A terrible diagnosis of "infertility" for many sounds like a final verdict. Fortunately for today, medicine does not stand still, offering for couples who can not conceive a child naturally, artificial insemination. Children "from a test tube" - this is a fairly common phenomenon in the modern world. Bad ecology, diseases, lifestyle, transplanted operations - all this is the reason that about a tenth of the world's population can not conceive a child on their own.
Fertilization "in vitro"
In vitro fertilization or the more familiar, abbreviated term ECO literally sounds like "fertilization outside the human body." This is the whole essence of the method. During IVF, an egg is extracted from the body of a woman using a thin needle. Do not be afraid of this procedure - the process takes only a few minutes and passes under local anesthesia. Further, the viable spermatozoa of the future father are introduced into the ovum, and the embryo obtained in this way is grown in an incubator for up to 5 days. At the next stage, a fertilized egg is placed in the uterus of the expectant mother. It is worth noting that the conception of a child using IVF is resorted to, both in the case of female and male infertility.
Children after IVF
For the first time, the method of artificial insemination was used in Great Britain in 1978. Since that time thousands of healthy and perfectly healthy children "from the test tube" have appeared on the light - thousands of women experienced the joy of motherhood, thousands of families waited for the baby to appear.
Around the sensational method, there have always been many rumors and myths. Some simply wondered what kind of children are born after IVF, others said that children "from the test tube" suffer from genetic diseases and, as a rule, lag behind in development from their peers. This opinion has no basis for any reason, since the development of children conceived by IVF is exactly the same as that of those born naturally. The only thing that the children born after IVF can differ from others is the double attention and increased care, which is surrounded by the parents of the baby "from the test tube".
As for genetic diseases, everything depends entirely on the "source material", that is, the mother and father. Artificial insemination may in some cases even help to exclude the possibility of transmission of pathology to the child. So, for example, there are hereditary diseases that are transmitted exclusively through the male line. In this case, with IVF, it is possible to plan the sex of the unborn child. It is worth noting that the choice of the sex of a child with IVF is a forced measure, which is used exclusively for medical reasons.
Surprise "from a test tube"
Quite often, with artificial insemination, happy parents receive not one child, but immediately twins, triplets or even quadruplets. There is this for several reasons, one of which is hyper-stimulation of the ovaries, conducted before IVF.
In addition, to increase the chances of fertilization, several eggs are placed in the uterus. Of course, the number of implanted embryos is discussed with future parents, and with the onset of pregnancy, it is possible to reduce the unwanted fetus. But before carrying out such a procedure, doctors are obliged to warn a woman that reduction can provoke a miscarriage, therefore it is extremely undesirable.
It is absolutely certain that ECO does not affect the health of children in any way. Children "from the test tube" just like the others grow, develop and can give birth to their babies naturally. All this shows the experience of Louise Brown - the first child "from the test tube", which has already become a mother without medical intervention.