2. Development Review
What are the stages of development? (Did you come up with a good mnemonic?!)
Gametes, zygote, 2-cell stage, 4-cell stage, 8-cell stage, morula, blastula, gastrula, fetus, baby, adult

3. Assisted Reproductive Technologies

4. Infertility The inability of a couple to have a baby
About 15% of couples in North America are infertile
Reasons include: low sperm count, low hormone levels, certain diseases
Can sometimes be corrected through medical treatment
In many situations, the couple must try assisted reproductive technologies

5. Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Procedures that help infertile couples have children
Types:
Artificial insemination
In vitro fertilization
Gamete intrafallopian transfer
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection

6. Artificial Insemination
Procedure: sperm is collected from a male and injected into a female
Has been used for farm animals for 200+ years
Why would farmers want to use this technique?
To produce offspring with optimal characteristics
like larger animals used for meat, or cows that produce more milk, etc.
This technique can also be used in humans
Sperm donors can be used when there is a problem with the man’s sperm cells

7. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
Procedure: Egg and sperm cells are removed and egg cells are fertilized in petri dish. Zygotes develop into embryos and are planted into woman’s uterus
The woman is given lots of hormones so she produces more eggs which can give her nausea, dizziness and headaches
Since more than one embryo is placed in uterus, the chance of multiple births increases

9. In Vitro Fertilization
The success rate of IVF:
The first IVF baby to be born in the world was Louise Brown of England in 1978, and in Canada was Robbie Reid in 1983
Since 1978, more than 8 million babies have been born by IVF worldwide
Age of Woman
Success Rate
Up to 35
40%
Up to 39
20%
Up to 43
10%

11. Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT)
Procedure: Egg cells are removed from a woman’s ovaries and combined with sperm cells to make a “mixture” of eggs and sperm. The mixture is immediately injected into the woman’s fallopian tubes.
How is this different from IVF?
This differs from IVF because embryo is not produced outside of woman’s body

12. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
Procedure: A single sperm cell is injected into an egg cell. The resulting zygote is then inserted into the uterus of the woman
About 25% of ICSI procedures result in a birth
How is this different from IVF?
The zygote is implanted instead of an embryo

13. Ethical Issues
What should happen to leftover embryos from the IVF process?
Could be used for stem cell and gene therapy research but is it wrong to use an embryo which could develop into a human for such purposes?
Is it wrong to discard embryos?
Who owns these embryos?
What about the unknown identity of sperm donors… is it fair to keep a child’s father secret?

14. Task Create a brochure for a reproductive health clinic
(it can definitely be fictional – be creative!)
The brochure should summarize the different types of assisted reproductive technologies (4 total)
Also have a page introducing your clinic and/or discussing infertility (with statistics)
Include info about how each technology works and other necessary info (i.e. success rate, what type of cases it works on, etc.)
Info can be found in notes and p in text