Assisted reproductive technologies Infertility is the inability of a couple to have a baby There are many potential causes: Inability of the man to produce enough sperm An imbalance in the hormones of the woman Chemotherapy or other “hostile” medical treatments

Artificial insemination This can solve infertility if the issue is the sprem count in the male It is any process of collecting sperm from the male, possibly concentrating the sample to have a higher ratio of sperm to semen, then injecting it into the female This has been used for 200 years to breed farm animals like dairy cows

In Vitro Fertilization “in vitro” means in a glass. This is best known for creating “test tube babies” This can be used to solve issues that prevent the sperm and egg meeting (such as blocked fallopian tubes) Eggs are removed from the woman and mixed with sperm in a lab. The resultant fertilized embryos will then be implanted in the uterus of the woman

To increase the chances of at least one fertilized egg surviving, more than one will be implanted This can lead to multiple births To help the implanted egg grow the woman must take hormones

And record your own notes on the chances of success of IVF Now read pg 227 And record your own notes on the chances of success of IVF

Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer Similar to IVF in that eggs are removed from the woman and mixed with sperm in the lab Different from IVF because this mixture is immediatly injected into the fallopian tubes of the woman so fertilization occurs inside the woman

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection A sperm cell is injected directly into the egg The resulting zygote is then implanted into the woman About 25% of ICSI procedures result in birth

Now read pg 229 and make your own notes