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Services provided at Monash IVF |
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In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)In vitro fertilisation is the scientific name given to the process with is used to conceive a child outside the body.
Babies born as a result of IVF are often referred to as "test tube babies". "In vitro" is Latin for "in glass". A woman's egg and her partner's sperm are placed together in a plastic dish in the hope that fertilisation will occur. Plastic dishes are now used rather than glass dishes.
Conception outside the uterus is often the only means of achieving a pregnancy for women whose fallopian tubes are blocked. Normally, an egg (oocyte) is produced by one of the two ovaries once a month. It passes down the fallopian tube where it will be fertilised by sperm from the woman's partner if sexual intercourse has recently taken place.
The fertilisation of an egg by a sperm is termed "conception" and the fertilised egg is called a zygote or pre-implantation embryo. This zygote passes along the fallopian tube and into the women's uterus where it will usually implant within a few days.
In the early days of IVF it was much easier for the media to use the word "embryo" rather than zygote or pre-implantation embryo. The media still prefer to use "embryo" even though this is technically incorrect. A zygote becomes an embryo when it implants in the uterus between day 7 to day 14. However, for this paper, both embryo and pre-embryo have been interchanged.
If a women is infertile (unable to become pregnant) because of diseased or damaged fallopian tubes, her egg cannot be fertilised in the usual way. It is estimated that 1/3 of this infertility is a female problem, 1/3 a male factor problem and 1/3 where there are both male and female problems.
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