Low fertility among men and women is a devastating problem that mostly refers to people of the Western world. African and Asian countries have the highest fertility rates in the world while couples in Europe and America complete durable courses of medical treatment to conceive a child. Infertility is treated both in men and women, because both partners may have crucial conditions that block their reproductive function. Besides new methods of treatment, assisted reproductive technology helps partners who cannot conceive a child anyway. The ability to combine reproductive material in the laboratory and insert it back into a woman’s body is a huge relief for couples who have few chances to restore their natural ability to conceive.
In vitro fertilization is the main type of assisted reproductive technologies. It is fertilization outside the body, described above. IVF is incredibly helpful when there are obstructions at one of the steps to natural fertilization. In the result, an embryo is transported to the uterus where it is implanted in the mother’s tissue.
Another popular assisted reproduction technology is zygote intrafallopian transfer. It is similar to IVF, but the embryo is delivered to the fallopian tube from where it independently moves to uterus.
Gamete intrafallopian transfer is a way of delivering the reproductive cells that are ready to conceive to woman’s body where fertilization happens without any assistance. In cases of male partner infertility, couples may rely on intracytoplasmic sperm injection. In this case, a single sperm is injected into the egg so that fertilization happens for sure.
All these methods of assisted reproduction become more widespread and accessible with every year because there is a huge demand. Reproductive technologies ensure safety for the fetus and less stressful experience for parents-to-be.