In Vitro Fertilization History: IVFLA Fertility

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HISTORY OF IN VITRO FERTILIZATION (IVF)
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IVF HISTORY

• In vitro fertilisation (IVF), which means
  fertilisation outside the womb, was first started
  in the 1970s by scientist Robert Edwards and
  gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe.
• The first attempt at IVF on mammalian eggs was
  performed by Viennese embryologist Samuel Leopold
  Schenk in 1878.
• 1973 The first IVF pregnancy was reported by the
  Monash research team of Professors Carl Wood and
  John Leeton in Melbourne, Australia.
  Unfortunately, this resulted in early miscarriage
  (dDe Kretzer D, Dennis P, Hudson B, Leeton J,
  Lopata A, Outch K, Talbot J, Wood C. Transfer of
  a human zygote. Lancet, 1973 292728-9).

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• On 25th July 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the worlds
  first baby to be conceived via in vitro
  fertilization (IVF).
• First test tube baby was born at Oldham and
  District General Hospital in Manchester, England,
  to parents Lesley and Peter Brown.

• By 1980, the first American IVF clinic was
  opened, and a new age of fertility treatment had
  truly begun.

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• Todays Advanced Treatments
• Egg donation
• 1980s The next major IVF breakthrough came in
  1987, when the use of donor eggs became publicly
  available.
• The first successful egg donation pregnancies
  occurred in 1983, and since then there have been
  more than 50,000 live births from donor ova.
• Frozen Sperm, Eggs, and Embryos
• 1950s 1990s Cryopreservation, or the freezing
  of sperm, eggs and embryos, plays a huge role in
  IVF.
• Sperm was first frozen in 1953.
• The first successful pregnancy using previously
  frozen eggs was reported in 1984.
• The first live birth using a previously frozen
  embryo occurred in 1999.

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• Single Embryo Transfers
• 1990s In the late 1990s, increased understanding
  of the nutritional needs of developing embryos
  made it possible to culture them to the
  blastocyst stage typically, five to six days
  after fertilization.
• A blastocyst is much more advanced than a
  three-day embryo, much easier to screen for
  genetic health, and much more likely to implant
  after transfer.
• ICSI
• 1980s 1990s Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection
  (ICSI) is a procedure where an embryologist
  physically injects the sperm into an egg.
• ICSI was first performed in 1987, and the first
  successful birth resulting from ICSI occurred in
  1992.

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• PGS and PGD
• 1990s Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS)
  and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) are
  used to ensure the genetic health of embryos
  before they are transferred.
• The first report of the genetic testing of
  embryos was published in 1990, but the technology
  has continued to improve drastically in the years
  since that early success.
• Assisted hatching
• Embryos from patients with poor prognosis may
  lack the energy to hatch on their own, so
  assisted hatching may increase their chances of
  implantation and pregnancy. In the assisted
  hatching procedure, an embryologist very
  carefully makes a tiny hole in the zona pellucida
  before transfer.

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