IN VITRO FERTILIZATION – WHEN, WHO AND WHY?
When Louise Brown, the first baby from in vitro fertilization, was born 43 years ago, it was obvious that this method will be a revolution, although Dr Edwards received a Nobel Prize for this endeavour after many years (in 2010). Luisa Brown was born on July 25, 1978 by parents that waited for a baby for nine years.
In the meantime, after 43 years, over 8 million babies were born as a result of in vitro fertilization and this method gave hope to many couples that would otherwise be childless.
This was a real revolution in the field of IVF and infertility treatment. However, the entire process of in vitro fertilization and the birth of Louise Brown was also followed by many inconveniences. What we now know is that many couples would never become parents if it weren’t for this procedure.
Today, after 43 years, there are still some prejudices regarding infertility treatments. it is still difficult for people to decide to ask for professional help, they tend to wait for too long, are treated by shamans and charlatans and it is still believed in some circles that the baby born through in vitro procedure is artificial – there are still a lot of myths related to this procedure. We are still not educated enough.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) implies taking an egg from the woman’s body, fertilizing it in the laboratory and returning a fertilized egg (i.e., an embryo) into the womb few days after fertilization.
The method is very complicated and it requires special conditions, a special laboratory and equipment as well as a well-trained team consisting of a gynaecologist, an embryologist, a geneticist, a microbiologist, nurses etc. Therefore, this method is very expensive.
Due to updated and modern equipment, in vitro fertilization is getting more and more effective but still not 100% (from 22% to 40% of completed pregnancies per attempt). The problem of sterility in men has also been resolved since micro fertilization method is implemented in 1992 (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection – ICSI).
In our country, it is possible to do the IVF at the expense of the Republic Health Insurance Fund under certain conditions.
