First test tube baby: JULY, 1978
 Louise Brown was the first IVF birth |
Her mother, Lesley, had been told there was only a million in one chance of her conceiving naturally.
In the end, no hormone drugs were used to stimulate her ovaries - and the single egg she produced was enough to lead to a pregnancy, and the birth of Louise.
Test tube twins: APRIL 1982
Britain's first test tube twins were also born in the UK.
The parents were 31-year-old Jo Smith and her husband Stewart.
Most couples undergoing IVF are delighted by the prospect of twins, although fertility doctors in the UK and Europe now try to avoid them, as a twin pregnancy does raise the risk of complications for mother and babies.
First frozen embryo birth: 1983
 Embryos as well as sperm were frozen |
One solution devised by experts was to store them at very low temperature, and then try to implant them at a later date.
The freezing of embryos started in 1983, and eventually one couple in the US were the first to have a second child using such an embryo.
Its existing sibling was seven and a half years old.
Surrogate baby: JANUARY 1985
There was an outcry when surrogate Kim Cotton was paid $6,500 to have a baby for an infertile couple by artificial insemination.
The child, a girl, was made a ward of court but later adopted by the couple.
Laws swiftly brought in made commercial surrogacy illegal in the UK.
Now, only legitimate expenses can be paid - and a handful of "stranger surrogates" still carry out this service each year.
First embryo screening: 1988
An embryo in a petri dish offers an unique opportunity for screening for certain devastating genetic disorders.
It is now used to make parents carrying particular genetic diseases cannot pass the illness on to their children.
There have since been applications in the UK for testing that would lead to the birth of a baby picked to be a perfect match for a sick sibling, so that cells from the umbilical cord could be used in treatments.
In the UK, "preimplantation genetic diagnosis" is outlawed unless it is for the good of the baby itself, and some applications have been rejected on this basis.
Sperm injection: 1990
 ICSI: A single sperm is injected into the egg |
In cases where there are sperm, but they do not move properly, and so cannot fertilise the egg, a single sperm is taken, then injected across the membrane of the woman's egg.
This was a major breakthrough in the treatment of male subfertility - and success rates for ICSI now rival those of ordinary IVF.
The first UK ICSI baby was born in 1992.
Sperm retrieval:1993
Some men cannot produce any sperm in their ejaculate at all - this may be due to a blockage, or simply a deficiency in sperm production.
In the 1990s, experts managed to produce sperm suitable for ICSI by putting a probe into the testicle itself and sucking out fluid.
Sometimes doctors need to operate to remove a tiny section of testicular tissue which they examine closely for useable sperm.
I find it interesting that we only hear of the first "test tube" baby girl! So I will end with this fast fact. A few months after Louise Brown was born, and to far less fanfare, Britain's second IVF child, and first boy was born, Alastair MacDonald. He was 9 years old when he found out that he was a test tube baby.
Sharon
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