\nMost babies are conceived by a sperm fertilising an egg, and the foetus growing inside the mother’s uterus. But sometimes this is not possible; one or both parents might have fertility problems For lots of different reasons, some parents...\nMost babies are conceived by a sperm fertilising an egg, and the foetus growing inside the mother’s uterus. But sometimes this is not possible; one or both parents might have fertility problems For lots of different reasons, some parents are unable to have children. In fact, there are 5 million children worldwide born to parents who either couldn't, or had difficulty producing babies.One way of helping with infertility problems is through IVF, and has been in use since 1978. IVF stands for In Vito Fertilization. This sounds complicated.But don’t panic, by the end of this video you will know all about how IVF works! IVF can be used when natural fertilization inside the body cannot occur. This is often due to the reproductive parts of the mother or the father not working properly. In IVF, an egg is removed from a woman. Outside of the body, sperm is introduced to the egg and fertilizes it. The fertilized egg develops to form an embryo, and the embryo is then returned to a woman’s uterus, where the fetus then develops in the uterus ‘as normal’. The wonderful thing about IVF is that it can overcome a multitude of fertility problems. if a woman has problems with her eggs, then donor eggs can be used.Or if the male’s sperm are the problem, then donor sperm can be used.Or maybe the sperm and eggs are both healthy and compatible, but the woman’s uterus is inhospitable. Then a surrogate mother can be used but with the mother’s eggs and the father’s sperm. So let’s look at the IVF process in a little more detail. The first step is called down-regulation. Drugs are used to ‘turn off’ a woman’s ovaries, by suppressing the production of the hormones FSH and LH. We learnt about FSH and LH in ‘the menstrual cycle’ video which you may want to watch to remember how they work. In brief, FSH and LH are the hormones that trigger egg development and ovulation during a woman’s monthly cycle. Turning FSH and LH off suppresses the woman’s natural menstrual cycle, making the next stages of treatment more effective. This happens for about 2 weeks. The next step is to boost egg supply. This time, lots of follicle stimulating hormone - FSH - is injected for about 10 to 12 days. FSH increases the number of eggs your ovaries produce. This means that there will be more eggs available to be collected and fertilised in the treatment. More eggs increases the chances of success.Once enough eggs have been produced, another hormone called HCG is injected. This causes the eggs to mature so that they are ready to be released from the ovaries.The woman is sedated and a very small pipette is used to remove the eggs from the woman.The eggs are outside the body and ready for fertilisation. With the eggs removed, the woman is now given progesterone hormones to prepare the lining of the uterus to receive the embryo.Now up steps the man! Sperm are collected into a petri dish, where they are processed and the healthiest ones are kept. Healthy sperm have the highest chance of survival and are most likely to fertilise the eggs. The egg and sperm are then mixed together in the petri dish, and left to fertilise for about 20 hours.If the fertilisation happens, the embryos are kept in a warm place set at human body temperature to replicate the mother’s uterus. They stay here for up to 6 days to ensure they are starting to develop into embryos.\n
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