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Pregnancy and child birth mark a distinctive period of happiness in the lives of most couples. Almost every woman desires to experience motherhood. In-vitro reproductive techniques (IVF) present a ray of hope to many infertile couples who had given up all hopes of ever being able to conceive a baby. The procedure of IVF involves extraction of the woman's egg, fertilization of egg with the sperm in the laboratory followed by the transfer of resulting embryos in the woman's uterus through the cervix.

Since the process of fertilization is made to occur artificially in a laboratory environment, the babies born by this method are also known as test-tube babies.

Advantages of IVF

IVF can help woman experience an almost natural pregnancy. Since the embryo is transferred into the mother's uterine cavity, this technique gives her the satisfaction of bearing the baby in her uterus for nine months, similar to that of a normal pregnancy.
According to the present reports given by Centre of Disease Control (CDC 2005) the present success rate of IVF is about 30% which is a very good chance of conception in a couple desiring to have a child. This success rate is high enough to encourage a desperate infertile couple to take a chance with the procedure. The success rate of ART depends on many factors like: the age of the woman undergoing IVF, whether she had previously given normal birth, and the possible cause of infertility. The woman's age has been found to be one of the most important factors to influence the success rate of ART.
IVF is used as last option for treating infertility in cases where other forms of medical treatment have failed. IVF has been found to be successful in cases of infertility both due to female factor as well as some cases associated with male factor. The various types of infertilities which can be treated by IVF include the following:
1. Infertility due to tubal factors - IVF serves as a very useful option to achieve pregnancy in cases where the woman's fallopian tubes are blocked or damaged which cause difficulty for the egg to be fertilized or for an embryo to travel to the uterus. The only other alternative in patients of complete tubal blockage is surgical reconstruction of tubes which is associated with poorer outcome as compared to IVF.
2. Infertility due to ovulatory dysfunction if the ovaries are not able to ovulate normally and do not respond to ovulation induction by use of medicines or hormones, IVF serves as a useful option

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