A brief history of IVF

IN vitro fertilization (IVF) today is an option for couples who want to conceive but are struggling with infertility.

Scientists Anne McLaren and John Biggers reported the first successful form of IVF in 1958. This demonstrated that it is possible to combine sperm and egg outside a woman’s body to form a healthy embryo.

Then, in 1959, biologist Min Chueh Chang of the Worcester Foundation successfully did IVF on the birthing of rabbits.

The first attempts at human IVF in the 1960s faced numerous challenges. One major hurdle was the lack of technology to support the process. Scientists had to develop techniques for extracting eggs, fertilizing them in the lab, and then transferring viable embryos back into the uterus. Additionally, ethical concerns and societal stigma surrounded the idea of manipulating human reproduction outside the body.

In 1973, the Monash University team of Carl Wood, John Leeton, and Alan Trounson reported the first human pregnancy achieved through in vitro human fertilization of a human egg, as published in “The Lancet.” However, this pregnancy lasted only a few days.

Several years later, British developmental biologist Dr. Robert Edwards and gynecologist Dr. Patrick Steptoe achieved a groundbreaking milestone in the history of IVF — the first successful IVF pregnancy and live birth.

Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube baby,” was born in 1978 in England. Following Brown’s birth, IVF gained acceptance and popularity globally. Medical centers worldwide began offering IVF treatments, and researchers continued to refine the technique. Innovations such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), and vitrification further improved success rates and expanded the scope of IVF to address various fertility challenges.

According to pfcla.com, IVF gained widespread popularity in the 1980s and halfway through the decade — by 1986 — over 1,000 children were born via IVF.

In a recent article published on focusonreproduction.eu, David Adamson of the International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART) stated that there have been “at least 12 million IVF babies since the world’s first in 1978.”