Assisted Reproductive Technologies

OverviewInfertility: inability of a couple to have a baby

Caused by low sperm, lack of hormones, disease, some medical treatment (ex. chemo)

Assisted reproduction technologies: most involve removing woman’s eggs, fertilizing them, then returning embryos to uterus

Uterus: female organ where an embryo (which becomes a fetus) develops and is nourished

Artificial Insemination (AI)Collects sperm from a male and injects it

into a female used for over 200

years, especially on farms (ex. dairy cattle)

Donor sperm may be used if the male’s isn’t healthy

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)Used to treat specific fertility problems Means ‘in glass’ egg is fertilized in a petri

dish Common issue: something is blocking the

sperm and egg from meeting IVF takes eggs from woman and sperm

from man and combines them Placed back in uterus after 2-4 days Goal is to have one of the fertilized

embryos implanted

Woman will receive powerful hormone treatment to increase # of eggs she produces

Success rate: 1 out of 3 couples Age of woman is a factor

Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT)Egg cells removed from ovaries and

combined with sperm cells, creating a mixture

Mixture placed in fallopian tubes so fertilization takes place in body

Differs from IVF because embryo is NOT produced outside of body

Intracytoplasmic Sperm InjectionA specialized procedure - single sperm

cell is injected into egg cell Zygote inserted into the woman’s uterus Used when the male has

severe fertility problems or when in vitro has been unsuccessful

About 25% result in births

Impact of Reproductive Technologies on Society

Reproductive technologies help couples that would otherwise be infertile have children.

However, there are concerns and questions being raised over these practices...

Some evidence that conception by IVF may cause a slightly higher number of birth defects

What to do with embryos that are left over in IVF processExtra embryos can be frozen then used for

stem cell and gene therapy research

Is it fair to keep identity of father a secret if it was an anonymous sperm donor?

Surrogacy – giving birth to a child that someone else will raise What if people change their minds?