estimate, a new IVF baby is
born every day somewhere in the world. It may seem that In
Vitro Fertilization is a very successful way of
reproduction, but as a matter of fact it is not. Only twenty
percent of IVF fertilizations result in a birth of a child.
Some couples spend thousands of dollars on IVF only to be
disappointed.
Until doctors and physicians research and find
something more effective and successful, women will have to
wait for their chance to have a child, but with a little
hope and a little help from In Vitro Fertilization, it may
raise infertile women's chances of having a baby.