

Depending on the type of calculation used, this outcome may represent the number of confirmed pregnancies, called the pregnancy rate, or the number of live births, called the live birth rate. IVF success rates are the percentage of all IVF procedures that result in favourable outcomes. In women with anovulation, it may be an alternative after 7–12 attempted cycles of ovulation induction, since the latter is expensive and more easy to control. When indicated, the use of ICSI has been found to increase the success rates of IVF.Īccording to UK's NICE guidelines, IVF treatment is appropriate in cases of unexplained infertility for women who have not conceived after 2 years of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. ICSI is also used when sperm numbers are very low. In these cases the partner's or a donor's sperm may be used. This is used when sperm has difficulty penetrating the egg. It can also assist in male infertility, in those cases where there is a defect in sperm quality in such situations intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be used, where a sperm cell is injected directly into the egg cell. IVF may be used to overcome female infertility when it is due to problems with the fallopian tubes, making in vivo fertilisation difficult. In a broader sense, IVF is a form of assisted reproductive technology (ART). However, IVF is usually performed in Petri dishes, which are both wider and shallower and often used to cultivate cultures.

Today, the scientific term "in vitro" is used to refer to any biological procedure that is performed outside the organism in which it would normally have occurred, to distinguish it from an in vivo procedure (such as in vivo fertilisation), where the tissue remains inside the living organism in which it is normally found.Ī colloquial term for babies conceived as the result of IVF, "test tube babies", refers to the tube-shaped containers of glass or plastic resin, called test tubes, that are commonly used in chemistry and biology labs. The Latin term in vitro, meaning "in glass", is used because early biological experiments involving cultivation of tissues outside the living organism were carried out in glass containers, such as beakers, test tubes, or Petri dishes.

Some countries have banned or otherwise regulate the availability of IVF treatment, giving rise to fertility tourism. A fertilised egg from a donor may implant into a surrogate's uterus, and the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate. IVF is a type of assisted reproductive technology used for infertility treatment and gestational surrogacy. After the fertilised egg ( zygote) undergoes embryo culture for 2–6 days, it is transferred by catheter into the uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy. The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from her ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a culture medium in a laboratory. In vitro fertilisation ( IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass").
