Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is a medical procedure designed to aid infertile couples who are attempting to conceive a child. A number of varied methods are put in this classification, and these practices facilitate the couple in successfully making a baby.
Infertility can be caused by different factors. One of the most common causes of women is sterile fallopian tubes. For males, the lack of enough sperm to fertilize a female egg is a possible reason. Statistics show that Assisted Reproductive Technology had a part in the successful birth of at least 30,000 babies every year.
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
This medical procedure is one of the most popular fertility solutions used by infertile couples with a success rate range of 25-35% per cycle. This method requires the woman to take fertility drugs for a few days. This will help her body will produce a lot of eggs, and increase the chances of getting pregnant. She will also be given extra medication to prepare her body for the treatment.
Next step is to extract the eggs and put in a sterile dish together with the male sperm to facilitate fertilization. Once it is fertilized, the egg is then placed in the uterus to continue the natural reproductive process.
Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT)
Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer can be used apart from IVF to improve the success rate of couples getting pregnant. The In-Vitro Fertilization runs its course as usual, but the sperm and eggs are not mixed together. Instead of placing the fertilized eggs in the uterus, they are placed in the fallopian tubes. This shares the same rates of success as IVF, with around 24% every cycle and every couple.
ZIFT
This type of Assisted Reproductive Technology is basically the combination of GIFT and IVF. The usual IVF method is applied until the part where the eggs and sperm are extracted. The sperm and eggs are now allowed to interact with each other before the mix is injected inside the fallopian tubes. This procedure normally offers the highest success rate of all the practices with a standard of 29%.
Embryo Cryopreservation
In this process, the female has fresh eggs extracted and frozen for use in a future cycle. This is often used in case the earlier attempts to get pregnant fails. It allows couples to try the procedure the second time without having to undergo the whole IVF process again.